Why is there no way to delete a post?

[zortec]

I accidentally posted something that was unrelated to helping a fellow user out. There was no way to delete it and I am not sure if I lost reputation points because of that. Anyway, the point is people make a mistake. I try to help out everyone that I can. What is the reason for a reputation score? As far as I am concerned, there should be more people that are trying to solve threads and give solutions to coding problems.

[Narue]

>Why is there no way to delete a post?
You mean besides preserving the flow of threads, disallowing malicious deletions, and helping people who visit the forum long after a thread has ended? I guess it's a restriction designed to annoy you personally. :icon_rolleyes:

>Anyway, the point is people make a mistake.
And getting burned for making a mistake drastically decreases your chances of making the mistake again. Instead of bitching about it, you should learn from the experience. I see one of two lessons here:

1. You really did deserve negative rep. You need to consider the behavior that encouraged the rep and change it if you don't want to get more.
2. You didn't deserve negative rep. You need to realize that some people are just jerks, and there's nothing you can do about it.

If I make a mistake, I suck it up and move on. That's an attribute of maturity. I highly recommend it. Trying to backtrack and sweep your mistakes under the rug is childish and unproductive.

>What is the reason for a reputation score?
It's a fluff feature that means absolutely nothing. Don't get your panties in a twist about it.

>As far as I am concerned, there should be more people that are
>trying to solve threads and give solutions to coding problems.
The majority of threads get answers, at least in the forums I frequent.

[zortec]

You mean besides preserving the flow of threads, disallowing malicious deletions, and helping people who visit the forum long after a thread has ended? I guess it's a restriction designed to annoy you personally.

Thank you for making that clear.

And getting burned for making a mistake drastically decreases your chances of making the mistake again. Instead of bitching about it, you should learn from the experience. I see one of two lessons here:

1. You really did deserve negative rep. You need to consider the behavior that encouraged the rep and change it if you don't want to get more.
2. You didn't deserve negative rep. You need to realize that some people are just jerks, and there's nothing you can do about it.

If I make a mistake, I suck it up and move on. That's an attribute of maturity. I highly recommend it. Trying to backtrack and sweep your mistakes under the rug is childish and unproductive.

I understand what I did to make the mistake, but to me the negative rep indicates to users that they should use caution around that person. The reason I deserved the negative rep was that I failed to read what the OP was originally asking for. It was an honest mistake, certainly one that I will try very hard not to repeat.

It's a fluff feature that means absolutely nothing. Don't get your panties in a twist about it.

I apologize that I got worked up over it. I suppose that I am not use to a forum that has a rep system. That is why I was really surprised when I saw that "I had shameless behavior in the past."

@Z - don't worry about the rep. It's a pointless system propounded by the powers-that-be in order to extract the urine out of newbies and self-appointed aficionados. The mods/admins will tell you it's an important addition, one that we cannot do without - that is until somebody starts to bitch about it - then they tell you it's not important and not something to get your nice frillies in a twist about. Work it out - I can't.

WRT deleting a post.
I've made a dick of myself on occasion and wished that I'd shut my gob (usually after a shed-full of Guinness). I've learnt that it's tough-titty - you publish and wait too long to edit and you're slapped in the stocks. Dodge the tomatoes and live to fight another day.

If you've made a t*t of yourself - cover up your tracks within a couple of minutes. Otherwise, if you're too trashed - live with it.

Thus spake Ardav, 3 bottles of Fitou later - and frankly couldn't give a fig [sic]

[jephthah]

Why is there no way to delete a post?

there is. it's done by using the "EDIT" button, and is available for the first 30 minutes after you post.

it wont take the fact that you posted away, but if you've said something irretrievably stupid, you just change it to be completely blank. who will ever know?

I apologize that I got worked up over it. ... I was really surprised when I saw that "I had shameless behavior in the past."

those phrases are generic and are blindly based on your total score. your score briefly dipped below zero, because you caught the ire of a couple senior members. the phrases themselves are amusing tidbits that are even more meaningless than the numeric value.

just call your linux/windows faux pas an oversight and be done with it. obviously you weren't reading carefully, because you obviously know the diff btwn linux and windows. if everyone who ever made a stupid statement was drummed out, there'd be no one here. I'm embarrassed to review some of my past posts, some of the stuff i've said is unbelievably dumb.

the whole rep system arbitrary and subject to the whims of people with high scores. it's a 'good-ol-boy' network of the highest order, and has been thoroughly gamed by the old-timers even if unintentionally so.

the rep system is constantly being criticised by someone, is often under review, and has been teh subject of a recent major scoring change to reduce it's influence, so a single person cant wreck or inflate another person's score as much. a result is that people who joined after that change will always have lower scores compared to people who joined before the scoring change.

in short, don't worry about rep score. theres nothing you can do about it. also, you're back to your starting baseline score now. ;)

.

[zortec]

there is. it's done by using the "EDIT" button, and is available for the first 30 minutes after you post.

Thanks for that tip. I try to make it a habit not to edit my posts so much, but good to know that I have a short amount of time to delete and repost if I need to.

those phrases are generic and are blindly based on your total score. your score briefly dipped below zero, because you caught the ire of a couple senior members. the phrases themselves are amusing tidbits that are even more meaningless than the numeric value.

just call your linux/windows faux pas an oversight and be done with it. obviously you weren't reading carefully, because you obviously know the diff btwn linux and windows. if everyone who ever made a stupid statement was drummed out, there'd be no one here. I'm embarrassed to review some of my past posts, some of the stuff i've said is unbelievably dumb.

Well, any time that I post I know the senior members are going to critique my post for accuracy and context. This is to be expected in a forum that has been around for a while. I just need to be careful of such oversights in the future.

the whole rep system arbitrary and subject to the whims of people with high scores. it's a 'good-ol-boy' network of the highest order, and has been thoroughly gamed by the old-timers even if unintentionally so.

in short, don't worry about rep score. theres nothing you can do about it. also, you're back to your starting baseline score now. ;)

Thanks. I will just treat the rep system as an arbitrary value that has no weight. :)