Removing messages.

Question

I posted a message on a profile.And someone took it off. Isn't policy they can not remove it unless its spam of harrassing? Thats the red message I got when I tried to remove a  message.

Answer 1

I also agree with Chase. I'm not sure why removing messages is so strongly discouraged. Obviously spam and harassing messages should be deleted. But some messages just simply lose their relevance, or never had any value in the first place, and serve no function other than to clutter up your profile page.  Why discourage those messages from being deleted?

Answer 2

Messages on profiles should not be removed unless they are spam, abusive, or in some other way inappropriate for WikiTree. You should contact the person who removed it directly and asked why it was removed.

Answer 3

This issue has been discussed many times on G2G, see, eg, Deleting Comments on Profiles - 2-Part-Question and Comments: Am I now a bad person? and When is it appropriate to delete comments?

If a message is relevant, no it shouldn't be removed. However, lots of messages become irrelevant and meaningless or, worse, confusing, when a profile has changed subsequent to the message being posted, and most seem to agree that it is appropriate to remove those, despite the red warning message. For example, there is no reason to keep a message that requested a merger that has subsequently occurred.

Comments

I agree with Chase. After a posted message in regards to a proposed change to the profile has been addressed, the message essentially functions as spam if it remains on the profile. Every time someone sees it, they will wonder if the change occurred or not. If by chance, the posted message contains valuable information that somehow doesn't end up in the biography or sources, it should probably be in research notes.

Of course, I have no idea, Teresa, what your message was about and how or if it was responded to appropriately. To me, the question would be, is this a refusal to collaborate, is it post-collaborative clean-up, or something else?

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I agree and I remove them when they are no longer relevant - eg, the addition/info/change has been made. In recent days I removed 15 messages off profiles, each one came to my email separately (I felt a tad spamed to be honest :/), and all were requesting the adding of a particular cemetery category. When I had the time I did the work but I removed the messages as I went. I don't think it's rude to do that at all. I just hope I never get that many messages again in one day  ! 

Answer 4

I agree with Chase.  I have never interpreted that as a hard policy statement, and have been known to delete comments from my own profile.  Often they are of no public interest or value whatsoever, never have been, and would have been better handled as private e-mail.