Does the forum software allow a user who decides to delete his or her thread to change the subject line to “Deleted” so folks could just ignore it when scanning the forum contents? Would that be a worthwhile suggestion for those who decide to delete a thread?
I know there are clues that a thread has been deleted: the locked symbol and only one avatar in the list, but since there might just be something worthwhile in the thread, some of us click it. Having the user change the subject line before deleting the thread would save the rest of us a little time.
Good points, Derrek. I deleted a thread I’d just started, because I thought I’d answered my own question, and only then noticed that the title was still there in the list (I thought the whole thing would have disappeared). In the event, I realised I hadn’t found the solution, so I undeleted the thread and it’s back now - it’s now called ‘Hairpin affected by grace note’.
Having thought further about the etiquette of deletion, I now realise it would have been better not to have deleted at all, but rather to precede the text with ‘solved’ or some phrase to signal that I not longer needed a reply. After all, somebody might have come up against the same issue, however arcane, and it might have been helpful to them.