Kind of wish deleting posts wasn't a thing. Would rather just the user-association was removed or something. Just because OP doesn't want to be involved in the thread anymore, doesn't mean everyone else feels the same.
this post was submitted on 28 Jul 2025
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I think deleting posts is an important feature, but it should only remove the content of the post, not hide the associated comments. The post is created by the OP, so they should be able to remove it, but comments are created by other users and so there's no reason why the OP should have the power to remove them.
How would that work in practice though?
Changing the post title, content, and author to something like "[deleted]" while keeping comments visible should be sufficient.
I appreciate having control over my own data though. I would like to keep an option to delete all my posts/likes/dislikes/accounts as I desire. If someone wants to save a copy of my data, they have an option to do so before I delete my data, but not after.
I get what you're saying, but as you kind of mentioned, it's a falsehood to believe any of your posts and comments here are under your control anyway. They get federated to other instances, maybe mirrored or crawled by bots. And these may or may not abide by your deletion of the content.
Might be best to just expose/enforce this reality to users. You send data publicly onto the Internet, it's forever out of your control. And there's no system in existence that can change that reality.
Also why it's important that a doxxed Internet never becomes reality.
Even so, I would rather have the option to eliminate data pollution at my convenience. If someone else wants to replicate my data, they have their window to do it. Once Ive deleted it, that window is closed. I want to be able to decide that window of time, not others decide it for me.
We should all be proactive on cleaning up our data footprint imo. This is more than social media posts. It should be images, documents, videos, and any other data that is sprawling out uncontrolled. Gotta clean things up occasionally.
Part of the problem would be others not knowing if or when a post might be deleted. There might something to the idea mentioned elsewhere of being able to 'disown' a post, so that it's no longer associated with you? (If that's possible)
I wouldn't want it disowned. I would rather have my data completely removed. Leaving the data there would leave footprints, which could later be used to go back and tie my account to that post.
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The thing is, once you've started a discussion, there's a case to be made that it's no longer just your data, but rather the entire post and comments is a new creation, something greater than the sum of its parts. At that point, is it fair to remove your bit, and devaluing the rest?
If someone wants to save a copy of my data, they have an option to do so before I delete my data, but not after.
An automated way to do so would effectively be to keep the data but unlink it from the account that created it, no?
The unfortunate reality is obscuring the post by unlinking the account serves no purpose. There are ways to tie the posts to accounts even after they would have been unlinked. Post style, metadata, and residual data leftover by the instance is probably enough to recreate that link.
It sucks that the whole post disappears once someone deletes it, instead of just a single user's part of it, but that's preferable versus leaving data behind IMO.
Post style, metadata, and residual data
Anybody who's willing to put in that much effort could just set up an instance and scrape it from the start. You're not getting any protection either way.
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A more thoughtful way to do it would be if the user were able to delete any contributions they'd made to the discussion (while the title and links persist). This should be the default. NO contribution would ever be removed except by the creator (or by the mods, if warranted according to ze rools.)
Not possible unless you remove the ability to edit as well. Trivial for a user to edit the down to a single period or something, if the ability to delete is taken away.
That wouldn't be a problem is we had one of the other features i want - to be able to see the revision history of posts and comments
May I ask why? I've never felt it was really a necessary feature.
Not the person you replied to, but there's a lot of people who get into arguments then edit their original comment to make it seem like the other person is in the wrong.
But that would still better, even if the content of the post is taken away, there discussion and comments are immediately lost and replies d interactions can continue.
Yeah, this is one of the few areas where Reddit does a better job than the Fediverse, IMO.
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Recently, someone asked about advice on a PC build, collected a lot of useful feedback then deleted their post once they had what they needed. Now all that work other users put in is inaccessible, and all that valuable knowledge can't help anyone else. I think that's a problem.
Hoo boy. I remember scrolling through that post, seeing so many detailed replies, and thinking the OP was an ass for not bothering to reply any question. This just makes it so much worse
On the bright side, tech advice gets outdated fast
OP has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.
just in case
Post title:
Have you ever had fruitful discussions cut short because OP deleted the post? If so, is this a fundamental problem or just an annoyance?
Downvoting because that's not what the title says.
Kidding.
Or am I??
I happens quite a lot in my experience, and it’s more than an annoyance to me, but I wouldn’t call it a fundamental problem. It does really bother me, especially when the discussion has just started getting good.
I don’t really mind if people delete their own individual comments, but deleting the whole thread while folks are interacting bugs the shit out of me.
Yes, that has happened to me several times. I am asking to see if this is an exception or if it happens regularly.
It seems to me that it is a regular problem, but that could very well just be my subjective experience.
It happens frequently in a few communities, especially in the one we are currently in. I'm currently expecting this one to be deleted by tomorrow as a joke.
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As a mod on this community, I find it annoying at best. It happens from time to time, and while there are no explicit rules against it I find it disruptive enough to the spirit of the community to serve users with a one week ban because of it. Deleting an ancient post is one thing. Deleting for no apparent reason while people are typing responses is a waste of everybody's time.
Thank you for your insightful comment -and also for your commitment!
I think that this issue - if it is relevant at all - needs to be solved by the developers: for example, by prohibiting to delete posts once the post has received a certain number of comments/upvotes/downvotes, but at the same time still allowing the user name to be removed (which is technically difficult, of course).
If that's possible (can't say for sure), then I'd go for that. Anything else would be punishing those who post here in the first place, and I think that should be avoided at all costs.
Everyone should retain sovereignty over their posts, but I think there can be a certain level of interest at which personal posts become somewhat public property. Where that lies can certainly be determined by the community, but it is definitely also a technical question - and probably a difficult one not only but just because of edits to the OP-Post.
It's happened several times to me. If it were possible, it would be nice if self-deletes were to continue being accessible and commentable. (Moderator deletes being different because of festering non-fruitful discussions)
I think a post runs through that user's own instance, unfortunately, so it would be technically non-trivial.
It’s a habit that I think sparked from Reddit exodus and people wanting to remove traces of themselves.
I know some people disagree, but it feels like walking into someone’s library and just setting books on fire. You’re destroying some posterity and the goal of place like Lenny where we want to gather people and information.
Instead of going scorched Earth, we should treat this as a public place where what you say is out of your control once you have said it. We should be practicing mindfulness in how we use the internet, like we used to back in the day.
The common practice on Reddit used to be creating throwaway accounts (some still do that here) to ask those more personal questions, but I think more and more people are just destroying accounts all together every few months.
It’s a less of an issue on the communities where people are asking for personal advice that is very bespoke to the person (even though that advice could in theory help others in the future) and more of an issue in the communities where knowledge is being shared.
I think the larger hurdle on Lemmy will be the fact that there will always be many clashing ideologies and people will never agree on the way people should be living their lives.
Yes sometimes controversial posts get removed and I find it annoying
I will always miss the post/comments about the person who didn't want to poop for 3 days.
issue title for context: [Bug]: Display deleted or removed posts when they have children
Surprisingly the ticket has no upvotes. (Well, had. I left one.)
Annoyance at worst. Most times don’t care
Annoyance. However it's usually a mod coming in and either locking or deleting a post (either due to the post itself breaking a community rule or because the comment section got too rowdy to effectively moderate) that causes the abrupt end to a conversation.
Haven't run into too many folks deleting their posts.
Nice try, OP. You're not drawing me into this topic just to delete your post later.
Looks like he already drew you in, though. Catch-22.
It is an annoyance.
In my experience that's more commonly due to overzealous mods deleting or locking posts than it is to OPs deleting posts.
It does seem like a fundamental problem with Reddit-style comment sections, which is why I usually prefer communities that rely on voting instead of heavy-handed moderation.
I've had second thoughts about posts I've made in the past (usually because they proved to be unpopular with the majority), and have deleted my post. Why sit there and rack up downvotes for no reason? Now if a post I've made was unpopular, but it generated fair and good-faith discussion, I'll keep it up.
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Annoyance.
I go back to the BBS days on my 300 baud modem... there's never been a fruitful discussion on the Internet. We're all just here to waste time. (e: even those who put forth good-faith effort)
just annoyance
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