A conversation sparked earlier tonight in staff-discussion regarding our policy (or lack thereof) regarding mass self-deletions requested by users to staff.
Due to the semi-recent Harmony saga spurring concerns, our generalized 'request the staff deletes your stuff' policy has occasionally arisen.
Currently, the deletions guide reads as such:
Self-Deletion
If an author should request their material be removed, and be able to prove authorship beyond a reasonable doubt, these requests are granted.
Authors have the ability to delete their own work at any time. This is accomplished by:
- Clicking “Options” at the bottom of the page,
- Clicking “Delete”,
- Selecting checkbox for, “Delete Completely.”
Be sure to select “Delete Completely,” as a failure to do this does not remove the page, it simply renames it. After doing so, announce your choice to delete in the most recent Deletions thread.
If an author attempts to self-delete their work and fails to do so properly, either by blanking the page or renaming it, it will be deleted fully by Staff.
I propose to add the following to the section, immediately following what was pasted above:
Authors may also request deletion of all their work to be done by staff. This will likely require a basic explanation of why, and may not be immediate, but generally speaking the wiki staff will acquiesce to such requests.
If circumstances imply that a request for deletion is being made during a time of distress, or there is evidence of malice or spite on the part of the user, requests for self-deletion may be delayed or denied.
This is a broad and generalized clarification of what we already do. It covers most circumstances, and the second line follows with certain events in the past where a distressed user would come to demand deletion before returning a few days later in a better mental state. I also want to stress to everybody, we do not intend to make denial a typical response, and for a vast majority of circumstances we still will hold to the courtesy of deletion.
However, it is, after all, a courtesy. The above is intentionally broadly defined and flexible in case the extremely rare case comes up where we collectively feel that a delay or denial of mass-deletion-of-work is in the better interest of the site or possibly the user.
In short, this is putting on paper what we already do.
Discussion will persist for 72 hours, after which a brief vote will be made on the phrasing above, with any reasonable changes applied to the new rule addition. After a successful vote, the addition will be added to the Deletions Guide.
This discussion involved aismallard, MightyMcB, Limeyy, Tuomey, LadyKatie, Bleep, and myself.
