Note that's usually not the same person as the blog author / administrator. Should a person who comments on your blog be able to delete - or edit - their comments without your involvement? Does it matter how old the comment is? Who 'owns' a comment?

I found this in Wordpress's discussion forums. Some of their members are suggesting that bloggers have an ethical responsibility to commenters to provide delete capabilities. Others are crying revisionism. What do you think?

I have noticed many big sites have this in their Terms...

"All comments become the property of this website, and may be reprinted,
published, and/or edited at the owner's discretion"

I fully agree 100%. If a person doesn't like the terms, they shouldn't post.
I do believe that you should at least have these terms known beforehand
as a marginal effort to keep some of the trolls at bay.

I seen a few places where comments are only deletable (and editable) for a certain amount of time after posting the comment. I like this because right after you post something is the time when you are most likely to realize a mistake.

As for it being ethical one way or another... nah. It's just a convenience.

I think once something is said it should remain said.

Perhaps give them a few minutes after the post is made incase they want to correct any typos or grammatical errors.

Originally Posted by Moxxnixx

I fully agree 100%. If a person doesn't like the terms, they shouldn't post. I do believe that you should at least have these terms known beforehand as a marginal effort to keep some of the trolls at bay.

I really need to add a comment terms and conditions for my blog. Something that says comments are moderated, please don't spam, and such.

Still, it looks like user deletable comments might be part of a future wordpress.

IMO, if you don't want to be spammed by such lame comments, better have it moderated to prevent it. but of course, as you all know, it takes some effort and time to moderate each and every comments that you will be receiving. what if you are receiving comments, like 15-30 comments per day? ... ... ...

If they have visitors/users that agree with their terms and conditions than they are happy and they don't permit them to delete the comments.
It's like in any market.

If for example you administrate a forum, and your rules are very harsh you won't have users, if you don't have rules you will have many users, but no users that provide quality information. So you will have to create a system,
some rules, that best satisfy your needs (many users, quality content).

Should or should not comments be deletable by their authors? is a relative thing.
Personally I like that I can edit my posts!

I'm with st0x. Once it's posted on a public site, it should remain for public consumption. If you screw up and say something you shouldn't (as I have on more than one occasion), take responsibility for it.

I agree that it's a nice convenience, but certainly not a necessity.

I don't think it's a necessity either. I clicked the link to that thread, and people are smoking crack.

Options, you're definitely not the only one thinking it's important. I think this is a matter of ethics, meaning it's vital. I've only one comment I would want to take back, or edit at least, but I think a human being must be ganted his/her right to OWN his/her own thoughts, words, ideas and creations always and with no exceptions ever.

Options is the dude who asked the question over there.

I think they should be able to delete their comments and then afterwards erase the memories of all who had read those comments.

No, I agree with stOx too, and also Adam about taking responsibility. The comments were, after all, the commentor's own words. If they feel badly about it, they can make a further post (if not banned) explaining themselves.

If y'all can't tell, I'm bored at work.

Someone said what Gringo just said. In the real world if you get all hot headed and send a letter you regret, you can't have the post office take it back. All you can do is write another letter, apologize, and explain yourself. Somebody replied and said no, blog comments are public, but what if instead of a letter it was a post card?

Does it even make sense to look at web sites in terms of this old world paper stuff?

And how do you erase people's memory like Gringo suggested?

I think it depends on the situation.

I've been part of too many forums where people spout off at the mouth and then will go back and erase all of the damaging comments. I think on blogger the comment poster has the option of deleting a message for a few moments after it has been posted. I've noticed a few time that people will take that opportunity to correct things like typos or long urls. Since I get the comments in my e-mail I get to see them even after they're deleted.

Recently I had a situation where someone signed in and commented with the wrong blogger account. I followed the profile and learned a whole lot more about the person than I ever wanted to. When the person finally found out they'd used a personal profile it was too late for them to delete the post. So I went ahead and did it on their behalf 'cause I know I've been there once or twice.

I figure it is just good karma.