What is the consensus on forum members being able to delete all of their content?

[entelechy]

Do XF forums normally prevent members from mass deleting their content at some future point, or is this seen as obtrusive?

I was just considering whether we own the content, or our forum members do, and what effect having someone who has created a large amount of threads/comments deleting all of that and leaving the forum would have on the consistency of the value being provided in each thread?

Are there tools to prevent editing/deleting after a certain amount of time (15 minutes etc)?

 

[djbaxter]

The "tools" are all in usergroup permissions.

Here's my take on the question:

The posting members has a copyright on what s/he posts but by posting on a public forum grants a license in perpetuity to use that content to that forum.

Member should not be allowed to delete their own content beyond the 15 minute limit or whatever the forum owner has set as the limit. To allow members to delete their posts willy-nilly would be very disruptive to thread and forums. And personally I never allow forum members to hard delete anything; only administrators can do that. I don't want content disappearing every time a forum member has a hissy fit about something another member has said or about receiving a warning for rule violations.

Members are allowed to request deletion of their account under the GDPR or for other reasons and in that event the account and all identifying information is deleted from the database. Their posts are reattributed to "Deleted member xxxxxx" or whatever but they are not deleted, again because to do so could be seriously disruptive to ongoing threads.

Members may also request deletion of certain threads based on personal reasons like potential offline identification and personally I usually honor that if the reason is valid.

 

[entelechy]

I think I'm going to adopt this as well @djbaxter, it seems fair and makes sense.

With regards to stopping edits after 15 minutes, is that something which is available within XF, or would an addon be needed to achieve that?

 

[Mr Lucky]

With regards to stopping edits after 15 minutes, is that something which is available within XF, or would an addon be needed to achieve that?

It's in xf

I think I'm going to adopt this as well @djbaxter, it seems fair and makes sense.

It's already in the default terms

"You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content."