posted
No, I meant it seriously - I switched laptops (network card is all screwed up) and all of my old bookmarks are gone. When I'm interested in a thread I normally bookmark threads and just return to the bookmark. I hate using the search function, and I'm pants scanning the forum for a particular thread - I always look over whatever I'm looking for.
I guess I'm not surprised at it being deleted, though.
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
HollowEarth, I probably should have added an "at" in between those two words for clarity. Anyways (h) Adjective. British. Rubbish Example: (h) Your opinion is pants.
Mike, what does it mean to "Baleeted!"?
Posts: 2409 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
BALEETED! (Flash video that has the very first use of the term, as far as I know.)
(Otherwise, the short answer is "it's Internet slang for 'DELETED,' originating in a Strong Bad E-mail.")
Posts: 884 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
I suspect the OP didn't like the continued and justified Palin-bashing.
IP: Logged |
I guess that means that the thread deletion wasn't only expected, you could have set your watch by it.
Posts: 15421 | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
kat has a long history of deleting threads when she runs out of other tricks and they've started to really make her look bad.
Kind of funny that with the thread and then now with the deletion she is basically doing what Sarah Palin did. Maybe soon she can start complaining about how it was other people's fault that she couldn't show any substance.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
If you want to discuss the betrayal of trust that thread deletion represents, that's fine; but I don't think that personal insults like the ones Squicky tosses out at kat are good form in this forum.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I too think we should try to forgo personal attacks.
Also I think we should discuss the best way to suggest people talk about the betrayal of trust that thread deletion represents, if nothing else than to help Scott do it in the future. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have to say -- over the past year or so I've kind of lost my ambivalence toward thread deletion. Maybe it's occurring more often, or maybe I'm just noticing it more because a thread like this comes up whenever it occurs.
posted
It's totally my opinion and it is negative. It's also a pretty likely descriptor of kat's behavior over the many years.
Is it a personal insult? To me, it's more providing context for people. Yes, it's negative, but it is hard to accurately describe my opinion of kat's behavior without making her look negative. If someone acts poorly, it is not permissible to say this?
---
edit: Not to say that bad behavior by one person makes it okay for another person to behave poorly, but we are talking about a thread where kat was throwing around personal insults at almost everyone who disagreed with her.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
The really unfortunate thing is that this thread wasn't just an excuse to insult Sarah Palin or Kat. Many people had written substantive posts about the issues involved. Deleting was definitely disrespectful to the people who had put time, effort and thought into contributing to the thread.
Such a pity that one person can erase the work of so many people. Its very destructive and really unnecessary.
Not long ago when I thought a thread I'd created had gotten badly out of control, I simply respectfully asked people to let it die and they did. If that didn't work, I pretty sure Papa could be persuaded to lock the thread which would stop the argument but not delete the work of everyone who had posted.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I really don't know why people are allowed to delete threads. If you don't want your words to continue to be available, don't post them. If you don't like what other people are posting, it's a problem for the moderator.
Have the moderators commented in the past on why thread deletion is permitted?
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
There are some limited cases where deleting a thread is definitely understandable and can even be ultimately productive.
Deleting it because you lost your argument or to try to hide your poor behavior (and does anyone who was following it think that this wasn't the case here) doesn't seem to me to be either of these and seems really childish.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: To be fair, we don't know for sure that kat deleted the thread.
That's true. I doubt Papa Moose did though and kat has a history of deleting posts and threads in similar circumstances.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
You should still maintain the ability to quickly delete a thread if you find that you regret posting within a reasonable amount of time. How long is "reasonable" I am not sure. Within 10 minutes?
What would be a suitable alternative be to thread deletion? I mean that from a forum administrators perspective. If it were up to me, people just wouldn't delete threads as a general rule.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
From past discussions of this, the moderators were pretty clear that they were not going to remove this feature. We can certainly talk about other ways of handling this, but the way Hatrack works is very unlikely to change.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
I'm getting frustrated, a little bit, with Hatrack. I wouldn't call it a sea change but I think we have three or four hatrackers who have just become ridiculously hostile toward other posters. More often than not, the purpose of their posts is to attack or run-down other people. They seem to forgive nothing, and they have mastered the art of being insulting without violating the terms of this board. Often, the behavior they abhor is behavior in which they themselves engage*. They have become the keepers of scores, the holders of grudges.
And I don't know what to say to them.
In a way, I'm one of them. Because I engage in the same behavior, but I direct my (usually unspoken) scorn at them. I find myself ticking mental checklists when I read their posts. Maybe I have gotten into a state of mind where, when I see their names, I look for the hostility. No surprise, then, that I find it. But that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
What I wonder is: What happened to the philosophy of realizing that there is a person on the other end of that post you disliked? We get caught up (and I totally include myself in this) in the disagreement, and forget how to be friends. I don't become enemies with people I meet, out here in the world, over reading a situation a different way, or over political or religious differences. So what gives? Why do we do this to each other when we get on the internet?
I don't delete threads, and I don't like it when threads I've participated in get deleted; however, I am on record as saying that I will not turn against another hatracker for deleting a thread. There ought to be a limit on the psychic cost of participating on an internet forum. And when that limit is breached, erasure seems to me to be reasonable. It seems more reasonable to me for a person to delete a thread he started than to have to suffer in some kind of misery and shame. I'm not saying that's what happened in this case. I don't know! But if that's the equation, I'll take thread deletion.
In the Hatrack I hope for, we don't stalk each other. When the majority of our posts are meant to be hurtful to another person, we take a step back and re-evaluate. Then we stop it. Then we start over. Then we forgive each other.
Hatrack's too cool a place to be filled with fights. Life's too short for it. I don't want to keep feeling this way (frustrated) when I come here.
Can we all call a truce, or something?
Posts: 2267 | Registered: May 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think thread deletion would bother most people a great deal less if there was some warning that would give the participants a chance to save their work. Granted that might defeat the purpose of a deletion. I imagine there are only two real reasons to delete a thread, 1. To end a line of discussion you don't like and 2. To erase the trail that led to it. The first seems silly since someone can just start up another thread and start right back off where the other thread left off. In that same vein, it seems just as silly to delete a thread to hide the evidence, as it can be approximately reproduced, with different phrasing, all over again. I suppose there are other reasons to delete a thread, but none jump to the forefront of my mind.
Thread deletion makes me sad for two reasons as well. 1. Sad because of the loss of effort people put into threads. True, sometimes it's just people carping at each other and that won't really be lamented, but for people who actually put effort into contentious threads, it can feel like a slap in the face. 2. I like to think we're a place where talking an issue out can get us through most disagreements, and deleting a thread is too much like taking your ball and going home.
But it rarely makes me mad. People have their reasons, and I'm sure like all reasons to justify things, they run the gamut from perfectly valid to vapidly silly. Maybe we could develop some sort of code of conduct that calls for thread deletion warning? In much the same way that PJ locks and gives a head's up before he deletes a thread, maybe, if people can delete their own threads, they should be able to lock them for a day and then delete them the next day. Just an idea.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I imagine there are only two real reasons to delete a thread
Your lack of empathy is your problem. Wanting something that is causing you pain to go away is a perfectly valid reason, IMO.
And I have explained as much before. Do we have to have this round of navel-gazing-without-purpose again?
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by katharina: I did delete the thread. I said that above.
Everything else posited is wrong.
Not everything posited has been wrong even if everything posited about your motivations for deleting the thread has been wrong.
It is absolutely true that several people (for example Humean and Chris Bridges) had posted long, reasoned additions to that thread which I found worth reading. You erased them. That was disrespectful to all the people who posted and read in that thread whether you intended it to be or not. Throwing other peoples work away is disrespectful.
It also shows little respect to the members of this forum to pop into this thread and "say yes I deleted" but refuse to explain why.
I don't expect you to show respect for me, you've already made it clear on numerous occasions that you don't. There were however many other people participating in the thread and you showed disrespect to all of them when you deleted the thread.
You owe the forum an explanation and an apology.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Is it a personal insult? To me, it's more providing context for people.
In the past, you've adhered to the idea that people should do their own research.
Has your opinion about this sort of thing changed?
I'm not sure what you are talking about. You obviously think this is some telling blow, but I'm not following your point nor have I adhered to this idea that you seem to be assigning to me.
Despite my puzzlement, one thing I can note is that as the things we're talking about have been deleted, it's not actually like people can do their own research.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Rabbit, instead of speaking for the forum, why not be forthright? Say "I believe you owe me an apology for deleting my words without warning."
Kat might still refuse to offer one, but I think keeping it on an individual level -- rather than trying to obtain an apology on someone else's behalf -- is likely to be more effective and less insulting.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
