deleting posts?

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Hello. I think this is probably not possible but. Is it possible to delete all of my past posts? I have been getting more and more and more uncomfortable with all that I've posted. I'm an extremely private person so it was a bad idea for me to join an internet forum. I've just been digging myself deeper and deeper and it's causing me to feel really dissociated which always happens as a self-preservation measure when I feel I've n made myself too exposed. I can't even remember my real personality really and it's just really upsetting me and I really just want to delete all my posts and stop using the forum. I don't want any record of them here, it really really bothers me. I know this sounds ridiculous. I have really enjoyed being on this forum but I just can't take what I've done to myself with it, it was stupid of me and I want to reverse it as much as possible.

we unfortunately cannot do that.

what we can do is ban you so that you can't post anymore. i hope that things turn around for you and you are able to change in the ways you feel are necessary. you know already that i think the world of you, and i hope you don't decide to leave unless you really feel it will help your mental state.

(((hugs, as always)))

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 5:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

on a technical level, i have no idea. i know that there are ways of mass-deleting posts but i do not have a clue how to do that (someone save meeeeeeeee). currently, a moderator only has the power to delete posts one by one, but an administrator has other options.

but you are correct in surmising that we wouldn't be allowed to do it, even if we had the capability. even spam posts and double posts are removed from the public forum and not outright deleted for the most part. a member can pretty much expect that after a week, all of their posts are kept on the site indefinitely.

Technically, yes - the option is already available (at least it is on later versions of phpBB) but for use at an administrator level only.
Likewise it's feasible to write something (again, for administrator use only) to trawl through all the posts and replace a specific user's posts with "redacted" - but the fun starts with simple quotes and rapidly gets unmanageable with nested quotes. Nested quotes would need to be included because otherwise, the redaction is somewhat futile.

But even then it would still result in many threads losing their flow and meaning by having parts removed so this would be another reason why such a function is unlikely to be used, even if fully implemented.
And as hyperlexian points out, moderators wouldn't be allowed to mass delete posts because of the huge side-effect this would have on the whole site - it's outside our remit.

Redacted

Last edited by nat4200 on 19 Apr 2012, 5:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

Oh Ok, I see what you mean.
But such a technique would be limited by the timeout on allowing post edits: 9999 minutes, or 6.94 days. After that the post becomes "cast in stone" and can't be edited by the OP.