I asked it by email, But did not get an answer. I am almost new to science, Why can't I edit/delete my posts/threads after a while? Is it just not possible in here?
48 hours; anti-vandalism There is a time limit imposed by the administration. It is, in the history of the site, fairly recent. But, essentially, a problem arose when certain people for various disingenuous reasons started destroying their own posting records. Here's an old example, one that predates the policy itself: I got into an argument once with a guy who claimed to be a science student or a scientist ... in other words, someone who should know. And the crux of his argument came down to the idea that CO[sub]2[/sub] and O[sub]2[/sub] were so essentially the same that they interacted with nature identically. Obviously, this is untenable; it was a frustrating discussion. Some time later, I had cause to refer to that discussion, and when I looked it up, the other person's posts were gone, with the effect that my posts appear to be referring to something that doesn't exist. I guess if you're a scientist, it would be embarrassing to have an episode like that on your record. Or maybe that was his genuine way of retracting the argument. I have no idea. In more recent times, though, we had some trouble with trolls and provocateurs who would literally go back and erase their posts in order to claim that a moderator or fellow poster was lying about them. It took rather a long time for people to figure out that we considered their general track record in assessing transgressions. And once they did, apparently enough people tried to go back and trash their histories in order to hide from themselves that the administration felt compelled to cap the edit privilege at forty-eight hours.
poor noob that was a sledgehammer of an explanation, tiassa /laughs lets go smoke a joint and chill, ja?
Light it up, gotta light it up, gotta light it up right now ... Best idea I've heard today. Or yesterday, since today isn't even three hours old.
hmmm, I understand. However I still think members should be able to delete their posts. one solution that other forums have found for this problem is, members are able to delete their posts and hide them from public. However moderators would still be able to retrieve the threads if they want. I think this approach is better than just not letting them members edit or delete their posts. Just my humble opinion!
But by deleting your posts you derail things as Tiassa said. It's also a good way for us to remember who doesn't think clearly before they post, and then avoid them Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Everyone makes mistakes and is wrong most of the time, the reminders serve to humble us... and humilty is a great asset. But it's also good training on thinking before you speak, or learning not to care what others think of you... which is also an asset to some.
(Insert title here) Might be a software issue. I would expect that edit post and delete post are separate privileges, but I personally don't play with the software package and, all things considered, my expectations are often wrong when it comes to software and intuition. I'll ask Stryder or Plazma to check in on the question. As it stands, you can contact a relevant moderator (subforum moderator, supermod, or admin) and have a post struck, but I well understand if people disdain that idea. In the meantime, I'll simply theorize that while you own the intellectual property of any post you care to assert it over, the database is the property of the site owners. I'm pretty sure both those conditions are true, but I can't say for certain that anyone's ever put them together as an official policy before.
