It's true that in many forums, you can't even "edit" a post, let alone delete the question that forms a new thread. Yet I find it refreshing that Trulia allows the poster to change their mind, and if desired, even delete the question.

Trulia still allows the answers to remain, so you can probably discern what the original posters question was, and still have the benefit of the many answers. Trulia also allows the contributing posters, to remove their own posts, should they decide that they've been a bit "hasty" or "rude" in one of their responses.

"James", I created the thread right after the post was deleted, so I'm not spending the rest of my life discussing it. I don't see any point in commenting on the rest of your post, which is all WRONG, because it appears you just created this persona to answer my post. You see, it isn't unusual to check someone's other posts before you reply. I seriously doubt you are really a real estate professional, in fact you appear to be a drive by troll.

Geez JR. How long are you going to wonder about the deleted post. She deleted because she could.

I am new to Trulia and was lurking that day and was interested in that thread also. BUT very few that responded to what the question was. The poster was asking about ethics. And they WERE ganging up on the poster. I was very intrigued how only one or two agents responded to the poster's question about ethics. The rest put a deny and accuse spin on it. Or others insulted her. I was really turned off by the lack of professionalism. One agent, Capone, even went and read other questions she had asked in the past and started making sarcastic remarks about her past posts. And you say it now seems they were ganging up on her now that her posts are gone? UH, no--it seemed like that before, during, and after.

ALSO JR, shame on you for also stating the poster did something unethical. She just said she had a friend to acces the MLS. She never said she had a code to access herself.

Just as the poster didn't REALLY know for sure if someone had done something unethical to her--- YOU dont REALLY know if she did anything unethical and why would you assume so?

So to answer your question, I am glad she could delete her post to stop the unprofessional responses.

If you are on Activerain, you will be able to edit your own blog whenever (meaning i can change it after two months and after many replies). As a poster of the blog, I can also delete other people's comment. Probably most people don't do that, but I thought that's quite interesting.

I agree with you all, especially Capone, posters should be able to do whatever they want with their post, but that isn't how most bulletin board forums work. Many of them you can't even edit your post. As it is on the thread I am referencing, because the OPs question is removed and her subsequent replies to the agents is removed, it just looks like a bunch of agents are beating up on the OP. What actually happened was the OP did some unethical and maybe illegal things (going on the MLS with someone else's password for example) and the agents called her on it. When it was apparent she did not receive the answers she wanted, she went away, along with her question and all her replies.

Hi J.R.:

I think the person who asks the question has the right to take away the questions. There are a few situation where it might happen -
.
- A question might draw answers which are not what the original question's intent
- A question might draw 'rude' answers. Unfortunately, we have seen that happen
- A question might draw question to the questioner. As this is a very transparent forum, sometimes it's best that the question does not exist
- A question might draw too many answers and take on a life of its own - remember the question with 120+ answers?
- maybe the person just does not want to read any more answers
- sometimes the answers are way out on the left field

I can see why you might get frustrated, especially if you see some great answers or if you put in a lot of effort to give great answers and it disappears, but I do understand why they sometimes disappear.

When you are on a public forum, what you submit becomes public property, at least it seems so to me at times.

Sylvia

It might still be archived somewhere in the WWW.
Odds are that another consumer will ask almost the identical question and receive almost the same answers all over again.

Good idea to save your own good answers in your own word program. I should take my own advice on that more often.

I think it is the posters right to do whatever they want with their post.