deleting your own posts

[rick957]

I've always wondered -- is there any policy or any unspoken etiquette about deleting one's own posts?  Is it always okay to do, or only under certain circumstances, or never?  If only under certain circumstances, what are the circumstances -- is it different section by section, or based on timing, or what?  Thanks very very much for any responses.

[Trieste]

It's based on the contribution your posts make to others' writing and vice versa. No one cares if you go back and delete posts from the "spank the person above you" thread because you don't want it showing up in your unread replies anymore. But RP threads and PROC threads where someone has made a response, those posts need to stay put. Make sense?

[rick957]

It's based on the contribution your posts make to others' writing and vice versa. No one cares if you go back and delete posts from the "spank the person above you" thread because you don't want it showing up in your unread replies anymore. But RP threads and PROC threads where someone has made a response, those posts need to stay put. Make sense?

Okay great, that's exactly the sort of detailed answer I needed -- thanks very much.  :)  Now if I can trouble you (or anyone else) with a followup question.  What if the person who responded quoted part of your post?  In that case, anyone reading along can still make sense of their post, because they quoted exactly what they were responding to, at least the most relevant part.

Here's why I'm asking, if I can just be up front about this.  I have said plenty of things in various places where people responded negatively in a way that I totally failed to anticipate, because I'm just not good enough at guessing how people will respond to things I've said, and I'm overly opinionated, so I have lots of opinions others don't share.

Whenever I post and say things that people respond negatively towards in a way that I didn't even expect, I would love to delete the posts, not even so much to save face for myself personally, but so that more and more people won't come along later and read the exact same post from me and have the exact same negative reaction that I didn't ever intend in the first place.  You know, it's bad enough to make one unintended negative impression, but what's the point of making additional ones for as long as anyone looks at the thread?

Is it okay for me to delete such posts or not?  Thanks again very much for any responses.

[Mithlomwen]

Generally when it involves posts in discussions, it's bad form to delete posts once people have responded to it.  If you post something and immediately change your mind and delete it, not a big deal.  But if people have responded to said post, if you delete that post, it puts the answer and subsequent replies out of context. 

In such cases, it's not okay to delete posts.  If you'd like to avoid further negative comments, you can quote your own post and say something regarding it.  A disclaimer of a sort. 

Hope that helps. 

[rick957]

Very helpful; thanks for the responses, both of you.  :)