Recently there was a post where the OP pitched an idea for a service related to this community. I don’t want to go into details but the post’s text has shown that maybe there’s some misunderstanding around the technology, and a considerable amount of us also thought that it’s not a good idea.
The post was removed (noticed because I couldn’t reply to someone) probably because the OP felt shame for their “failed” idea, but I think we shouldn’t delete posts for reasons like this.
The post created an interesting discussion around the idea with useful info. It’s useful to have things like these for future reference, for similar discussions in the future.
This is an anonymous forum, so there’s no shame in recommending things, when you do that politely like it was done in that case.
Good discussions can arise from bad takes, and the idea of “failure” can often be an impediment — especially in a forum where users’ yay or nay to a post literally decide its currency and ranking.
Assuming that the poster in this case deleted their post out of “shame” for a “failed idea”, however, is a bit of an overreach without access to their thoughts and motivations. And trying to pass principles about what “we” should or shouldn’t do on that basis is equally flimsy.
I do agree that deleting a post with several replies can be damaging to a discussion — emphasis on the potential, not the actual value of any given Lemmy conversation — but becoming the target for criticism or even ridicule for an ill-considered post isn’t exactly pleasant either. And after a few decades online, I’m not faulting anybody for deleting one post or another, even though I probably don’t understand the reasoning for doing so.
In the end, everybody is on here for different reasons, and all of them are valid. It would be nice to make a noble agreement about what “should” and “shouldn’t” be done when you get massively downvoted, but if people want to curate their pseudonymous online presence to appear less daft than their worst — let 'em.