Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24968221-20181228175839/@comment-34888194-20181230131136

Theh5 wrote: Available information seems contradicting whether or not we're allowed to delete these messages; auto-sent greeting messages to a user's talk/wall page.

Some wikis have local rules regarding these messages, for example: Wookipedia (main Star Wars wiki) allows the deletion of greeting messages, as oppose to some other wikis--some doesn't necessarily mention the welcome message but does not allow removal of any content from a talk page which occasionally happens to include the welcome message--that doesn't allow it.

Assuming there is no global-wide FANDOM-established rule, then you can't post any relevant discussion to end this so read on...

Available information that exists regarding the removal of these messages are:
 * Supporting: The Help:Talk_pages seemingly suggests that it's allowed to delete content from your own talk page--at least when the messages are old--as an alternative to archival, some agreeing factors may be the legal right to be forgotten but it doesn't seem to apply here. Do note that this paragraph was written by the people, for the people.
 * Against: The fact that the authority of a wiki can block a user and prevent edit access to that user's talk page seemingly suggests that you are never in control of your own talk page. Which suggests that an admin' on a whim, or a wiki's local policies, can dictate how you must use your talk page. Similar to rules like ¨be kind, don't curse,¨ so on.
 * Supporting: A technicality suggests that you do have the allowance to remove welcome messages from your own talk page. To detail that: Users are allowed to archive own talk pages to remove old content from view, but other users--probably--aren't allowed to archive other users' talk pages with a lack of consent. B'cause if any user were allowed to do so--and b'cause, as the second point discusses, we lack control of our own talk pages--that technically suggests that, for example, any user can archive any other users' talk pages and they wouldn't be allowed to revert that. If they did, hypothetically speaking, an admin' who likes the archival could merely block that user to prevent the user from reverting the archival. B'cause it is ultimately under admin' jurisdiction, not your own. Which would be anarchy. And it is for that reason we do have the allowance to remove welcome messages, b'cause if we don't; and any attempts to do so would be reverted by an admin', I can merely start archiving talk pages as I deem appropriate and any user who reverts my archival of their talk pages would merely be blocked by an admin' who likes archives. This is merely a technicality and would likely play out differently, the sentiment is the description of chaos if a talk page--as suggested by point 2--is truly not under users' own control, assuming their control complies with common sense.
 * Supporting: Accidents happen, code issues, so on. I've received more than one welcome message occasionally, just a waste of space. What, we're not allowed to delete those either? Great idea: make a wiki that sends 3000 greeting messages every three days. (Mandatory sarcasm disclaimer should be inserted here).
 * Neutral: As discussed further here; here: senior level FANDOM users have the authority to preemptively remove automated greeting messages. That feature appears to be currently only available to high-ranking staff. The reason why is not known--to me, at least--and I don't comprehend why. Is it intentional or overlooked? Let's end that here, lest we start comparing that to how it's an upper-class citizen's world with no advantages to the lower-class.

I've been removing any welcome message I receive for two reasons: 1. I'm not here for the acceptance (which on some wikis are several thousand characters long and force an image on my talk page, which can be terribly annoying) but to edit, a message with a simple index redirecting to rules may be acceptable but I prefer the navigation bar.. 2. It's annoying spam that consumes space on my ¨talk¨ page--not greet page--and I'm not a person who needs to be welcomed a wiki in order to continue edit.

But if there's a conflict; a user disputing and preventing my removal of these messages, which user is correct: The user preventing the removal or the user attempting removal? What if that wiki has local rules regarding removal of content from talk pages, does--what-ever you'll say--have precedence to a wiki's local/admin's subjective judgement?

Yes, it's possible to disable a welcome message sent by an admin, but not a welcome message that was sent by a staff.