Cleaning up old and outdated real estate posts, and a couple suggestions.

Newbie here, please forgive if you have already discussed/addressed. Also, there is a lot of really good info being shared here... Great job on that!!!

I have come across several outdated “selling real estate” type posts like the following:

https://permies.com/t/69367/Selling-acre-permaculture-farm-minutes#1115520

(This place sold back in 2017)


Being an I.T. person, if I was running your servers, I would love to clean that post off to free up space on both the server(s) and backup(s). While I am having a great time reading some older posts in other areas (full of great info, wisdom, and knowledge), an outdated real estate ad isn’t one I would keep, and there are many that are outdated and no longer needed (that post has several pictures I suspect are chewing up space).

A way for us to flag them with a place to write the reason might let us help you do some metaphorical spring cleaning.

I would also love to be able to search/filter for land/real estate, at least by state or country or something (not that there are a lot of them... So no big rush...  It seems like some Permies folks will offer to sell land to other permies people first. That is very cool and adds some perceived value to your site for both sellers and buyers. Good job on that too!!!

Have a great day!!! Thanks!

Hi Paul,

There should be a little (...) icon where you can hit a button called (!Report) whereupon you may write a message to alert the staff if you think it warrants moderator attention (for deletion in this case).  The forum tries to encourage "perennial discussion," so it is possible that some things which are old may still have some value, but yes, for expired real estate listings, I totally agree with you.  Why get everyone's hopes up?

Maybe rather than delete, it would be good to somehow mark them to show that they have sold.

That is what happened to mine it now says "Sold" in the title, I did report it myself though, cannot expect the mods to know when a property sells!

Maybe a "flag" icon that says "SOLD"
Most of the real estate threads just have "photos" or "apples" icons showing, so it would probably be easy to notice while scanning the list of threads.

The tricky thing would be how to follow through on tagging listings as "SOLD". Maybe an automatic expiration, that triggers a GIR Bot reminder(s) to the OP to update the thread? either sold, or still for sale, which would bump it back to the top, otherwise flag the thread as "OLD" if no reply.

To me, I feel if the OP could update their thread to show "Sold" as the first word in the title or use the report button to ask that the thread be updated to show "Sold" would be the best solution.

paul wheaton wrote:Maybe rather than delete, it would be good to somehow mark them to show that they have sold.

Hi, I made a post before I realized that posts could not be edited or deleted in any way by the author (me) apparently??
That took me by surprise. I would feel safer here having a little more control over what I am sharing. There are many reasons why a person may need this feature. Especially when posting opportunities or real estate. Some folks post their email addresses but may later want them removed for security purposes. It really should be an option to be able to delete your own posts...without relying on a staff person.

I hope I am asking this in the right place but I had trouble finding a definitive guide for such questions after spending hours hunting around in forums. To ask the question all I have gathered so far is that I need to post in this forum (and pollute the site more by generating yet another post that can't be deleted?)

In other words, how does a user delete a post that contains personal info they may no longer want to share? Thank you.

I would feel safer here having a little more control over what I am sharing. There are many reasons why a person may need this feature. Especially when posting opportunities or real estate. Some folks post their email addresses but may later want them removed for security purposes. It really should be an option to be able to delete your own posts...without relying on a staff person.

If anyone is not feeling safe about information they've chosen to post, a neat technique is to simply change one's name in the profile settings.  As long as it is a "real sounding" name, the staff is likely happy.  It's really simple to do, just check out the "My Profile" section at the top on the browser.  

It's a common question about "why can't I take back and delete what I've said", and I've learned over the past months of perusing around that there are many reasons that this site has a general non-deleting and low-editing policy.
1) I've come to realize that it makes the site more authentic: just like in the physical world, there are no takebacks once we speak, as the vibrations are out there forever, bouncing around the universe and affecting peoples lives and impressions.  Authenticity is great.
2) There's also a saying that "the Internet is forever" in that everything we do can come back to get us, for better or worse; so the no/low deleting policy encourages us to be polite and kind to one another, and accountable for our words.  Kindness is great.
3) It also helps preserve knowledge gained.  If someone starts a cool permaculture project, and then it fails miserably, and they become embarrassed and delete the post, then how will the rest of the world learn from the mistakes?  Learning is great.
4) It respects the hard work and community effort of others.  Imagine a person posting a very personal or unique question, and then a dozen people show up with a bunch of thoughtful answers, and then once they person gets their solution...*poof* everyone's effort is gone because the OP hit delete.  Respecting other's time/effort is great.
5) It'd be a lot of work deleting things.  And the staff are all volunteers.  Respecting volunteers' efforts is great.

So you aren't "polluting" the site really.  You're just learning the "permanent"-"culture" along with the rest of us!  

A year from now someone may have the same question, and then they'll stumble upon this conversation, and be like "oh...that's why they don't delete real-estate posts...hmm.

It has also helped me to remember that I'm only a guest on this site.  Like I'm in Paul Wheaton's (digital) living room. Since I'm not paying or being paid to come here, I'm not in the business of providing online system or policy recommendations, so I gotta' choose to wear my "guest" hat, rather than my "marketing" or "design consulting" hat.  Even though I hate that Paul, say... drops the f-bomb because...now my wife won't let me listen to his podcasts in the house anymore :(..

However, one can edit posts. Use a desktop/laptop and click on "..."  at the right of your post.

I tend to edit my posts a bunch.  I don't know if that bothers the staff much. I know it makes just a little more work for them.

Usually I edit things because I misspelled something (like I just did a minute ago!), or I got the unique formatting wrong for a link or image, or occasionally there is critical information missing and I want future readers to catch it early on in a thread, rather than way later.

George Yacus wrote:However, one can edit posts. Use a desktop/laptop and click on "..."  at the right of your post.

I tend to edit my posts a bunch.  I don't know if that bothers the staff much. I know it makes just a little more work for them.

Usually I edit things because I misspelled something (like I just did a minute ago!), or I got the unique formatting wrong for a link or image, or occasionally there is critical information missing and I want future readers to catch it early on in a thread, rather than way later.

Ah, but you can't edit them once someone has replied.
And yes you should be able to edit ALWAYS, like you said, maybe you just want to correct an error. How is it helpful to anyone to leave spelling errors up or bad links?
Terrible... I guess I will not be posting here again. Real Estate posts do not need to be permanent and people should be able to have control over what they share. Why is the site afraid of losing content? Has it been considered that this policy actually keeps people from posting, having the opposite effect the admin intended? Maybe this is something men don't relate to as much as women? Must be nice not to have to worry about stalking..  

Ah, but you can't edit them once someone has replied.
And yes you should be able to edit ALWAYS, like you said, maybe you just want to correct an error. How is it helpful to anyone to leave spelling errors up or bad links?

Well I'll be.  I always thought people could go back and edit!  Well, that's a bummer.  You taught me something new about permies.com at least!

I understand that if someone makes a mistake and intentionally posts information like their SSN/bank account/credit card detail, etc., that the lack of being able to edit could destroy them.  I hope individuals don't post stuff like that, but I'm sure the staff would work with them to help remove it, even if they are just volunteers.  Better to just not post any such PII on any forum in the first place, I think.  

Personally, I'll keep using permies.com, though.  Apparently after +130 posts I have just never needed the (currently unavailable) go back and edit feature.  So it hasn't been important to me.  

I've only used or needed these features, instead:

1) The 'Report' feature:  If anyone says something inappropriate or hurtful or against the be nice policy, that person can try "reporting" the post, and then the inappropriate comment can likely be deleted.  But if someone is, God-forbid, stalking someone else, I think the victim needs to call the local police ASAP, as I'm pretty sure stalking is illegal in most places.
2) The 'Preview' feature: Bad links are just that.  Bad.  Spelling errors are just that.  Errors.  Fortunately, it is possible to proofread several times to catch one's own mistakes.  I use a desktop or laptop browser on permies.com instead of a mobile device.  Then when replying in the white pane at the bottom of the screen, any spelling typos will often have a fun red squiggly line under them.  So there is no need to break out a word processor.  Then, prior to hitting 'Submit', I hit 'Preview' and then it's easier to see how the post will look.  At that point I like to test any URL links I've posted, and look for stray marks.  That catches most of my errors.  But hey, something will always be wrong on the internet, right?
3) The 'Wiki' feature: If I know that I'm going to post something that will change a bunch, I just use the "wiki" feature, like this wiki over here.  On a desktop/laptop, after starting a new thread, the option is at the bottom of the screen next to 'Attachments'.
4) The 'name change' feature:  As previously mentioned. Online, nobody really knows who you are.  They don't know if you are a man or a woman, what country you live in, how many German Shepherds or shotguns you own, etc..., only what you provide.  I use a nice strong name personally.  Maybe change your name to "Chuck".  Nobody wants to mess with a guy named "Chuck", too much round-house kick potential.  Maybe "Sampson" for the last name.  Chuck Sampson.  That's a forum name!
5) The 'Internet is forever' feature: Because of sites like "archive.org" and big governments, screenshots, web crawlers, data-harvesting corporations, etc. it's not beyond reason that everything posted online may be stored permanently, even if it is later "edited" or "deleted".  It's there somewhere.   Assume this feature is in use, everywhere.  Even if you don't hit "enter" or submit.  Assume people can read what you are typing and thinking in real time...because...yes.
6) The free market:  There are tons of other real estate and social networking options which may best for doing real estate things or safely sharing PII.  But there is only one permies.com.

Survivalrealty.com
blackriflerealestate.com/
Landandfarm.com
Landwatch.com
Homesandland.com
Realtor.com
Trulia
Zillow...

7) The 'Purple Mooseage' feature: Private-ish messaging.
8) The big fat check in the mail to Paul Wheaton to tell him how to change his creation, feature: I'm joking here. I obviously made this feature up.  But I paid exactly €0 for the opportunity to use this site.  Zero euros.  Can't beat the price!  The site only takes information or value (or misinformation or negative value) if I put it out there freely.  Maybe the cost of this 'editing' and 'deleting' feature is worth $100 to you, and €5 to me?  Would you or I write him a check for $100 or €5 to change his site?  That's possible.  But what if, for reasons unknown to us, it is worth $1,000,000 in benefits to Paul?  Should he change his site for our sake at low or no cost, at his loss of happiness?  Creators need freedom to create curiosities.

Something will always be wrong on the Internet.