"soft delete" on profile messages?

[watermelon punch]

What does it mean "soft" delete for profile page visitor messages?
Why doesn't it allow you to get rid of them completely?

Or have I misunderstood?

 

[Famine]

Soft delete removes things from public view. In the case of posts the staff remove, all of the staff can still see them (though they are collapsed) but no-one else can. In the case of profile VMs, the staff and the person whose profile it is can still see them (collapsed) but no-one else can.

We don't habitually hard delete anything.

 

[watermelon punch]

Oh so only the profile owner has to still look at them, nobody else can see them?
Someone asked me if there was a way to delete old visitor messages from cluttering the profile.
(Asking me is funny of course because I have at least 10 pages of visitor messages that I don't think I ever tried to delete before someone mentioned it. )
I understand the usefulness to keep deleted posts for staff administrators to view.
It had not occurred to me that it would be kept for the profile owner.
I guess I was thinking of it more like private messages - where you delete & it empties out the inbox. But this is different because it's publicly viewable I guess?
(Edit: Though for me I think I have it set so that only registered members can view my profile info.)

 

[TB]

Oh so only the profile owner has to still look at them, nobody else can see them?

As Famine said, when the staff deletes a post, it's removed from public view and for the staff it's collapsed with a link to expand the post to view it. As the "owner"of the profile, once you delete a VM, I'm not positive how it behaves, as I could easily see it working both ways- the post could be simply deleted (like PM's) or removed from public view but still expandable by the profile owner.

Give it a shot and let me know.

 

[watermelon punch]

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TB
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That's how it looks to me.

note: there's a little radio spot there and it says "soft" delete and there's no way to uncheck the radio checkmark dot thing.

 

[daan]

note: there's a little radio spot there and it says "soft" delete and there's no way to uncheck the radio checkmark dot thing.

There'll be a software option for soft and hard delete. Supermods only have soft delete too. I would guess that the hard delete option is only available to Admins.

 

[watermelon punch]

I think my friend who asked me about this was mainly concerned with deleting visitor messages for the purpose of removing clutter.
And I guess the "soft" delete only de-clutters a little bit.

 

[jammy21]

I'm that watermelonpuch friend
So all in all - i only can do soft delete and i can't do hard delete.
I have to watch those deleted message lines (i only see that i had deleted watermelonpuch's message - i don't see that message anymore) rest of my live

 

[watermelon punch]

It will live on as a deleted line for you for eternity I guess.

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

So, what I've seen so far: If you've got inappropriate content on your profile, you're in trouble, and it will never go away. Don't do it, guys.


I'm happy that no one's posted anything too bad on my Visitor messages...

 

[watermelon punch]

So, what I've seen so far: If you've got inappropriate content on your profile, you're in trouble, and it will never go away. Don't do it, guys.

Oh it will go away. Well, the undesirable (or just undesired) content will go away. But you as the profile owner will have to look at that line there saying there was a deleted message. *sigh*

I imagine if you're really popular (or unpopular) you could wind up with 50 pages of "deleted lines".

Maybe someday they can figure out how to put a "hide deleted visitor messages" option. So then only admins would have to (& be able to) see them.

I just had a thought... If the administrators have to see ALL deleted posts in soft delete form... MAN, the forum must look cluttered as all get out to their view!! I mean I don't know how many messages get deleted. But the nature of the internet, and the fact I don't see much objectionable content here, makes me suspect there's a lot of "soft deleted messages" hanging about out there for the people who can see them.
My sympathies to you!

 

[ITCC_Andrew]

I just had a thought... If the administrators have to see ALL deleted posts in soft delete form... MAN, the forum must look cluttered as all get out to their view!! I mean I don't know how many messages get deleted. But the nature of the internet, and the fact I don't see much objectionable content here, makes me suspect there's a lot of "soft deleted messages" hanging about out there for the people who can see them.
My sympathies to you!

There was the Jesus riding an Easter bunny photo, I guess. I still see some here and there.

 

[Jordan]

So, what I've seen so far: If you've got inappropriate content on your profile, you're in trouble, and it will never go away. Don't do it, guys.


I'm happy that no one's posted anything too bad on my Visitor messages...

You wouldn't get in trouble if someone posted something bad on your profile; the person who posted it, would.

 

[watermelon punch]

Oh, I thought he meant "you're in trouble" in the sense of that you would have to just look at it forever & put up with it being there.


ALSO: I believe there's an option in the settings that allows you to either disable visitor messages so nobody can post any there at all. Or, I might be wrong about this, but I think you can set it so only your friends can post VMs. Or I thought that was the case.

UPDATE: I just looked and you can have it made so only registered members see your VMs, or only friends or only contacts. 👍
(Though I have to admit, I'm not sure what is the difference between "contacts" and "friends".)

There was the Jesus riding an Easter bunny photo, I guess. I still see some here and there.

Never knew about that.

 

[Jordan]

A "contact" is someone who has a pending friend request with you that you have not accepted, a "friend" is someone whom you have accepted their request.

 

[AOS-]

I imagine if you're really popular (or unpopular) you could wind up with 50 pages of "deleted lines".

You could just let it get buried onto the next page. I have 191 pages of Visitor messages and forgot about everything I've already read and/or deleted.

 

[watermelon punch]

You could just let it get buried onto the next page. I have 191 pages of Visitor messages and forgot about everything I've already read and/or deleted.

That's probably what goes on with my profile page if I ever deleted something, I probably wouldn't remember unless I went digging back 6 pages.
Yes, I suppose if you're popular enough to have that many undesirable messages to delete, you might have enough desirable visitor messages that they would get buried.
It's the unpopular people who get not much besides bad messages to delete that would have to look at loads of delete lines.

Lesson: Hold regular pleasing conversation on visitor message boards.

 

[HOODFIELD]

Is there a way to add an option for a VM to be previewed and approved by the profile owner before it post to your profile? I think everyone tends to get unwanted ones.

 

[watermelon punch]

Is there a way to add an option for a VM to be previewed and approved by the profile owner before it post to your profile? I think everyone tends to get unwanted ones.

That would certainly be an interesting option.

But there is, of course a way to make it so only your friends can see & post to your VMs. Which is kind of the same thing...
Well unless you have a lot of friends who are posting the unwanted messages. One would hope that if you asked them not to though they'd respect that!

 

[HOODFIELD]

That would certainly be an interesting option.

MySpace had this option if anyone remembers.

 

[daan]

Not sure if that's possible, but you can restrict receiving VMs to only friends, contacts & mods.

https://www.gtplanet.net/forum/profile.php?do=editoptions
Last option on messaging & notification section.

EDIT: Should have read watermelonpunch's post first...