· The post is a duplicate of another post within a thread, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Deleting Duplicate Posts
· The post contains SPAM, or otherwise violates the Code of Conduct or Terms of Use
· Deleting your own post
· Abuse scenarios
· Password cracks
· Product key postings
· Release of confidential information
· The thread exists elsewhere and the public was notified that the thread will be deleted. An example of alerting the user that the thread will be deleted is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Warning Users that a Thread will be Deleted
· The thread promotes piracy or contains other illegal information. An example is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Thread Posting Illegal Content
· The thread contains no content, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4: Thread Containing No Content
Note: A thread should only be deleted when all posts within the thread should be deleted. If only a single post contains the text to be deleted, the post itself should be deleted and not the entire thread.
yottun8 edited Revision 9. Comment: Fixed figure's number.
yottun8 edited Revision 8. Comment: Added "Other Languages" and ja-JP version.
Karl Mitschke edited Revision 7. Comment: Added links to Code of Conduct and Terms of Use
Karl Mitschke edited Revision 6. Comment: Clean up figure numbers
Zoltán Horváth edited Revision 4. Comment: Replaced the first sentence, just not to start a page with "back to". Tagging.
RonV edited Revision 1. Comment: Changed Moderations to Moderators
Hi
It would be a big improvement if the example images in these articles were better quality. They are currently completely unreadable?
RonV
I have to agree with Ron, at least make the examples clickable to larger versions. And I'm using an 18.5" notebook, it's not like it's a netbook with a tiny screen!
Cari [MS-MVP]
The distinction between deleting product keys posted inadvertently by an innocent user and those posted maliciously needs to be made. The former just requires editing of the post not deleting the whole post.
It is very rare that a whole post needs to be deleted because it conatins confidential information (PII). Usually editing the post to remove the info. is sufficient.
Jetta48,
That's a good point, but please bear in mind that these wiki articles are guidelines only. Moderators always need to use judgment based on the scenario. Thanks for the comment.
By definition, a "guide" or "guideline" is a recommended practice that allows some discretion or leeway in its interpretation, implementation, or use. Why should a moderator be punished (i.e. loss of moderation privileges) if his or her interpretation of this Forum Moderation Guide differs from the authors of the guide in the course of performing a discretionary moderator task, such as deleting an obvious off-topic or obsolete post?
To wit: Relationship between a policy, standard, guideline, and procedure:
christodonte.com/.../relationship-between-a-policy-standard-guideline-and-procedure