New Feature Request

, posted over a year ago

I would like the ability to delete my response to any question or article just like the asker can delete their question.

While the site moderators do a great job of limiting personal information, I think that they can only go so far.

Looking back, I have found that some of my initial replies had too much personal information in them that could identify me to friends and acquaintances that know me well. My wife has expressed this concern and I agree with her.

As I have gained experience doing this, my style has evolved and I regret posting some things and would like to remove them. In those cases, the questions are old and not being answered any more.

In addition, there may be instances where a user posts something based on a misunderstanding of the question but they cannot remove their reply. While this has not happened to me, it is something I think about as a distinct possibility - especially on a deeply emotional topic.

In addition, it might be nice if a user can see a list of replys that are still awaiting posting so that they have the opportunity to delete them before they post if they regret what they wrote.

Just some ideas to help users help themselves.

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 18:57 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

I think, regarding personal information, that is something that is always being worked on because what people post on their profile is not reviewed by anyone else first, and this is something that has caught my attention too.

Regarding the information you provide in answers to help the OP, unless you are really worried(and it sounds like you are) about being identified then perhaps your answers could be deleted, but, if they were really helful, would your really want those deleted? It may come in handy for someone else who stumbles across the question too. Remember that Moderators only let through things that are helful to the OP, so if it was information such as contact details or (full) names, they wouldn't be allowed through.

Also you can post anonymously when logged in, so that is also something that you may want to think about if you're worried about other users on here seeing your reply.

FYI - Users can only delete their questions if

they delete their profile - and even then they have the choice of leaving it on there, as instead of their username, it would show as anonymous, if you want a question that you have asked deleted, you're best off asking Andrew.

I think the answers pending idea is good, but it would be too time consuming for Andrew to set up, so I think that in future think carefully about what you write. I do think though, that it would be a good idea for you to be able to delete your own answers after it's gone through, but again this is something that Andrew would need to approve of, and it depends on how time consuming it is.

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 19:56 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

At the risk of being offensive, I have some thoughts on this subject. Some forums that I belong to allow the poster to change or delete their answer for some time before it becomes permanent. I suppose it might be possible to change the software so that this could be a feature of the DC board. I know that people have written before wishing that they could correct spelling mistakes or insert a missing word.

If a lot of your answers have revealed too much personal information then you could always delete your profile, leaving all of your answers showing up as anonymous and then sign up again, using your current screen name. One of our aunts did this just last week. She didn't leave for the same reason, but she came back with the same name as she had before. This would allow your answers to remain, but not be connected to you. You could then start answering, now being more careful of what you say.

Even though I give out a lot of personal information in my answers, I don't think that I say anything that could link someone I know to me or my wife. The people who we know don't know about this personal information to make the link. There is only one person who knows some of it and we trust her. If there is some personal information that they do know, then I will not use it in my answers. Perhaps you could try that approach. I don't know how much of what you say is known by others, but it is always difficult to decide what to say and what not to say. I have ofter not answered a question because I did not want to give out some specific information. Some people use the anonymous option to do that, but I have never done that. I suppose that I should instead of just not answering.

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 20:47 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

Also, an approach that I use for answering questions is to make sure that my wife approves of anything that I say before I post it. I don't review every answer with her, as most of my answers tell things that I have said many times before and in more detail. Because of this, it is now rare to review an answer with her before posting. She does read most of my answers later though. However, I have never posted any new information or more detailed information without first discussing it with my wife and getting her approval or her editing of that information. If she thinks that it might be a problem then she will think about it for some time, either a few minutes or wait a couple of hours before she decides if it is OK with her.

This approach is what has worked for us in the almost 2 years that I have been on this board. It might be good for most people or it might not work for anyone else but us. We both use this approach on any board that we belong to if there is personal information involved. Only 3 have anything to do with sensitive personal information, so there are not a lot to be concerned about.

Just a little bit of friendly advice. I took a quick look at a few of your answers and didn't find anything that was too revealing, except one of them. Perhaps I missed the ones that you are most concerned about. In that answer, you gave your former weight and how much you had lost and I think when you lost it. I guess I would have just said that I was greatly overweight and had lost a lot of it like a couple of years ago, or even better, some time ago. You also say how long you have been married. So do I, but I don't think that I give any other information that could be added to the marriage time to give people an idea who we are. Perhaps I am wrong and just have forgotten what I have previously said. You are not the first person who has said that they wish they hadn't given out some of the information that they have.

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 21:37 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

The case that prompted the worry is pretty rare, but one which happened in our family, thus making it easy to identify to anyone who knows our family. It would be easy for them to deduce who we are and then try to draw invalid conclusions about our personal life by reading certain other postings.

Since the case is rare and the OP already has been given the information and is no longer posting, I don't see it helping very many other people. I would delete my participation in that topic right now if I had the chance.

Outside of that topic, there is nothing else that could really ID me, so I would only delete my participation from that particular one.

I realize how time consuming it can be to modify the site interface as I write software too. I also realize that he is probably spending most of his time dealing with the more mundane concerns associated with the day-to-day operation and management of the site itself.

At any rate, if his site maintenance and administration tools allow for this to be done, I would like to remove my participation from that OP question altogether.

Please PM me for details. Thanks!

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 21:49 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

Perhaps in that one instance, it would be advisable to contact Andrew and ask him to remove that answer of yours. It is not like you are asking for multiple answers to be removed all the time. You could also click on the "Vote to remove unhelpful or hurtful answer" and then ask one of the mods to delete it for you. I once answered to the wrong question and it made no sense. I had 2 DC tabs open and posted it to the wrong one. I clicked on that and then asked one of the mods who I correspond with to delete it and she did, but it took a few hours before she read my PM.

If you want, send me a link to that question and which post it was of yours if there were more than one. Send me a PM. I will also click on the remove button and then ask that mod to remove it. Since it is a holiday weekend, she might not be available until Tuesday though.

By the way, just because it is an old question and that OP is no longer around does not mean that your answer is not useful. I have had new people read some of my answers from over a year ago and then write to me asking for more advice and telling me how much my answers have helped them. I know this happens to others too. People search the web looking for advice and come upon this site and read old questions and answers that help them a lot. I don't know about you, but I often do searches for information on things like health information and find questions and answers on different boards that are years old and get a lot of help from those old discussions.

Posted on 5 September 2009 @ 22:11 (London time) - permalink
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, posted over a year ago

If you know who any of the MODS are, all you have to do is ask them to go in and correct your answer or deleat it all together. I think they can only deleat (unapprove it) for a while though.

Posted on 6 September 2009 @ 2:19 (London time) - permalink
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