Why can't SFN members delete their posts? I think that this would be a good feature to implement as it would lessen accidental double-posting and general bothersomeness towards SFN forum administrators.

because every site that allows you to delete your posts ends up a quagmire.

 

while the intentions are good, people will abuse it. the flows of conversation will be lost as people go back and retroactively delete or otherwise modify their posts.

 

trust us, it is best if only mods and admins have this power and that it is used as infrequently as possible.

The allure to rewrite history by deletion or editing is too great. You can edit for a short time after posting, and can delete the content if it's an accidental clone. Report the duplicate post, and the staff can delete it.

When edit time was unlimited, we had several members who got angry and blanked the content of all of their posts, which naturally makes conversations very confusing. Deletion would be similar.

 

You can always report posts and someone will take care of them -- we're not bothered, unless you start reporting posts because you misspelled "hippopotamus" and can't edit it any more, so you want it deleted to start over.

Why can't SFN members delete their posts? I think that this would be a good feature to implement as it would lessen accidental double-posting and general bothersomeness towards SFN forum administrators.

 

There's more than two choices here: a user's ability to delete their posts could time out, for example.

 

So: what, exactly, do you want to be able to delete your own posts for? If it's just the occasional double-post, then don't worry about it. If it's something else, tell us and maybe we'll be able to figure out a compromize.