Posting Rules and Editing of Threads

Due to an over excess of active threads being deleted by a few members I am implementing a temporary change in the way threads may be edited and deleted.

We have been allowing the original poster of a thread to be able to delete the discussion if they so chose to, this has given the user more control of their posts.
However this has been a double edge sword for us and if a thread is deleted by the original poster all the subsequent threads are gone and anyone who replied to it has lost any information they have submitted.

The new changes are as follows-

If you are the starter of a discussion or new topic you will no longer be able to delete the entire discussion. You may however edit the contents of your original post but deleting the entire discussion will no longer be allowed.

If you start a discussion and people start replying to it then it stays. You may delete your parts out of it but the original topic will stay.

If the discussion was made in error please use the 'report post' function or 'contact us' with help editing the thread.

Replies to a discussion in progress still may be deleted and will we try to respect your choice to be able to delete them if you so choose so.

These are the following guidelines with threads and editing them-

Users may edit their own posts.

Users may delete their own posts.

Users may not delete their own threads if they are the creator of the discussion, however they may edit the contents of it.

Time Limit on Editing of Thread Title - 90 Seconds

I hope that everyone understands this and why I am implementing it and is mainly because many people spend a lot of time and energy replying to a discussion and to have it deleted because the original creator of the discussion decided to do it is just unfair and stinks.

If you need assistance in editing threads and do not have permission to do so please contact us and we will be more than willing to assist you.

Thanks
Mike

a very good decision, let it be a permanent one.

Mike , I think its an excellent decision and I stand by you on this one !

India Mike:

I wanna chip in and provide my two cents of total support to this decision you have made. This is a forum and should handle healthy and sometimes spirited discussions rather than slanted postings that make one sided statements. Anyways, whatever the reson,the solution you have come up with lives within the spirit of a true discussion forum, celebrates and encourages of divergent views and ideas, and has the potential of broadening the appeal to more kinds of people. Cheers to you India Mike and truly this is a great site. Thanks again (we cannot say this enough to you) for being the creator and host.

Without much ado or fanfare: yes, good change. As long as people can remove their own nonsense where's the harm. On another note blowing your mouth off and having it up on the web till kingdom come is one of those little charms of modern life we all have to learn to live with, it's almost like real life. You do it once and then you do it twice just to make sure and then you don't do it again. (Imagine my amusement whenever you send something of private intention to a mailing list and then it turns out to keep a public archive of its messages. Not to mention the amusement of having others forward such messages for you.)

Right On . Good decision

Do I understand that deleting an unanswered post would delete the thread?

Yes I think so Nick

Thank you...there are some excellent links for pertinent information that IMers post and it's terrible to lose them when a thread disappears.

Is some house cleaning going on? My post count is stubbornly on or around 520s which makes me wonder on what kind of threads I'm participating. :-)

Good move mike, it was due to be taken care of for a while already.

Please, could someone change the title of "Volunteers needed for Shanthi's kids" to Shanthi Street Kids? It would be very kind if you could do this for me!

Done.

Thanks darling

You cannot report your own posts however. Leaving you with the option of bothering some mod about it.

Oh no! Anything but that!

Seriously... we are here to help

Things like obvious spelling mistakes in thread titles, duplicate posts or threads, or posts with broken quote syntax will even often get fixed without asking