Delete vs Hide

[John]

Just tried to delete on of my postings and that option is no longer available.  Only option is "hide". 

 

What exactly is "hide"? 

How does it differ from the previous option to delete?

Why  the change?

[Matt Harwood]

I suspect it was in response to the fellow who started the "Period Images to Relieve Some Stress" thread (which is now over 200 pages and 5200 posts long) when he accidentally deleted the entire thread when he tried to simply delete his post a few weeks ago. Since his was the first post in the entire thread, the whole thing vanished with it. That surely created a WHOLE LOT of concerned unhappy people, not the least of which was the deletor who threw himself on the board's mercy and begged forgiveness (he was forgiven, of course).

 

It was probably no easy feat retrieving all those images and pages and probably had a cost. I would bet this is just a buffer against that sort of thing happening again, and I'm quite positive that Peter G. gets requests on a daily basis to undelete threads or posts that were accidentally removed by the user.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Matt Harwood (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

I know what you mean, Ben. I probably delete 30% of my posts. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. But I think "hide" probably disappears the thread as thoroughly as "delete" so nobody else will see it.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

If only one post, can't one simply go to edit and " back space" from the last word?

 

  Ben

Edited June 14, 2020 by Ben Bruce aka First Born (see edit history)

[ply33]

2 hours ago, Matt Harwood said:

I know what you mean, Ben. I probably delete 30% of my posts. Sometimes discretion is the better part of valor. But I think "hide" probably disappears the thread as thoroughly as "delete" so nobody else will see it.

 

I am a moderator on a different website that uses this same software so I know that moderators can see hidden posts and threads. For what it is worth, when I need to remove content I usually hide it rather than delete it. For most users the effect is the same: It disappears. But if the decision to remove is changed it is a lot easier to unhide than to undelete.

 

1 hour ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

If only one post, can't one simply go to edit and " back space" from the last word?

 

  Ben

 

The forum software on this site has enabled the showing of history. So if you edit the post to remove content anyone can click on the "show history" button to see what it used to say and what you felt obligated to remove.

[John]

Peter, would you please respond with the "official" answers.   

 

Also, is a post moved to "hide" still searchable?