It is not configurable other than allowing or denying users to delete content. Deleting the first post in a thread deletes the entire thread because the first post is the thread ID in the database table. There is a specific notice when deleting the first post that this will happen.
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I was surprised when I read the Administrator agreed to allow members to delete their content, as opposed to editing the content. I don't know of any other discussion board that allows this. The amount of damage to a forum when it comes to the continuity of a thread is unrestrained if anyone can delete their content.
I was arguing for this. The former forum allowed it and every major platform allows this these days.
There is some argument to make that it should be enabled only from some seniority of posters /say more than 5 posts and longer than a month account/ but beyond that it is essential to have it enabled. This is not a captive forum on an intranet..
We live in 2020s, it is now
common for all kinds of people to use AI to "research" people online and use that information against these people.
Such innocuous things like someone posting during day /no one knows they were on vacation, work break, etc., just that they historically posted during the day/ can be used to deny employment etc. etc. and all kinds of additional purposes. Metadata is power. Even the information when someone edited a post is power.
For above reason, the ability to self-sanitize posts in a quick and convenient way is essential. When such option is not available,
the user is forced to outright delete the account. Having the moderator involved is simply unfeasible, even if they were willing.
Update: There are two user moderation options in the AdminCP. One is "Delete own post" and the other is "Delete own thread". I suspect the Administrator also enabled "Delete own thread" because the "Delete" option is not visible in the first post of a thread if only the first option is selected.
Yes, this is the mistake I was referring that should be fixed.
Only posts should be removable by users. For threads it is absolutely acceptable to require contacting the moderator, even desirable to avoid mistakes.
