Feature Request: A way to Delete a Story/Chapter

[Brayon]

I would like to request a way to delete stories or chapters that Authors can use, if it's possible. I know you've given us the ability to "unpublish" such, and I've used it before, but would love to be able to delete the content, without having to bug the staff.

 

( I have 2 chapters and 1 story that I've got sitting unpublished, that I would love to delete, but feel like I'm bugging the staff, if I request deletion. You're time can be used elsewhere, than doing that minor deletion.)

[Myr]

Absolutely not happening.  We do plan to put in a request queue in future revisions though. 

Here is why:

1. Removing stories messes with the search engines. 

2. We get a lot of support requests from readers asking what happened to story x? 

3. The Drama Queen problem. Sometimes people throw a hissyfit and delete something and then throw another hissyfit when we can't fix it. 

 

From 15 years experience, I can state unequivocally that allowing unrestricted deleting is a very bad idea. 

 

In the future, even unpublishing will act differently.  Unpublish will make chapters unavailable but keep story listing saying author chose to unpublish with reasons given.  Again, this is to address the near constant "What happened to story x?" requests we get. 

[Cia]

I have to echo Myr's statements, especially dealing with the support requests and other messages of "Where did this go?" It can get really old, really fast. Not because it's hard to answer the question, but because we get all the alerts and sometimes struggle to check them as soon as possible to make sure there isn't a serious issue just to get our third "Hey, I can't find..." message of the day, for instance. Another issue Myr didn't mention is authors misusing the site to polish works before they publish. This doesn't necessarily mean we don't allow people to remove works for published--we do--but we feel like authors might be more prone to removing content for this reason if they don't have to request it from staff. 

 

And, to me, it's not a bother to have requests for deletion. It's not all that frequent, so it isn't an undue burden as far as site work goes. 

[Brayon]

@Myr and @Cia, I really didn't think of that, when I put the request in, and I totally understand now. Please disregard the request.

[MrM]

35 minutes ago, BHopper2 said:

@Myr and @Cia, I really didn't think of that, when I put the request in, and I totally understand now. Please disregard the request.

 

Thanks for bringing up the question, @BHopper2 . It is good to revisit this issue so that there is a better appreciation for the processes in place. New authors to the site might not always know why certain things are the way they are even though Myr and Cia do document these reasons.