Deleting forum topics

[tyntyn]

Is it possible to delete forum topics started by myself with no other participants other than the moderators and me?

Why, if no?

How, if yes?

[Samuel Wood (Otto)]

No, because we don’t allow that.

[Jan Dembowski]

This will be a long reply and I’m hoping anyone searching for this in the future reads this. Jeepers, a 750+ words long reply.

Is it possible to delete forum topics started by myself with no other participants other than the moderators and me?

It’s not possible for users and that is because there is no reason to do that. It doesn’t help anyone when that is done and helping people is the function of these forums.

When you create a topic, a reply to a topic or you create a reply to a review you have up to 60 minutes to edit that. You cannot delete that topic or reply but you can change it in that 60 minutes.

If you need to change something after that then all you can do is reply again to clarify what you meant to post.

Any reviews you leave (not a reply to a review, that has the time restriction) can be edited forever. There is no time limit for editing your original review.

Topics and review are automatically closed to new replies in 6 months. Or at least that’s supposed to be the case, sometimes a moderator will close old topics manually.

Moderators can edit topics, replies and reviews at any time. They can also archive topics, replied or reviews but in most cases they will not. When a moderator is asked, this is the reply the user receives.

I’m sorry, but that is only done in extreme cases.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum-user-guide/faq/#my-post-shows-up-on-a-search-for-my-domain-will-you-delete-my-post-or-my-link

Search engine hits are never considered extreme. The post will not be edited or deleted.

It’s primarily a resource thing and no one wants to burden moderators with what is essentially make work. All people here including moderators are volunteers doing this on their spare time for free.

These forums are replicated by 3rd partied in amazing volume (I don’t know why either) and deleting something here does not do anything for the forum copies elsewhere.

*Looks*

At this time these forums have 11,373,076 user accounts, 3,565,424 topics and 7,919,203 replies. Can you imagine if 0.01% of those users made the ask for topics to be deleted or edited?

In the past, years ago, deleting things was entertained. It also became a full time moderator job with users making that ask jumping onto those “Can you delete this too?” topics. That was ended years ago because the deletion asks became burdensome.

Then why not let users delete topics?

I know you didn’t write that or the next parts, I’m just trying to be proactive.

Users can create but cannot delete topics because doing so doesn’t accomplish anything. Anyone posting to these forums is seeking help with WordPress, a WordPress plugin or a WordPress theme. If they get a reply that helps them then that’s fantastic. That’s the whole point of asking for help.

If you do not get a reply or at least not from the people you wanted to hear from or you were not getting the answer you sought isn’t a great outcome. But deleting those topics doesn’t accomplish your goal of getting help.

I did not get a reply except for moderators. I want to deleted my old topic and have a do-over again.

That’s not allowed either because that’s bumping.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/guidelines/#do-not-bump-posts

Bumping is an attempt to game the support forums. NOTE: I’m not making accusations of bad behavior, I am just trying to be complete.

As many have noticed, new topics are on top and the idea of deleting the old topic to get ahead of the line happens. When that’s found a moderator will archive the new topic and reply to the old topic asking the user not to do that.

It’s not necessary to do that.

For plugin support forums, many authors use this link. I’m using Contact Form 7 as an example for no particular reason.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/plugin/contact-form-7/active/

The same is true with themes.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/theme/twentytwenty/active/

See the /active/ part? It sorts those topics by date and last reply. It’s a link to show people the active topics. It’s not perfect and the sorting is fuzzy but it works.

So creating a new topic for plugin or theme support doesn’t accomplish anything really.

In the general forums here. many volunteers use this link.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/view/no-replies/

Which does get unanswered topics visibility and support.

I still did not get the support I wanted. What then?

I’m sorry that happened. If the topic is closed then feel free to create a new one. But only then. Duplicates are removed when found as duplicate topics do not help you or anyone else.

[tyntyn]

Thanks a lot for your replies, @otto42 & @jdembowski.

I understand what it means by being/having a volunteer moderator, but the topic I wanted to delete has nothing to do with any WordPress themes or plugins. The topic is all about user accounts on this forums/support site.

Moderators can edit topics, replies and reviews at any time. They can also archive topics, replied or reviews but in most cases they will not.

And if I can’t have the whole topic be deleted, then would any of you be nice to at least obfuscate only certain text in the topic’s posts? E.g. Changing “that user is my hubby” to “that user is ** hubby” or better, “that user is ** *****”.

The reason for that is simple: The text exposed my personal data.

Yes, it was me who typed/used the text, but I didn’t realize the consequences.

So can that be forgiven and can any mods here help me? And if I could (e.g. if there was a private chat or contact form), I really would have not asked publicly about my account.

I also understand search engines may have archived the text/content, but at least, I want to obfuscate the text on this site itself.

[Jan Dembowski]

Thanks for the reply but the answer remains the same.

I’m sorry, but that is only done in extreme cases.

https://www.ads-software.com/support/forum-user-guide/faq/#my-post-shows-up-on-a-search-for-my-domain-will-you-delete-my-post-or-my-link

Search engine hits are never considered extreme. The post will not be edited or deleted.

The posts will not be edited or deleted. There really isn’t any other reply that you will get. I’m sorry you disagree with that but there’s nothing else to cover here. I am closing this topic for that reason.

[Samuel Wood (Otto)]

And if I can’t have the whole topic be deleted, then would any of you be nice to at least obfuscate only certain text in the topic’s posts?

I’m not sure what part of “no” you don’t understand here, but.. No.

You’re asking us to go above and beyond in order to deal with problems you created for yourself. The answer is no.

If you want personal data removed, then you can come into the #forums channel on Slack and ask one of the moderators there, but “personal data” is not the same thing as “link to my website” or other such guff. Personal means “personal”. As in stuff that can identify you as an individual person. If you’re just wanting to remove something because it shows up in a google search then the answer is no. Anybody can post things on the internet, and what shows up in Google results is neither our concern nor our problem.

If you don’t want something on the internet, don’t post it in public.

BTW, since the only other thing you’ve ever posted in these forums is a request to change your username, then I’ll assume that this is a secondary account for you in some manner. We do not allow use of multiple accounts on these forums, therefore I’ll go ahead and block your use of this account. Please only use one account, and if you need to have something personal removed, and that is fine to ask, then join the Slack and ask the moderators directly in the #forums channel.