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Issue

On Thursday evening I entered a question (actually a HowTo) that was deleted the next morning – without any information about this fact and about the reason. The thing is: Now I do not know whether it has been done by Jolla staff or some other user. I can expect that it was for political reason, however I am not sure (in particular since the recent official statements from Jolla and third party on the subject covered seemed to have no problem with the subject).

I know, that some user is admittedly cleaning up questions by deleting items. While I expect that s/he did not delete my question and that cleaning up is sensible in many cases, I wonder whether the posters always agree with the deletion.

Recommendation

Before deleting an item, it should be commented so that the original poster gets a corresponding information. That comment should include the text to be deleted. This makes sure, that the original poster gets an information about the fact and reason for deletion.

Alternate procedure

If there are a lot of other comments/followers to a certain question/ answer and you do not want all of them to receive your comment, you can open up a new question and direct it to the original poster by adding a “@nick-name-of-original-poster”: Then the person of that nick name will get a corresponding e-mail (well, I am not sure that this works for the question itself, but it works if the @nick-name… is included in a comment). Immediately thereafter you can delete the question/comment so that the system is not clogged up with deletion notices.

Post Scriptum 1:

This notification is also sensible, because users may use this forum as a kind of memo system, where certain information about Jolla/Sailfish are stored for future retrieval. If the information suddenly is deleted … it disappoints users. (Ok, now I know, I should not rely on Do It Together for information storage. Sadly enough.)

Post Scriptum 2:

@eric: Could you please inform me whether the deletion of my question was done by Jolla staff due to company policy or for what other reason or by some other user as a kind of “preemptive obedience”?

Issue

On Thursday evening I entered a question (actually a HowTo) that was deleted the next morning – without any information about this fact and about the reason. The thing is: Now I do not know whether it has been done by Jolla staff or some other user. I can expect that it was for political reason, however I am not sure (in particular since the recent official statements from Jolla and third party on the subject covered seemed to have no problem with the subject).

I know, that some user is admittedly cleaning up questions by deleting items. While I expect that s/he did not delete my question and that cleaning up is sensible in many cases, I wonder whether the posters always agree with the deletion.

Recommendation

Before deleting an item, it should be commented so that the original poster gets a corresponding information. That ("Deletion comment: ...") In case of answers and comments to be deleted, this deletion comment should include the text to be deleted. This makes sure, that the original poster gets an information about the fact and reason for deletion. deletion and a copy of the text to be deleted.

Alternate procedure

If there are a lot of other comments/followers to a certain question/ answer and you do not want all of them to receive your comment, you can open up a new question and direct it to the original poster by adding a “@nick-name-of-original-poster”: Then the person of that nick name will get a corresponding e-mail (well, I am not sure that this works for the question itself, but it works if the @nick-name… is included in a comment). Immediately thereafter you can delete the question/comment so that the system is not clogged up with deletion notices.

Grace period

In an answer it has been recommended, to wait a couple of days after the deletion comment before actually deleting the item to allow for discussion. This option should be taken into account: It may depend on the item whether this is suitable.

Remaining problem

Users can have deactivated e-mail notifications. In this case they do not receive the deletion comment. However, at least under a deleted question they can find the deletion comment.

Items deleted without deletion comment

If an item has been deleted without deletion comment (and the original poster has not deactivated e-mail notifications), the original poster may just undelete/repost his/her question/answer/comment because s/he can safely assume that it has been deleted by mistake.

Background

Users with sufficient karma can delete any question, answer, comment – their own as well as third party ones. Askbot will not send an automatic deletion-note to the original poster. The original poster has no chance, to work out on his own, who has deleted the item and why. When an item has been deleted:

• Questions are still listed on the user page of the original poster.
• When the original poster is logged in, s/he can view and undelete the deleted question.
• Answers and comments are deleted without any traces.

Post Scriptum 1:

In the answers to this question it has been recommended to deactivate the deletion function for "normal" users. This notification debate has been carrying on in several threads already. Although I started this question after a specific incident, I am against such restrictions (I may change my mind once this feature has been misused repeatedly):

• The damage that can be done by altering items is also sensible, because users may use this forum as a kind of memo system, where certain information about Jolla/Sailfish are stored for future retrieval. If the information suddenly is deleted … it disappoints users. (Ok, now I know, I should not rely on Do It Together for information storage. Sadly enough.)
  greater than the damage by deleting
• This specific incident showed, that the community and Jolla can handle inappropriate deletions appropriately.

Post Scriptum 2:

@eric: Could you please inform me whether the deletion of my Each question was done and answer has a "flag offensive" option. If this flag is set by Jolla staff due to company policy or for what other reason or several users, the item may eventually be deleted automatically by some other user as a kind of “preemptive obedience”?Askbot. However, in this case Askbot sends notification e-mails to the original poster informing her/him about the flagging.

Recommendation

Before deleting an item, it should be commented so that the original poster gets a corresponding information. ("Deletion comment: ...") In case of answers and comments to be deleted, this deletion comment should include the text to be deleted. This makes sure, that the original poster gets an information about the fact and reason for deletion and a copy of the text to be deleted.

Alternate procedure

If there are a lot of other comments/followers to a certain question/ answer and you do not want all of them to receive your comment, you can open up a new question and direct it to the original poster by adding a “@nick-name-of-original-poster”: Then the person of that nick name will get a corresponding e-mail (well, I am not sure that this works for the question itself, but it works if the @nick-name… is included in a comment). Immediately thereafter you can delete the question/comment so that the system is not clogged up with deletion notices.

Grace period

In an answer it has been recommended, to wait a couple of days after the deletion comment before actually deleting the item to allow for discussion. This option should be taken into account: It may depend on the item whether this is suitable.

Remaining problem

Users can have deactivated e-mail notifications. In this case they do not receive the deletion comment. However, at least under a deleted question they can find the deletion comment.

Items deleted without deletion comment

If an item has been deleted without deletion comment (and the original poster has not deactivated e-mail notifications), the original poster may just undelete/repost his/her question/answer/comment because s/he can safely assume that it has been deleted by mistake.

Background

Users with sufficient karma can delete any question, answer, comment – their own as well as third party ones. Askbot will not send an automatic deletion-note to the original poster. The original poster has no chance, to work out on his own, who has deleted the item and why. When an item has been deleted:

• Questions are still listed on the user page of the original poster.
• When the original poster is logged in, s/he can view and undelete the deleted question.
• Answers and comments are deleted without any traces.

Post Scriptum 1:

In the answers to this question it has been recommended to deactivate the deletion function for "normal" users. This debate has been carrying on in several threads already. Although I started this question after a specific incident, I am against such restrictions (I may change my mind once this feature has been misused repeatedly):

• The damage that can be done by altering items is greater than the damage by deleting
• This specific incident showed, that the community and Jolla can handle inappropriate deletions appropriately.

The general editing as well as the deletion feature I regard as part of the Jolla experiment.

Post Scriptum 2:

Each question and answer has a "flag offensive" option. If this flag is set by several users, the item may eventually be deleted automatically by Askbot. However, in this case Askbot sends notification e-mails to the original poster informing her/him about the flagging.