Accidental post delete

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#1

@Martin, is there a way that we can have a setting to “Undo” or reinstate a post we accidentally delete? Since the delete feature ends up in the dots, I always expect it to be a menu and it’s not so I must be expecting the Edit button to be right after that and it’s the trash. Usually I catch it, but it’s been really close many times. Today I didn’t catch it and it deleted my post. I could find no way to undo the delete so I had to copy the post (which thankfully showed up in the edit area), and when I went to “repost it” it posted all kinds of nasty spacing code stuff that was horrendous. So I pasted it into my basic text editor and then copied it from there and it lived lol. I got it reposted, but what a job that was to do so.

So I guess I would ask the following:

  1. Can the “…” more option be expanded always rather than an added set of buttons? I would prefer that the edit and delete are there all the time if possible. There aren’t too many buttons that get added when you click them dots (2 or 3 maybe?) so it should fit on all device sizes pretty easily I would think. This would be my number 1 choice.

  2. OR … Can we please get a way to undo a delete within X number of minutes for those occasions that our mouse clicks too many times (which means your post goes in the trash with no warning because the next button under it is trash when the buttons expand). This would be equally as good as number 1, but number 1 would be the best scenario.

  3. OR … Possibly rearrange the order of the expanded buttons so that the “Pencil” edit button would be right where your mouse clicked to open the expanded buttons, instead of the trash can. This option would be viable indeed and if you accidentally click the “Edit” pencil button, at least you can just cancel it and go back to where you were.

  4. OR … At the very least have a warning popup asking if we really want to delete our post, with the ability to say no and go back to the post as it was.

Hopefully one of those options is possible, as it was really frustrating having to jump hoops to get my post back. Thanks for anything you can do for this issue!

#2

I gotta bump this post up because I believe I’ve had to open 6 or more posts since yesterday that were not really posts, they were all withdrawn and all still viewable if you click the pencil for editing. Truly there must be a delete in this system.

Is there a reason to leave them all in there even when the OP or a Replier has withdrawn the post? Wouldn’t it be cleaner to just let them delete their posts? Maybe there’s a time frame that can be setup that after 7 days or whatever time frame, they cannot be removed? In case you are needing them to stay there for some reason or another for continuity of the thread that is.

This morning, of the 6 or so that have this issue, 3 posts I had to open to were new posts not replies, and all were withdrawn posts. It’s a waste of time, and for anyone that might be visiting on a phone or small tablet to have to open empty posts is more clicks/data usage/etc. Just sayin’ this is still an issue I think.

#3

I don’t see it as an issue personally, they are deleted after 24 hours without the need for devs to do anything right :man_shrugging:

#4

I agree it’s a waste of time, but we’re talking about seconds, not minutes. You click the link… the post was withdrawn… you move to the next one.

If it was dozens a day I could see it becoming annoying, but I rarely see more than one or two post withdrawn in a week. This most recent batch you’re referring to was an unusual cluster of 5 or 6 posts that had been withdrawn, and I believe 3 of them were from the same new user who I presume figured out the answers on their own and deleted the questions (they were very basic questions that a quick forum search or reading of the tutorials would have answered.)

As I’m subscribed to all the categories, I also get emails on every single post in the forum, so not only do I check them here on Discourse, I also have to delete then in my email (Outlook.) Talk about slaving over a hot keyboard! :stuck_out_tongue:

(sorry jo, I just see this as “much ado about nothing.” I mean, who doesn’t have unlimited data, or WiFi for their phones these days? I spend 5-10 mins each morning, and then maybe another 5-10 minutes throughout the course of the day here. It’s actually a much appreciated diversions from the grind of website building.)