rule There Is No Delete Button

[Hegdis]

Hey everyone - this will be old hat to many of you, but we've now got our very first "please delete my posts and actually my entire account" request, so here's the obligatory reminder.

This forum is brand spanking new. Everyone gets a chance to start over (if they migrated from the old forum) with a fresh slate. Everyone is expected to be civil and post in good faith. Everyone is expected to know how to protect their personal info. Everyone gets an hour to change their mind about any post they make - and then it's up for good.

Reasons:

1. For the moment, our two week old community does not raise things like The Right To Be Forgotten. Let's talk again in five or ten years. Obviously we're going to pay attention to any binding litigation but right now, this is the rule built-in, with reasonable exceptions. You're all on notice, and the majority of you had to agree prior to signing up anyhow (that'll teach you to skip through the Terms & Agreement)!

2. We hope to build an ongoing reference for those who come after us. If posters were given the power to go back and punch a bunch of holes in otherwise informative threads, that collective value will be seriously diminished. Most of you who came from ls.ca mourned the loss of the vast reserves of data we had - LSAT/GPA scores going back twelve+ years in the Accepted/Rejected threads, AMAs from people starting out on Bay Street or in Family Law or In House, a thousand tips about which suits to buy and where and when to wear them, anecdotes about first interview faceplants... you get the idea. We preserve that information for a reason: no one benefits from a swiss-cheesed forum.

3. Permanence encourages good behaviour. If posters know that their troll shitpost will be there when they wake up and they can't ever take it down, and they know that dual accounts will be merged, they are more likely to reconsider being an ass in general. I can tell you from ten years of being a mod that MANY deletion requests were grounded in embarrassment and regret that was 100% earned. A little dose of having to stand behind what you post keeps everyone a bit more polite, and a bit more honest. And if some posters have to learn to apologize, rethink a position, or back down - in our view that's a good lesson going forward. 

 

Always, always there will be exceptions. If something serious has come up, send the mods a message and we'll consider the request. But we are volunteers and busy professionals, so this could take a while: again, you've been warned.

Just be excellent to each other. That's really all you need to do so this will never be an issue for you.

 

Edited to Add: I would like to note that we are much more likely to be flexible with posts discussing mental health and similarly sensitive topics where posters need timely support. While we have a real interest in preserving those valuable discussions, obviously a person experiencing these challenges and sharing their struggles / concerns / fears will trump the "forever" rule. I can't think of a single time we refused to remove posts of that nature and I expect that tradition will continue going forward.

[ZineZ]

Hi Everyone - 

I just wanted to add another clarification to what has been mentioned by Hegdis above re: mental health and similarly sensitive topics. An option that would also be available for those of you who wish to discuss sensitive topics such as these would be to DM one of the mods and have us post the question for you. We completely understand that these issues are often difficult to deal with - and we're happy to provide support as needed. This may be helpful for those of you who have active accounts and do not want such questions associated with your main account for any personal reasons.

[Ryn]

Hey folks,

I think it's worth giving a reminder here, as there has been a barrage of self reports for people asking for content to be removed. Please re-read the rules above and ensure you take steps to protect your privacy, if that's what you want to do, by not revealing too many personal details. You can absolutely get helpful advice, or provide the same to others, with general descriptions of your personal circumstances.

I can understand the desire to provide as much context as possible in case "your situation is different" -- but the reality is, that 99% of the time it's not. And if you think you're the 1%, you probably aren't. So if you're concerned about your privacy, err on the side of caution and feel free not to mention the fact that you once spent 3 months on exchange to Italy to study the art of making wool fabric. I promise you it probably won't matter for your application/OCI applications/whatever and your suddenly privacy-conscious future self will thank you.

[Hegdis]

Oh my God people, it can’t be clearer. You aren’t an exception. We aren’t deleting your posts because you changed your mind and oops, didn’t bother to read the rules you agreed to when you signed up. 

[Hegdis]

Bumpity bump bump. Your application stats, your number of interviews for OCIs, and whether Blake’s sent you a PFO - these things don’t fit into any exception. Not even close. 

[ZineZ]

We've received an influx of requests in the last few weeks and are bumping this again. The forum policy remains that we will only remove posts in exceptional circumstances.