[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #5093: Proposal to allow users to remove URLs that they have added to their posts in the support forums

[Making WordPress.org]

#5093: Proposal to allow users to remove URLs that they have added to their posts
in the support forums
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 Reporter:  carike          |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect          |      Status:  new
 Priority:  high            |   Milestone:
Component:  Support Forums  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-patch       |
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Comment (by robscott):

 I think this proposal is a good idea.

 At the same time, we should look at this:

 https://wordpress.org/support/forum-user-guide/faq/#my-post-shows-up-on-a
 -search-for-my-domain-will-you-delete-my-post-or-my-link

 Let's consider the two issues here as @Otto42 asked for the use-case (the
 why):

 1) The use case - someone has posted a link to their (or their client's)
 website; that link, when you search for the domain on Google now shows up,
 pointing to this issue in WP forum, about some problem they have. This is
 embarrassing.

 2) The wording in the above post is not neutral. It describes Google
 spidering and indexing content as "scraped". It also concludes with "Keep
 in mind, even if your post is deleted, Google already scraped it and we
 can’t fix that. Don’t post anything you’re not willing to have in public
 forever."

 Someone came here with a problem - seeking support - and perhaps this was
 their first time in the community. Perhaps they didn't know this support
 forum would rank in Google searches. This came up, and it was embarrassing
 for them for their problem to show up in Google. When they felt
 embarrassed, that person sought help, and was directed to the above
 message.

 This is a very hostile experience. It's not a good introduction to our
 community at all.

 In many cases, the URL is not really particularly relevant to the support
 ticket.

 Keeping the support thread is the best solution - **with the URL
 redacted**, and therefore the ticket doesn't show up **in Google** under
 searches for this domain, next time Google indexes the ticket, which, by
 the way, can be very fast (contrary to the message in the ticket -
 sitemap.xml ftw).

 Everyone wins - and less for moderators to do, because user can fix their
 own problem.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/5093#comment:32>
Making WordPress.org <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/>
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