I removed this thread because, while the first 5 posts were relevant and useful, the rest were arguments and bickering that had nothing to do with the topic, and amounted to personal attacks. I have warned the individuals involved in the bickering to comply with the TOS. Now, folks... PLEASE act like sensible, mature adults. Thanks Chip
Your actions are both understandable and understood... and, I would venture, agreed with by most around here. I have a suggestion, however, if you'll permit it (and accept it in the constructive spirit in which it's intended): Next time, so that we can all benefit from the first five posts that were relevant, why not use your omipotent administrative power to delete the sixth and successive irrelevant and bikering posts and then lock the thread so it can't be posted to anymore... then make the new sixth post one from you explaining what you did and why? Just a thought.
I'm not familar with the vBulletin interface but I do know that all the posts are stored separately and then threaded and formatted when someone requests to read a thread. I suspect that there may not even be an interface to easily do what you suggest, DesElms.
I know if the forum is moderated (i.e., the moderator reads and approves the post before it actually appears in the thread), he (the moderator) can definitely delete it. But you may be right... as I recall, once it posts it's possible that it can't be deleted. But the moderator can edit any post -- including simply removing all of its content and replacing it with the words "Content removed by moderator" (or whatever words he/she might choose to use). He/she could also add the words to each post that had its content removed "See last post in this thread for an explanation," and then he/she could then post his/her explanation as the final post of the thread; and then freeze it so no one else can post to it. Where there's a will, there's a way.
Re: Re: DETC to RA I agree whole heartedly with you Rich but I am sure we are talking about different people. I'm living proof that someone with differing opinions can thrive here. Unfortunately many people get carried away in their responses. I have been warned a couple times and have been told to report posts by people who get personal, instead of replying in kind. Will do.
Just for the record: Since you posted these words, above, and since I responded to them earlier in this thread, I have learned the hard way that, using the tools provided in vBulletin, the administrator does, indeed, have the power to delete an individual post and lock the thread with no problems whatsoever.
Hi, I never questioned that ability. What I was unsure of was the ability to easily delete all posts after a certain point in the thread. Perhaps doing a delete per post would be very simple for a large number of posts in a thread though? Like I said I've never seen or read what the interface is actually like so don't know.
Just so people are clear, VBulletin is enormously flexible. Administrators (which, at the moment, all of our moderators have these privileges) can -- delete individual posts with no indication they were ever present -- delete individual posts and leave a notation to that effect -- Modify posts without indication they've been modified -- Delete entire threads -- Lock threads. We're generally pretty light-handed with moderation, and we very rarely, if ever, modify content (generally, we will remove phone numbers or contact info for mills so as not to further advertise them) but I am becoming increasingly heavy-handed on posts that are attacking other posters rather than challenging a position. I've chosen to use the "deleted by moderator" option instead of simply deleting the message so that it will be clear it's been removed (hopefully getting the message across that it's not OK to keep bickering like this.) We generally don't lock threads because people will just start another one, and it makes more sense to keep it together. But sometimes, if it's mostly noise and very little content, we will move the entire thread out of the publically viewable area. We generally don't ever delete threads, even ones we remove from public access, in case the information might someday be useful. I hope that clarifies.
