If there are replies to it - threaded mode would break. (A thread is like a chain - you can't delete something out of the middle or else it would break).
If you delete the replies to it first then you can delete it. But in theory - if it's been replied to - then it's part of the conversation and replies won't make sense without it. So work backwards to delete them. View threaded mode so you can see what's in reply to what.
I have a "remove traces" mod posted here - which reassigns replies to the first post in the thread. It won't make sense in threaded mode LOL but allows you to get rid of posts that have replies.
<br /> A<br /> / \<br /> B C<br /> / \ \<br /> D E F<br />
If you delete B and it's removed entirely then posts D and E are no longer attached to anything. Obviously we could attach them to A but they really might not have anything to do with whatever is in post A. In flat mode it doesn't really matter, but threaded mode breaks as Josh stated.
Deleting a post results in a physical deletion in the database. Hiding a "deleted" post via css wouldn't do that. It will still be there and everybody can still read it in the source code.
Yeah, and if you viewed or expanded threaded view - the subject would still have to be there. There's not an easy way to hide the middle link in a chain.
See Rick's chart above. If you hide "B" it still won't make any sense. In theory D & E are talking about B. So usually when you need to delete a post - you'd delete what people had said aobut it (thus that whole branch).
Sometimes I move that whole post (and any replies) to a recycle bin (hidden forum). But sometimes there are valid replies because people don't use the corect reply link.
So I yell at my users and tell them to hit reply to the post that they are replying to - not just the last one on threaded view.
Maybe the quick reply box should be reworked to now allow them to reply there unless they click one of the "reply" links - although that's javascript and doesn't work in all browsers.
Well, that bit of javascript should work in any browser worth it's name, except for text based browsers like lynx or links. (Although they might be able to run javascript now, haven't checked in quite a while...)
It's easy enough to not allow the quick reply to be sent without first having clicked on the reply button of one of the posts in the thread.
But, doesn't that kill the whole point of the Quick Reply. That would make it more like the Open Topic quick reply, which doesn't seem like a quick reply to me.
No - here if you just fill in the box - it replies to the last post - if you click "Quick Reply" next to the post you are replying to - then it will attach it to the correct post - still no extra page to load - just makes the "Re: Username" right.
See in this post - I used Quick Reply - but I clicked Quick Reply next to Gardener's post.
He shouldn't be able to delete all of his posts - unless he was an admin - or you had the edit time in your forum set unusually high. Most people have the edit time set on an hour or so. Then they can't delete more than an hours worth of posts.
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