Topic: The deletion of past posts

I am not all that thrilled with the deletion of InI's post conent.

I don't like the idea that someone who posts content here can up and decide that I don't want to be a part of it anymore, I can easily choose to leave, but I don't feel it is might right to demand material I have committed be removed. Once you place your information into a public channel it is public and under ownership of the place it was published. This does not mean that this information can be redistributed, but by committing it and pressing the submit button you are agreeing the publish your material for the duration, and for the use by the site you publish to.

I am not a legal expert, and I doubt that many here are, if you are please correct me if I am wrong.

If it is the case that our agreement is not binding in the respect that the information submitted to this site is allowed to be kept and published by this site for the duration I would ask that this be made the case. For information that you wish to have complete controll over there is always the option of supplying a link to the content.

As a nastalgic aside, I used to often go through purging phases where I would just discard tons of past creative work, scribbles drawings, programs, websites. I think my archive of actual web sites I have done is down to a half dozen or so now, and I am sure many of you can remember a ton of really crappy examples that I had posted up her at one time or another. I remember doing some weird wire/claw orange/green/metalic thing based on some of Phongs tutorials as one of the first sites I ever posted. It was terrible, and I deleted it at some point. I really wish I had it back, no matter how crappy it was.

Dan @ Code Town

Absolutely.

A lot has been put in place so that people could not simply ccome in and change what they said after the fact here.

To then go through and delete someone's posts because they are throwing an infantile hissy fit is just plain ludicrous.

Nobody has any right to *demand* a damn thing of this place.

End of story.

I agree with the desire to shore up the verbiage that would it make it clear that that SUBMIT button is a permanent thing.

What InI's asking for would be a major disruption to the integrity of this place. Besides the work that it would require to do the purge, it would render a bunch of related threads senseless, an heinous irritation for future users searching the archives.

It seems like a simple thing to do a script to get in the db and run through deleting the content concerned but such things hardly every go off without a hitch do they? Seems there's always something that was not considered, thus breakage/buggage/pain-in-the-buttage.

Potential, and completely avoidable, major hassle these "delete me" requests. MM was the other aye? I wonder how flawlessly that went off? If anyone knows I'd me interested to know.

JKMabry:

quote:

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It seems like a simple thing to do a script to get in the db and run through deleting the content concerned but such things hardly every go off without a hitch do they? Seems there's always something that was not considered, thus breakage/buggage/pain-in-the-buttage.

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One potential and important hitch would be the deletion of the threads initiated by InI, thus leaving some post orphans.

don't worry - I have the technical angle covered.

As for the moral angle... I can always revert this. Let him get his will, for a while, cool down, and in half a year, we can see if we were actually missing his contributions.

so long,

->Tyberius Prime

It is not exactly that we will be missing his contributions. I think you could delete the entirety of any user's information, and after a given period of time noone will even remember the user, say a month when everything goes to the sink. I am more concerned by the ability of a person to make a threat and have such an action taken.

Dan @ Code Town

Just when I found a site that I thought was drama free. DUH DUH CLANK! The drama rears it's ugly head. The way I see it, once something is posted on the internet, it's like a fart released in an elevator. You may wish it never leaked out, but is free and roaming now. I'm sure there are many a female that have posted pics of their boobies just to regret it later. But even after taking the pictures down from the websites, countless horn dogs have already saved them to the hard drive and wet ware memory. Will the next step be for us to go see a shrink and get brain washed of everything ini has contributed? If you give the gift of knowledge to the world, it is unfair to expect it back just as if you asked for every christmas present back you ever gave away.

/Rant

I'd suggest updating the copyright to read something like:

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By submitting the post to the website you are giving us the right to store and display the content of that post in this fourm in perpetuity. The copyright remains with you to do with what you wish.

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And link to it from the copyright notice below. We can then add some more stuff in the FAQ and link through to it from the reception so people can't claim they didn't know.

It shouldn't require stating so explicily but it clearly does.

___________________
Emps

The Emperor dot org | Justice for Pat Richard | FAQs: Emperor | Site Reviews | Reception Room

if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

I agree with WM again - it's not about any one user's content.

It's about the whole process, whereby many people come together and put there info/questions/silliness out there. You take away one part of a conversation, and the rest looses context.

It's just plain silly to allow a user to influence it in such a way. once you've posted, you have some time to change your mind.

After that, it's said and done.

There shoudln't be exceptions unless there is a damn good reason. Someone's wounded pride is not a good reason.

Clarifying the wording of the terms of agreement is fine, but not strictly necessary IMO. (not that we shouldn't, but the fact that it is how it is now is not really a factor)


{{edit -

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once something is posted on the internet, it's like a fart released in an elevator

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Fantastic analogy. =)




(Edited by DL-44 on 02-04-2005 21:19)

Fantastic analogy indeed.

*sighs*

I am truly sorry it had to come to that though. I honestly tried my best in reaching out to him. I know what it's like ot have such a mental condition, and I hate to see anyone else go through it unainded. Since he took my actions, which sprang from nothing but a genuine desire to help, to be some calculated ploy to insult him it tells me that a reasoned offer of help is not going to be accepted any time soon, that means we mus take other courses, but I am truly sorry it had to come to this course of action. Nothing he has said here or on ICQ to TP over the last couple of days (or for some time by the looks of it) has been the product of reasoning, so he looks like he's already sliding down that slippery slope that every person who's ever recovered from depression hopes they never go down again. Honestly though, I did try my best, but what can one do when that offer is refused so blatantly?


Justice 4 Pat Richard

What's done is done.

Let's work towards not letting it happen like this again. No more deleting. You post here, it stays here!

Might as well get something positive out of the entire morass, and move forward.

I agree with all that's been said, but I also feel that if someone is willing to make a big deal about something like this, then I guess it *is* a big deal, to them if no one else. Ini has been a pain to many, and a big help to many more. For this at the least, I'd have to say that personally I'm OK with him having his posts "masked out" in this way. Not happy, I also would like to keep the continuity here for future users, but I can live with it. It's a shame really.

These are really only my thoughts on this. I'm not about to impose my will against majority opinion; I agree with WS on this one, let's just try and make sure we don't get here again, cool?

So! How's life, anyways?

Your pal, -doc-

"The moving finger writes, and having written moves on. Nor all thy piety nor all
thy wit, can cancel half a line of it." Omar Khayyam

My $1/50 worth; well not really, Omar's 2 cents worth, but ya get the idea

Peachy, perfectly peachy. You?


Justice 4 Pat Richard

Life is good, Doc! Thanks for asking. Just got a new job with Sony - looking forward to that. I will be working in the Laptop division.

Good-bye Siemens. WLAN was fun, but time to move on.

How are things on your end, Doc?

Malin and I open the new storefront this coming week, with any luck. The signs go on the roof tomorrow ("Deep Fling", jewelry, fabric arts, prints) and Primicon works out of the back corner, it'll be fun. Malin started making silver jewelry, and she was getting bored with computers, time fior a change. Gah, it took us a year to get settled here in Cali, with 2 false starts of businesses, this time we seem to be doing things for the right reasons; because we want it! I'll post links to the store when we actually get a website built for it, heh. =)

Your pal, -doc-

I've kept out of this intentionally but as much as I dislike the idea of taking back gifts (which I consider posts are) I must agree that this problem was only going to get worse so the way it was handled is probably for the best.
I too hope life will be better for InI.

And life for me, pretty good.
Afte 2.5 years of unemployment/freelancing I've got a steady job as senior serverside developer (PHP)/technical project manager at www.ongame.com that runs www.pokerroom.com the worlds 5'th largest online poker site. Good ppl, demanding but inspiring work and no sales guys/finance ppl hanging over the shoulder saying "do this simpler, do this cheaper" here it's more do this fast, but make sure the code is good and reusable

Good to have ya back in da house Doc!
/Dan

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{ ?The Internet treats censorship as a malfunction and routes around it.? (-Barlow, John Perry) }-

quote:

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let's just try and make sure we don't get here again, cool?

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Well...it would be, except everyone tried not to get here *this* time. And it didn't do any good...

When one person loses any semblnace of reason, and many people try to calmly address the situation, and the person only continues to fly off the deep end, threatening people and insulting people en masse...what is a group to do?

To say that we should try not get here again sounds good, but I think it misses completely the reality of the circumstances.

What more could people have done to try?

I can live with a person's posts being gone...but I think it is indeed a damn shame both for Ini personally, and for the concept of how things work on a public forum.


.

That aside, good to see you Doc, and happy to hear things seem to be going in a good direction for you Malin.

=)

Well, I think we should impliment a clear contract that what is posted here is then the property of the Ozone Asylum, or somesuch.

Look, we are always going to have disagreements, some heated debates, and occasionally members going off the deep end.

It is an Asylum, after all

I just find the deleting objectionable. If someone wants to go, fine. Go.

I would prefer that someone do so without having to use a number of threads to do so, but that is just me. That in and of itself isn't all that bothersome to me. But the removal of postings, which will in turn make many other posts from other members meaningless, or less meaningful, I find not only disturbing, but disruptive.

And that is something we could work towards not letting happen again.

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Skaarjj said:

Honestly though, I did try my best, but what can one do when that offer is refused so blatantly?

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Well as the old saying goes, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him drink.' I know a bit about depression, I have been down that road myself. It really sucks.


'Hey, take it easy and enjoy life.... or in your case, death.' -- Yoh Asakura, 'Shaman King'

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