Who is responsible for removing the "delete" function from the posting options?


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Why was the "delete" function removed from the posting options?

It is causing a lot of trouble.

Please return the function.

Why has it been removed?

Please give an answer.


dain120475 wrote:

Why was the "delete" function removed from the posting options?

It is causing a lot of trouble.

Please return the function.

Why has it been removed?

Please give an answer.

After one hour posts may no longer be edited or deleted. To my knowledge the forums have always run this way.

If that's not the function removal you're talking about then I can't help you.

- Torger

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.
dain120475 wrote:

Why was the "delete" function removed from the posting options?

It is causing a lot of trouble.

Please return the function.

Why has it been removed?

Please give an answer.

As Torger said, you can only delete or edit a post for an hour after posting. After that, your post is permanent. Unless a moderator removes it of course.

As an aside ... Did you intend to come off sounding so impetuous and demanding?


I recently had an episode of total confusion where I could not locate the delete button for a post I had just made a few moments beforehand.

Perhaps this is what the OP means?

EDIT: Yes, for example, when I try to delete this post, I can't find the delete button. Maybe I am just not looking hard enough.


Maybe it's aliases, I'll try deleting this post from my main.

EDIT: Nope, no delete button here either.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Testing 123

ETA: yep, Dain120745 appears to be correct, the Delete function has in fact been removed. I would agree that that is a very poor idea.

Especially since the #1 reason to have it is so when the board hangs and we accidentally double post, we can delete our own double posts rather than wait for the moderator to clean up those sort of messes (which puts more work load on them).

Also, I can certainly think of several occasions where I've posted something in haste (often in anger) and then realized it was better I didn't say anything, and was able to delete the post (saving the mods time from having to moderate me). Or just realized I had nothing useful to say after all. While sure, in either case we can edit that to just say "never mind, please delete"... that clutters threads and adds more work for the moderators to clean them up. Or, because we can't delete posts, we just end up deciding to leave the thing said in haste and helps steer the thread south.

.... which creates more work for the moderators....

See where I'm going here?


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Folks, have you considered the possibility that it's just broken?


Again, when you look at the options on the side of the board you have several of them - delete is not one of them.

What can be done to contact Paizo directly and inform them that this issue is a problem and one that people would like fixed?

I have a problem in general where my computer can "double post" somehow. It's an annoying issue that happens from time to time, and I see a post - then the same post is made nearly seconds after the first one.

I tried to "delete" the first post, but it doesn't work, so now I have a bunch of empty posts on the board.

DeathQuaker suggests that there is a way to contact the moderator directly and have them go back and clean up all the blank posts instead of allowing me the option of doing that.

How do I contact the moderator directly and tell them that is not only a problem in general, but instruct them to go through and take care of the mess?

If they are not going to allow me to do it, when/how are they going to clean the excess posts from the boards?

Scarab Sages

I've also had at least one response so far this morning that I wished to delete and could not. (Posted advice to a necro'd thread that would have no longer been relevant.)


dain120475 wrote:

Again, when you look at the options on the side of the board you have several of them - delete is not one of them.

What can be done to contact Paizo directly and inform them that this issue is a problem and one that people would like fixed?

I have a problem in general where my computer can "double post" somehow. It's an annoying issue that happens from time to time, and I see a post - then the same post is made nearly seconds after the first one.

I tried to "delete" the first post, but it doesn't work, so now I have a bunch of empty posts on the board.

DeathQuaker suggests that there is a way to contact the moderator directly and have them go back and clean up all the blank posts instead of allowing me the option of doing that.

How do I contact the moderator directly and tell them that is not only a problem in general, but instruct them to go through and take care of the mess?

If they are not going to allow me to do it, when/how are they going to clean the excess posts from the boards?

I expect the mods will see this thread within a couple of hours. It's not quite 6 am Paizo time.

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

pathar wrote:
Folks, have you considered the possibility that it's just broken?

One way or another something got *removed* from the code. Maybe they didn't mean to, but personally I'd like to give the team the benefit of the doubt that they are competent and skilled enough not to remove a board feature by accident.

Dain120475 wrote:


DeathQuaker suggests that there is a way to contact the moderator directly and have them go back and clean up all the blank posts instead of allowing me the option of doing that.

How do I contact the moderator directly and tell them that is not only a problem in general, but instruct them to go through and take care of the mess?

The easiest thing to do is to simply flag your own post. Press the "flag" button (the button farthest to the left) in your list of options. A pulldown menu will appear under the username saying "select the reason for flagging this post." In this case, select "double post."

This sends a message to the mods that there is a problem and that it is a double post. That's all you need to do.

If there is a specific issue beyond that, you can always email them... IIRC the email is webmaster@paizo.com , or you can always email customer.service@paizo.com (the email at the bottom of every screen) and they will forward it to the right person. Just remember you're contacting a human being just like you and be civil. :)


Marc Radle wrote:

As Torger said, you can only delete or edit a post for an hour after posting. After that, your post is permanent. Unless a moderator removes it of course.

As an aside ... Did you intend to come off sounding so impetuous and demanding?

I apologize that my post seemed somehow distasteful to you.

I was typing in haste and with a lack of sleep.

Yet your aside came across as if you were trying to provoke a negative response from me.

Why would you craft your response that way?

There wasn't a reason to be insulting. I was just asking questions.

I am completely aware that the delete function disappears after an hour; but the delete function is no longer an option, no matter how long it is.

If this is somehow an error; I would like it to be corrected.

If it is not an error; I'd like to know why.

Those are reasonable questions.

Sovereign Court

Ooh, testing.

Edit is in place, but not delete.

Can this post ever be unsmurfed?

Interestingly smurfy, non?

So, 'unsmurfed' does not trigger a smurf image but 'smurfy' does!

Sovereign Court

unsmurfy?

Sovereign Court

unsmurfalicious?

Sovereign Court

smurfalicious?

Sovereign Court

dain120475 wrote:
Marc Radle wrote:

...stuff about posting manners...

...riposte...

If I may quote your original post, dain120475?

for dain120475:

dain120475 wrote:

Why was the "delete" function removed from the posting options?

It is causing a lot of trouble.

Please return the function.

Why has it been removed?

Please give an answer.

This does have a curt, demanding tone.

It was a reasonable request, but people can make reasonable requests in a more or less polite way.

I think the slightly ill-mannered tone is caused by:
1. Your presumption. You have decided that it was removed deliberately, rather than asking what has happened.
2. Your nagging repetition of the question (when, clearly, Paizo have not had a chance to reply).
3. Although you only used two question marks, you asked four questions (please, return the function & please, give an answer). Asking questions without question marks can seem demanding. As can asking a lot of questions in a row.
4. You asked for an answer: 'Please give me an answer.' Before anyone from Paizo had a chance to reply. Assuming the worst of someone else (that the webteam will ignore you) is rude.

All of these things are only a little bit rude. Put them all together and they don't show you in the best possible light.

And Marc just said you were impetuous (i.e. impatient), which came across from the many questions and repetition, and demanding, which came across from the reptition, presumption and asking for an answer.

...

As for Marc's aside.

I don't think it was meant to create a negative response. It seems more that it was meant to make you think again. That was why he used a question and the form 'meant to come across as'.

If he wanted to create a negative response he could simply have said: 'Your post was impetuous and demanding.'

Instead, he used the phrase 'come across as' to suggest that he assumes that this is not a typical feature of your communication. And that he does not think you did this intentionally.
He used the question to make it part of a dialogue and not just pointing a finger in accusation.


I noticed yesterday that I couldn't remove a favorite from a post. Instead of "You and x other people marked this as favorite," it just said "X+1 people marked this as favorite." I'm guessing somehow the gremlins inside the magic box that remember who each post "belongs" to have gotten turned off.

I'm sure the web team will fix it when they're on the clock.

Paizo Employee PostMonster General

There's no nefarious plan and we're not removing functionality. Looks like we may have broken something recently, we'll take a look. Please remember the flagging system if you have posts you need removed.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Aww. I was looking forward to Gary's nefarious plan to destroy the internet with undeletable posts.


DeathQuaker wrote:
Maybe they didn't mean to, but personally I'd like to give the team the benefit of the doubt that they are competent and skilled enough not to remove a board feature by accident.
Gary Teter wrote:
There's no nefarious plan and we're not removing functionality. Looks like we may have broken something recently, we'll take a look. Please remember the flagging system if you have posts you need removed.

I think you just ruined DeathQuaker's image of you.


And pathar wins a no-prize for calling it.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
pathar wrote:
DeathQuaker wrote:
Maybe they didn't mean to, but personally I'd like to give the team the benefit of the doubt that they are competent and skilled enough not to remove a board feature by accident.
Gary Teter wrote:
There's no nefarious plan and we're not removing functionality. Looks like we may have broken something recently, we'll take a look. Please remember the flagging system if you have posts you need removed.
I think you just ruined DeathQuaker's image of you.

As a software developer, I can assure you (or DeathQuaker, more likely) that "competent and skilled enough not to remove a board feature by accident" would actually be "inhumanly skilled and also probably a wizard". If we manage to make a basic change without also breaking something else, that's a pretty good day. If we make a complex change without breaking something, it's time to take the rest of the day off. This applies to every programmer I've ever spoken to, even the ones that seemed like they might be wizards.

Sovereign Court

[tangent]

Shadar Aman wrote:
... they might be wizards.

Golarion equivilent of TMBG.[/tangent]

Grand Lodge

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Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

I've always considered Gary a wizard.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

To err is human.

To really screw things up, you need a computer.


TriOmegaZero wrote:
I've always considered Gary a wizard.

He might be a Sorcerer, though.

Or maybe he is secretly a Cleric cultist of the Mighty Evil Artificial Intelligence nesting on Paizo server...

Lantern Lodge Customer Service Dire Care Bear Manager

He is an Arcanaton.


GeraintElberion wrote:
Response

Response:

Apologies; it was very late for me, I was very tired and have been fairly stressed lately. If the post came off as rude, I honestly didn't mean it to. I was just in a hurry and sincerely confused and after re-reading the post, I agree that it doesn't seem like a nice way for me to have written it.

I'm sorry if came across as rude, though. I didn't mean it to.


Hey, Delete is back. Yay!!

Sovereign Court

dain120475 wrote:
GeraintElberion wrote:
Response
** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
No worries, everyone has done it. Tone is so much harder online.

In my pbps. I keep making my villains endearing by mistake! :D

RPG Superstar 2015 Top 8

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Gary isn't inhumanly skilled and a wizard? ;_;

*whole world shatters*


Or that's just what he wants you to think!
Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards and postmonsters for they are subtle and quick to anger!

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