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Esme
Snowy Owl
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22 Oct 2023, 7:47 am

This may just be something that I've missed (if so, please ignore/delete this post). But I spent a while trying to work out how to remove very old posts of mine from years back that include information that is either no longer applicable and/or involve someone else who may not want the information online.

Most forums have an option to either edit or delete old posts entirely. This forum doesn't seem to have that. There also doesn't seem to be a way to entirely remove an account (and therefore remove any posts containing sensitive information).

Which is fairly extreme in itself. However, there also doesn't seem to be a way to even hide links to posts on your account. For example, if I go to another user's profile, there is a button I can click on to view all of the posts they've made on WP. I haven't found a way to turn this off.

That's annoying for any adult user. However, my concern is that a lot of younger people use this forum and may naively post personal information that they later realise is a bad idea to be sharing online. Especially if they are using a name that gives away their identity and the information can clearly be linked to them in real life. Anyone wanting to cause trouble for them would have a very easy job. And there doesn't seem to be a way to correct this. Any information they put on here is accessible indefinitely to anyone. That seems like a huge security risk.

Even if posts can't be deleted, surely there must be a way to make the post text hidden (I've seen this done on other forums, where old posts can't be removed from the 'stack' entirely but the content isn't viewable by regular members).

Please correct me if I'm wrong on the above (I'd be very happy if so)! If not, is this something that WP plans to address in the near future? It seems like it should be a top priority.



blitzkrieg
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Joined: 8 Jun 2011
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22 Oct 2023, 7:50 am

You cannot delete old posts yourself and the only way to have posts deleted is for an admin or a moderator to do so. But the general policy is for posts not to be removed, however inconvenient that is.

The forum does not receive updates and is essentially abandonware, so good luck in seeing any changes in this department. :|



Cornflake
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22 Oct 2023, 11:57 am

Esme wrote:
Most forums have an option to either edit or delete old posts entirely. This forum doesn't seem to have that. There also doesn't seem to be a way to entirely remove an account (and therefore remove any posts containing sensitive information).
It's the site owner's policy that, aside from content breaking site rules or spamming, posts are removed only where there is a case of too much personal information being posted.

If you'd care to PM me links to such posts of yours I will happily remove them, but this cannot include any substantial re-writing of your post history.

Quote:
However, there also doesn't seem to be a way to even hide links to posts on your account. For example, if I go to another user's profile, there is a button I can click on to view all of the posts they've made on WP. I haven't found a way to turn this off.
This is how the site is designed to behave and can't be turned off.

Quote:
However, my concern is that a lot of younger people use this forum and may naively post personal information that they later realise is a bad idea to be sharing online. Especially if they are using a name that gives away their identity and the information can clearly be linked to them in real life.
Posts are monitored by content moderators and where this might occur, or is reported by other members as occurring, steps will be taken to remove any risk.

Quote:
Even if posts can't be deleted, surely there must be a way to make the post text hidden (I've seen this done on other forums, where old posts can't be removed from the 'stack' entirely but the content isn't viewable by regular members).
Unfortunately this isn't part of the designed behavior of the forum software.


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Esme
Snowy Owl
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Joined: 16 May 2015
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22 Oct 2023, 3:19 pm

Ok, thank you. PM on its way! :)