I have tried so much to contact moderators (8 of them) but no one replied.

A user cannot delete a comment. Because a discussion may involve multiple comments, deleting a comment may disrupt the discussion. If you need to delete a comment, please contact us.

How can I delete it? is there any way to delete a comment? non of the moderators answer my emails.

You are too fast for me. Suppose I post an idea, which is wrong. But before I realize that it is wrong, you discover the error, and write a post pointing it out. Naturally you make a hyperlink pointing to my post. If I then delete my post, your post loses the context.

I don't see how you can fix this problem technically, unless I refrain from deleting my wrong post, with consolation that my wrong post at least prompts you to write a correct one.

Now I disagree that wrong posts harm the advance of knowledge. We can talk about high profile examples in history. But I can also point out a simple fact: as search engines develop, there will be less and less chance for useless posts appearing on the top of any list. The economics of the Internet is simply different from that of the Print.

Trash should not cost readers any time at all. It will only serve as footprints on our way of seeking. It also shows multiple paths, not all of which lead anywhere. It's part of our job to explore. The point is that a good search engine will rank posts accoring to their utility, leaving less useful posts to people with special interest. Why not?

I'd like to paraphrase something attributed to Pauli (I think): The only post we should avoid is the one so boring that it is not even wrong.

So, refrain from deleting any posts, even wrong ones. Since I'm not as high-minded as Pauli, I would urge you not to even delete boring posts. They may look silly at some point, but may also bring back the nostalgia of your younger days. They are like your baby pictures.

Who knows, we may as well nurture a new culture that rewards the seekers, as well as the finishers. The economics of the Internet is different from that of the Print: It costs us little to preserve everything on the Internet, even the wrong and boring posts.

Instead of deleting a post, you can always edit your post. While the current version is displayed by default, all the revisions can be accessed by the registered users.

As we promote iMech, we offer all users the freedom to post whatever they like (more or less). Meanwhile, the users should also have the freedom to delete their own posts. In a sense, this also encourages free posting: you can take it back if you realize something wrong later. If deleting a post causes any problems with the URL and links, this is a technical problem that needs to be solved. Space is not a concern. That I understand. But duplicate contents should not be encouraged.

Your analogy with burning books is probably too strong for me. I have another analogy: many journal publications duplicate previous works, which in my opinion harms the advancing of knowledge. I hope Internet can do better in this regard.

RH

Please refrain from deleting a post, unless it is obviously harmful.

Because each post has a unique URL, and other people may make links to the post. When you delete a post, you break all the links.

Each post is a publication. It should be preserved for all time.

If you are concerned about space, concern no more. The hard drive costs 50 cents per GB, and dropping. A typical post occupies 1kB or so.

If you are concerned about conserving the precious real estate such as the front page of a tag, simply remove all tags of your posts.

Refrain from deleting a post. In fact, I believe that iMech should allow the feature "delete" for only administrative use, solely for the purpose of deleting really harmful material, and only after the consensus of a group of users. Even this reminds me of burning books in history.

Zhigang Suo

Ravi:

Your post is better than the one I posted a few days ago. To avoid duplicate posts, I deleted my post together with your comment.

RH