Boards›Discuss the Boards

User deletion of posts

rujitra·2/18/2019, 4:36:30 AM·18 votes·7,503 views

While I generally agree that a player who provides consent to a thread should have the right to delete a thread they post, I think that there comes a point where “public interest” (for lack of a better overarching term) trumps that right.

As an example, if a player posts a thread suggesting a change that gets a lot of upvotes, a Rioter responds with the internal reasoning as to why they choose not to make that change, the thread has likely already been catalogued by Google and other search engines. The Rioter’s response may very well provide valuable insight that would be lost if the thread is lost.

The recent case (will not reference exactly but the moderators should know, is a prime example. The Rioter’s response provided valuable insight as to how they evaluate cases of trolling/griefing that aren’t obvious enough for the automated system to evaluate. However, those responses (or at least the verification that they came from Riot) are lost now as the thread was allowed to be deleted.

My suggestion is that a player who deletes a thread that has a valuable Riot (or community, but this is rarer) response should have the thread undeleted, the thread should be locked, and the content of the original post (and any quotes of it) replaced with a statement stating that the OP has requested the thread be removed. This has a precedent in that when a comment is deleted, replies to it are not.

It’s not fair to the community or the boards to allow valuable insight to be removed just because someone regrets posting the prompting thread.

32 Comments

ModThe Djinn2/18/2019, 1:30:59 PM12 votes

There's a main problem here -- we cannot currently stop a thread from being deleted. Do we manually undelete it every time they delete it? That's awkward. Do we threaten a punishment if they keep deleting it? That's manual effort and extremely heavy-handed. In some cases forcibly leaving it up is the same as forcing public shame upon a poster and -- although there are arguments that that might be deserved in some cases -- it's something we technically like to avoid.

I will say that there's some active discussion at the moment on how to handle this sort of situation going forward, and we'll keep you guys updated.

AeroWaffle2/18/2019, 6:00:31 AM8 votes

Along with the OP's suggestion, while we're on the topic of thread trolling prevention there probably should be at least some sort of visible indication that a post has been edited by the user and when the edit was made.

Just a little timestamp that says something like;

last edited 2/18/2019 2:32pm

Silent Gravity2/18/2019, 4:42:13 AM5 votes

This proposal has my full support.

KFCeytron2/18/2019, 6:18:40 AM2 votes

I support a user being able to delete a thread that's prompted arguments, ill will, etc., but I draw the line at deleting official communications from the company. An ordinary user's permission to delete a thread they've posted should be automatically revoked after the thread gets a Riot response, with exceptions evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

That said, deleted threads are still visible to their creator, as well as to mods, so would it be possible for such threads like the one this thread is talking about to be exhumed in some way, and a summary of the events (with Riot response) posted in a new thread?

Hellmaximus12/18/2019, 4:47:21 AM2 votes

The amount of Riot Tantrum post that are now long gone is heartbreaking, mainly because it answer a lot of question people kept asking about the IFS.

The only person I know who has a copy of important IFS related Riot Tantrum posts is CEye's discord who has a room filled with SS of them.

But other than that, your SOoL.

Jo0o2/20/2019, 11:23:48 PM1 votes

"Good talk, gonna delete this thread now".

That's how a PB discussion just ended. I now have no way of checking who I was speaking with, what I said, what was said to me, who agreed with what, etc. Rujitra, you were fairly active in the thread as well, but now your posts are gone for ever. Bet you feel kinda silly wasting your time like that. I sure do.

How the fuck is this healthy for a forum?

RebeccaUCuber2/18/2019, 1:20:43 PM1 votes

yeah i agree with this. this prevents some wasted copy-paint posts that touch The same arguments. The boards aren't a complain's nest only dont you think? We could add so much content and ideas...

gileskd2/18/2019, 6:56:37 PM1 votes

how about a megathread that we keep pinned to the top?

did a rioter make a comment that a good majority needs to see? add it to the thread. did we add something to the thread and has no issues for a year? archive it so we can keep it small as possible

Jo0o2/20/2019, 6:00:45 PM1 votes

For whatever it's worth, I don't think this goes far enough. Being able to delete an entire thread should be at the sole discretion of moderators and Rioters.