# Why is it not possible to permanently delete topics or posts?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-it-not-possible-to-permanently-delete-topics-or-posts/166193>\
**Category:** Product Support\
**Created:** [October 4, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-it-not-possible-to-permanently-delete-topics-or-posts/166193 "2020-10-04T14:01:50Z")\
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**Author:** ![blueblue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@blueblue](https://meta.discourse.org/u/blueblue)\
**Post date:** [October 4, 2020, 2:01pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-is-it-not-possible-to-permanently-delete-topics-or-posts/166193/1 "2020-10-04T14:01:51Z")

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I am really liking Discourse, it works really well but one thing I am struggling with is not being able to delete topics and posts permanently, like from the DB/server, not just hiding them. I don’t see why this isn’t already built in? - I want to be able to permanently delete because I don’t see why I should keep around test posts, spam or posts which need to be removed because they break code of conduct or are of low quality/copyrighted.

I am used to using forums which allow you to actually delete stuff completely, is this possible or am I missing something? I think soft deleting is a good idea but having the choice to delete from the DB as well is useful.

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