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I have found it weird that despite the commentators here being the loudest proponent of privacy, you cannot actually delete a Hacker News account and all commen

by hmmhn 10y ago

I have found it weird that despite the commentators here being the loudest proponent of privacy, you cannot actually delete a Hacker News account and all comments with it.

forgetsusername 10y ago
This is a great point. Why not?
- Noseshine 10y ago
  Because a comment made on a public worldwide-readable forum is not private, and you know that before you sign up with an account, so it's not like you accidentally made a public comment that was meant to be private. Protecting private communication is about just that - stuff that actually is private (to begin with). Public opinion and the law may of course change, the issue that something uttered in public, be it by voice or in writing, can be retroactively taken back and declared as "private" has only been an issue with the advent of public electronic forums. I don't think you will find a lot of people who think enabling people to change their mind after they made a public statement is a high priority, especially since it has a negative impact on everybody else: How does a forum look like when key posts are suddenly missing? And I say "key post" because if it didn't get a lot of attention to begin with it's unlikely that the poster will regret having posted it.
  - Retra 10y ago
    While I agree with your assessment, It is worth remembering that before the advent of the internet, even when speaking in public was not as widely public as it can be today.
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    >Because a comment made on a public worldwide-readable forum is not private, and you know that before you sign up with an account, so it's not like you accidentally made a public comment that was meant to be private. Protecting private communication is about just that - stuff that actually is private (to begin with). That's an incredible strawman. Nothing you argue is a reason why we can't delete posts with our accounts. >How does a forum look like when key posts are suddenly missing? I guess that depends where your values are: privacy or making sure a forum "looks good".
    - Noseshine 10y ago
      Your entire tone is completely out of place here, on many levels. > That's an incredible strawman Merely yelling "strawman" whenever you don't like an argument doesn't mean it is one. Since I'm talking about the issue itself it can't be a "strawman". > Nothing you argue is a reason why we can't delete posts I didn't argue "can't". You are inventing things. Sure it's possible. Did you read the previous comments of the conversation before commenting? I get the feeling you didn't. > depends where your values are: privacy or I wrote about just that - I wonder which comment you read when you wrote that comment? You reply feels like you didn't bother reading what people incl. myself wrote, it's so disconnected. Not good. Again: It is NOT a private post, it was posted on a PUBLIC forum, and pretty much guaranteed not by mistake! I wrote about that.
- dang 10y ago
  pg wrote about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6813226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6813226
  - forgetsusername 10y ago
    Yeah, I figured this is the reason. Interesting discussion around it. Probably a good middle ground somewhere.
Tomte 10y ago
Because deleting your comments removes all context for other comments. And sice we usually don't quote here, or only very sparingly, you'd affect lots of other people.
- michaelchisari 10y ago
  So keep the comment, and replace the username with [deleted]. That seems to work just fine for plenty of other social forums.

by hmmhn 10y ago

I have found it weird that despite the commentators here being the loudest proponent of privacy, you cannot actually delete a Hacker News account and all comments with it.

forgetsusername 10y ago

This is a great point. Why not?

Noseshine 10y ago
Because a comment made on a public worldwide-readable forum is not private, and you know that before you sign up with an account, so it's not like you accidentally made a public comment that was meant to be private. Protecting private communication is about just that - stuff that actually is private (to begin with). Public opinion and the law may of course change, the issue that something uttered in public, be it by voice or in writing, can be retroactively taken back and declared as "private" has only been an issue with the advent of public electronic forums. I don't think you will find a lot of people who think enabling people to change their mind after they made a public statement is a high priority, especially since it has a negative impact on everybody else: How does a forum look like when key posts are suddenly missing? And I say "key post" because if it didn't get a lot of attention to begin with it's unlikely that the poster will regret having posted it.
- Retra 10y ago
  While I agree with your assessment, It is worth remembering that before the advent of the internet, even when speaking in public was not as widely public as it can be today.
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  >Because a comment made on a public worldwide-readable forum is not private, and you know that before you sign up with an account, so it's not like you accidentally made a public comment that was meant to be private. Protecting private communication is about just that - stuff that actually is private (to begin with). That's an incredible strawman. Nothing you argue is a reason why we can't delete posts with our accounts. >How does a forum look like when key posts are suddenly missing? I guess that depends where your values are: privacy or making sure a forum "looks good".
  - Noseshine 10y ago
    Your entire tone is completely out of place here, on many levels. > That's an incredible strawman Merely yelling "strawman" whenever you don't like an argument doesn't mean it is one. Since I'm talking about the issue itself it can't be a "strawman". > Nothing you argue is a reason why we can't delete posts I didn't argue "can't". You are inventing things. Sure it's possible. Did you read the previous comments of the conversation before commenting? I get the feeling you didn't. > depends where your values are: privacy or I wrote about just that - I wonder which comment you read when you wrote that comment? You reply feels like you didn't bother reading what people incl. myself wrote, it's so disconnected. Not good. Again: It is NOT a private post, it was posted on a PUBLIC forum, and pretty much guaranteed not by mistake! I wrote about that.
dang 10y ago
pg wrote about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6813226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6813226
- forgetsusername 10y ago
  Yeah, I figured this is the reason. Interesting discussion around it. Probably a good middle ground somewhere.

Tomte 10y ago

Because deleting your comments removes all context for other comments. And sice we usually don't quote here, or only very sparingly, you'd affect lots of other people.

michaelchisari 10y ago
So keep the comment, and replace the username with [deleted]. That seems to work just fine for plenty of other social forums.