that spotting Jimmy Page entering a restaurant, going home, going back to check it is him, going home again and getting something (12 year old magazine) for him to sign, going back and hanging around in the shadows for an hour or so, then pouncing (politely !) on him as he exits did, in fact, come across as a bit stalky/obsessive...

didn't you?

And not the original poster. Whoops.

is that along with deleting your own initial post, you also take with it the considered contributions of your peers which may have embellished, directed or spun the conversation in any number of ways in the mean time (as well as, admittedly, any number of incidents of random abuse and ill-conceived snarkism). It's the equivalent of picking up your ball and taking it home with you before the rest of us have been called in for our tea. I, for one, discussed the matter offline with Mrs. Kirk only this morning and was most discomfited to see an up-arrowed comment to which I had referred disappear. Thankfully it's obviously a well-rehearsed standby of Burt's and has reappeared here this lunchtime.

as the OP in effect gets to decide if they want to delete everyones contributions to the discussion - and any tangents it may have gone off at.

Maybe a 15 minute "cooling off period" for OP deletion would be better, before too many people spend their time chipping in with their intelligent, witty and insightful comments.

This is a blog, not a forum, and OPs are to all intents and purposes the same as a blog on Wordpress or similar. It's the right of any of us to remove our OPs, and if it annoys people we just have to deal with that. Full disclosure: I've done it, twice, where I felt uncomfortable having ill-considered crap of mine in the public domain. I'm sorry for people who put effort into responding, but I felt it was my prerogative as the OP and I didn't do it lightly.

Can we get off Jim's case a bit, maybe? To borrow from Cheese, the shit is unseemly.

I've had cause to delete one of my own threads in the past; I realised it had been a mistake to post it in the first place.

I'd have been mortified to find a brand new thread discussing my old one.

Mine was a genuine question

I could see why he felt awkward. His actions were being interpreted harshly.

Besides, if I remove posts, I will always e-mail those involved to explain why.

and bill it as the comeback tour?

what's his URL and I'll go and check.

Seriously though - that's the problem with the internet isn't it? Things appear, things vanish again, you argue with someone over some comment or other, they go back and edit it to make you look like a simpleton. Nothing is written in stone anymore.

he bought the company?

(d'oh! reply to policybloke)

I reserve the right to pull mine as and when I choose to.

They could essentially replace their blog post with the words "ill-considered post removed" (or something) and leave the conversation in place, which is probably the best thing to do if it otherwise involves getting rid of other peoples discussions. Never mind though, just perhaps worth keeping in mind if we feel the need in future. I just want to see the original post now!

now that you mention it is blindingly obvious. Somehow I'd managed to forget the "I've deleted any track with JP on and will never listen to him again in my life because he wouldn't sign my tatty rag" bit.

to the thread, although the answer was only ever going to be a) that the OP deleted it or b) that Fraser deleted it. we established further up the page that actually it was a). But now this thread's gone from wondering what happened to the thread, to recreating the original thread.

Can't a rock star have a restaurant meal in peace?

You know there is only one thing for you to do now don't you?

Your comment stands as the last in the thread, and a fittingly dignified end to a very sorry episode in the history of internet blogging.

closed.