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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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Can be editing/deleting your messages (after reasonable period of few hours at most) just disallowed? I do not see any legitimate need for this feature, this board is supposed to be for conversations and debates of lasting value, not chan style fleeting shitpost zone.

Every now and then I edit an old comment to remove identifying info.

There's some non-malicious version of editing and deleting.

Not allowing it at all sounds like an obviously bad idea to me. I'd be happy for it just to be taken as evidence of bad faith, if someone does it too much.

Sometimes I violate OpSec and regret it. Would I need to petition a mod to redact my post, then?

Depending on your threat model, it's pointless anyway. Anything that stays up on the Motte for more than an hour is being stored somewhere, and if you've left a couple hundred comments, stylometry can identify you. Editing comments after the fact is only useful if your threat model is a weirdo who browses here regularly deciding to track you down for whatever reason.

I'm not worried about some superhacker or intelligence agency or malicious AI out for my blood, bank data or blackmail material.

My threat model is the REDACTED, who has access to my machine, to take something I write badly and go up in a huff, and colleagues/employer somehow stumbling across any of it and forming a negative opinion of me.

Also, having mentioned my REDACTED, I'll probably need to redact this post within the day.

‘Weirdos who track you down’ is 95% of doxxing. Sure, if the government wants to track you down they can, and they’ll probably be able to fingerprint anyone via writing analysis soon if they aren’t already, I think most people here accept that, but that really isn’t the risk with doxxing, it’s that some random who decides they hate you or your opinions personally decides to ruin your life.

What if I want to wipe the record clean, erase any potential wrong think, and delete my account?