close or delete?

[the Black Prince]

threads that go off topic, or lose their value, or are posted just for members attention, not for comments, should, obviously be closed by a mod.

but surely threads that are only there to insult people, or are quite simply, pure spam and gibberish should not be preserved on the boards pages, but deleted.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index...howtopic=16431

theads like the one above, rightly closed by shigawire, should also be deleted. its currently sitting 2nd from the top in general discussion as i post, what earthly purpose is that thread doing there? furthermore, a lot of people tend to read closed threads just to see what the fuss is about and why it got closed. if a thread is there merely to insult people, and an intended victom reads it, even after its been closed, the victom may decide to post a new topic in responce, leading to more flming, and more closed topics etc.
such threads should really be deleted, not preserved for all to see.

[Honduras]

I'll agree with you on this one.

[wilpuri]

I dislike the idea of deleting things. It creeps me out. In busy topics like GD, it will die out soon anyway.

[Erik]

Originally posted by wilpuri@Nov 26 2004, 07:54 AM
I dislike the idea of deleting things. It creeps me out. In busy topics like GD, it will die out soon anyway.

I guess you are also the kind of person who has trouble throwing away old junk.
Maybe the topics can be moved to a special garbage&spam section (read only of course), so it doesn't have to be deleted but it's put out of sight for the normal users.

[Gaius Julius]

I close, rather than delete. Delete makes it look like you're hiding something... I don't know.

[Roman American]

I say close rather than delete. Sometimes examples of what not to do need to be made. Those examples should be kept on display, lest people forget.

[Necrobrit]

Originally posted by Erik@Nov 26 2004, 08:28 AM
I guess you are also the kind of person who has trouble throwing away old junk.
Maybe the topics can be moved to a special garbage&spam section (read only of course), so it doesn't have to be deleted but it's put out of sight for the normal users.

AKA the cemetary. I agree with wilpuri here... deleting things is creepy... and someone allmost allway notices an makes a "hey where the hell did my post go?" post, which then has to be disposded of. Deleting should only be used on repeat topics.

[Omnipotent-Q]

why don't you set up a deleted threads board, only seen by Mods, where these threads can be moved away from the board. this also means you can look at them again, when considering punishment whether it involve whip or axe.

[the Black Prince]

i agree, examples of what not to post...

but the thread i linked to was just flame, pure and simple, it swerved no purpose whatsoever.


and if someone asks where their post went, the mods stand forward and say, we deleted it because it was spam and pure and simple, offensive, flame and generally a complete utter waste of time for everyone reading it.


(and before you ask, i;ve yet to tell anyone that in my duties as moderator... except possibly siblesz hehehe sib is the only admin i know who would create a topic entitled spam, with a post that goes spam spam spamity spam... those were the days 'ey sib?)

[Spirix]

I personally don't like it when topics are deleated. I like to see the ones that are closed to see what is going on and who posted it so that I get a better idea of who the person is and what type of poster the member is. Also it shows new members what is allowed and not allowed in a forum.

When I started going to forums I read all of the closed topics, because I wanted to know what the forum wanted in terms of topics and how they were layed out. Reading the closed topics explains what is going on. I would get pretty confused if there was a problem and fights were breaking out and people were creating flames for no reason. I would want to know why people were doing this and if the topic was deleated then I would not be able to find out.

[rububula]

While it's true that we don't need closed topics hanging around, but GD is pretty active. A closed topic usually drops off the boards in less than a day.

I agree with Wilpuri. It's never good to see information just disappear, there's a lot of room for abuse. It's better to close the topic, that way you have a record if anything comes up. And if you're looking to ban someone down the line, it's always good to have a history of bad posts you can pull up, instead of having it all just disappear.

[Omnipotent-Q]

Originally posted by rububula@Nov 27 2004, 07:57 PM
While it's true that we don't need closed topics hanging around, but GD is pretty active. A closed topic usually drops off the boards in less than a day.

I agree with Wilpuri. It's never good to see information just disappear, there's a lot of room for abuse. It's better to close the topic, that way you have a record if anything comes up. And if you're looking to ban someone down the line, it's always good to have a history of bad posts you can pull up, instead of having it all just disappear.

so if you moved it to a forum only visible to moderators, you'd be able to see the topics to consider bans, but then the spam would be off the board. :wack

obviously not all closed topics, as some there needs to be examples of how not to make threads, but the obviously stupid ones with porn in or something.