Instructions to delete forum post

[Salvatore Viola]

Dear Statalist,

I am posting this question here as I was unsure if it was appropriate for the General forum. I figured that someone might see it and, if not, it isn't that important. I was wondering if it was possible to delete posts made to the forum. Perhaps I missed some instruction included in the FAQ, but I have not yet figured of how to do this. I would appreciate if another, more experienced user could help me.

Best,
Salvatore

[daniel klein]

You can edit your posts for a couple of minutes. You cannot delete posts. Why would you want to delete your posts?

[Nick Cox]

Selections from the FAQ

16. How should I maintain threads I start?

16.2 What can you edit

Starting a thread does not convey ownership of that thread.

You cannot delete a post, but the forum allows for a one hour edit window. This allows fixes of many kinds, such as typo corrections, extra detail, or improved wording. Please don't mangle your own posts, even if you solved your problem yourself or realised that the question was silly. Explain the solution, even if it was trivial. Often someone else will have the same problem.

This was a decision by StataCorp. In practice some members were deleting posts on various grounds, seemingly that as the question had been answered to their satisfaction, it was no longer needed -- or that they did not want to leave on record a thread that was or might be embarrassing to them.

But both of these attitudes miss the purpose of Statalist which is to provide a forum for discussion and an archive for consultation. Deleting a post might make much or all of a thread meaningless; no member has a right to affect others' posts in that way. Also, if you have a problem, someone else may have the same problem, and even if the solution is blindingly trivial or obvious when explained, it's the solution.

There is no social forum without some downsides for individuals who participate. Much more can be said, but here for the moment are two key points.

First, people by accident sometimes post something embarrassing, such as confidential data. In this circumstance contact the Statalist administrators and they will react to reasonable requests.

Second, and this doesn't exhaust all your options, if you're embarrassed by something you posted you can leave Statalist and your posts will then be anonymised.

[William Lisowski]

I believe Salvatore is referring to a recent topic where he and I posted similar replies nearly simultaneously.

This happens all the time on Statalist (it goes by the term "cross-posting"). There is no need to try to clean up cross-posts. And indeed, it's very rarely the case that exactly the same thing is written, so it's always possible that the wording of one reply will resonate more than another with someone reading it - not just the original poster, but others who find the topic later. In the case in question, I thought Salvatore's wording improved on mine, which was just copy-and-pasted from my FQA (frequent question answers) file.

You will see that occasionally posts are edited to acknowledge a cross-post, and perhaps to point out the similarity or difference in the advice given.

And, receiving similar advice in two responses gives the advice a little more weight. As perhaps my repetition of Daniel's advice will do in this case.

But to address the original question, the Statalist FAQ section 16.2 briefly mentions what you can and cannot do to an existing post.

Added in edit: Nick kindly created an example of cross-posting by giving his response as I was writing this post. His post is a more thorough exploration of posting and editing than was mine. And, now we've seen the same answer three times in three different accents. As Lewis Carroll wrote in The Hunting of the Snark, "What I tell you three times must be true."

[Nick Cox]

I have often used a paraphrase of that quotation on Statalist, as what we tell you three times is true.

Also true: the character saying this in the poem is the Bellman. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the late great mathematician Richard E. Bellman found occasion to use the quotation.

[Salvatore Viola]

Dear Daniel, William and Nick,

Thank you for responding to my question, clarifying my intentions and directing me to the answer which did exist in the FAQ. I will use this information to improve my participation on the forum in the future. In retrospect, I would not have erased the content of the particular post which prompted this question, but now I know for the future.

Best,
Salvatore