Mass deletion of entries

[ker_plop]

Title
Mass deletion of entries

Short, concise description of the idea
Create a feature to erase multiple journal entries at once.

Full description of the idea
Create a feature to erase multiple journal entries at once.
An ordered list of benefits

• Easier to remove lots of entries at the same time, without having to go through each one and hit "delete."

Comments

[azurelunatic]

This topic was previously brought up in February of 2007. That suggestion was rejected. The original discussion can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/suggestions/688006.html

Some points from that discussion:
Suggested implementation included a list of entries with checkboxes.
Primary drawback: Like the similar suggestion to delete everything in one go, this could be a serious vulnerability in a case of account compromise.

[desh]

I still feel this is a bad idea, mainly because of the increased risk if your account is ever compromised.

Why does it need to be "easier to remove lots of entries at the same time", anyway? Is there a reason for this that isn't accomplished by mass security-editing?

[lady_angelina]

Why does it need to be "easier to remove lots of entries at the same time", anyway? Is there a reason for this that isn't accomplished by mass security-editing?

A friend of mine wanted to clean out hundreds of old entries from her journal and found the process of deleting them individually (even after mass changing the security to private) to be very painstaking. She asked me if there was an easier way to do it, and I suggested downloadable clients, but that still didn't prove convenient enough for her.

This is just an answer to your question and is not necessarily an endorsement of the suggestion.

[charliemc]

Well stated -- ditto.

[aveleh]

I don't want to put that to a manual check for a number of reasons, from "not sure if that's even feasable" to "time could be better spent elsewhere".

But, given that a manual check would be time consuming anyway, I think having a mass "privatize and then later delete" would make it easier to make it user-initiated and confirmed. That is, it would make them all private, and then x days later (I like the idea of 30, to match with the purging cycles, but 7 to match with the secret password would also work), would send an email with a link to confirm that all those now-private entries can be deleted. Or something like that.

[azurelunatic]

I like this idea, particularly with the don't-delete-until-the-user-clicks-the-thing-to-confirm, rather than a time bomb of sorts, where you set it up and it goes unless stopped.

[turlough]

I like this suggestion.

[danceinacircle]

If only because of the issues with account compromise, I am vehemently against this.

The only way I would even maybe possibly support this (and I am absolutely not saying that the following is a good idea) is with a check built in so that someone would look at and approve a deletion request before it happened. Say a mass-deletion is selected, and that causes an Abuse notification to be generated. An Abuse team member or staff member reviews the request, does a cursory check for acct comp, and approves it or takes another action if it seems to be a comp case.

[aveleh]

I think this should definitely be automated, because any sort of human involvement means that there's someone specific to blame if the user changes their mind later, someone else uses their computer to request it, etc, etc.

Plus, even if this only generated a few requests, that's still work that could be better placed elsewhere.

I recommended above something with a delayed email confirmation link, which would increase the chance that the user could cancel it if their account was compromised, and also mean that if they changed their mind, there's no one to blame but the system.

[camomiletea]

Too much potential for abuse. If someone break into an account, they can delete all the entries immediately. And there is no way to get them back. Deletion is permanent.

Instead you can make the entries private... There is a way to do that for multiple entries at once with a paid account.

[charliemc]

Agreed.