I know that there is the option to withdraw one’s own post; why can’t that extend to topics (esp. those with no replies)?
AI-generated summary
The discussion revolves around the idea of allowing users to delete their own topics, particularly those with no replies. Daniel_M suggests implementing this feature, proposing a time limit (e.g., 5-10 minutes) and no replies from non-creators. However, sam and codinghorror are concerned about potential griefing vectors and abuse. Daniel_M counters that moderators could still see withdrawn topics and ban users if necessary, and that spammers wouldn’t gain from deleting their posts. sam ultimately concludes that the effort-to-usefulness ratio is too low, as users rarely need to delete their own topics, and flagging moderators is a sufficient solution.
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You can flag it, the reasoning is that creating / deleting topics is really loud, it seems way to rare to expose this abuse vector.
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What if it was only for topics
- <5 or 10 minutes old
And - No replies from non-creator
why? this is such an edge case, thousands of instances and nobody asked for this
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I guess that makes sense
Maybe I can add it to my bot (created so people can wikify their own post).
Hurray for exposed api functions 
Even limiting topic self delete to 5 minute window with no replies, it would still be a great griefing vector. Leave a new topic titled
YOU ARE ALL IDI0TS!!
up for 3 minutes.. then delete. No trace of it at all.
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Wouldn’t mods still be able to see the withdrawn topics and ban the user?
What is the rate limiting on creating topics?
Also I don’t think that a spammer would gain anything from deleting their posts. I doubt that 2Pac would have deleted the questions in the above example.
The biggest case I see against it is the effort/usefulness ratio, which I guess is pretty low.
The reality is that this simply does not happen, users very rarely need to delete topics they create and in those rare occasions they can flag moderators.
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