I really respect people who edit comments to acknowledge when they're wrong, but leave the original mistake intact (but usually strike through). Like this:

~~I delete my comments when I'm proven wrong because it's embarassing and I don't want to perpetuate misinformation~~

Actually, I'm leaving my mistake up, because then people can follow the conversation easier and see how I came to realise I was wrong

Ideally it would be set up in Lemmy so that a post could remain but the author can be detached from it, and all comments.

Counterpoint: If you think you said something stupid, you're entitled to delete it. Don't feel obligated to hang your ass out there and take a beating for a cold take.

Its not anonymous. Its pseudonymous.

Even if your pseudonym isn't directly linked to you, even if you are not doxxed, your pseudonym carries its own reputation.

Its up to the pseudonym operator to determine how to manage that.

It's really unfortunate that Lemmy handles deleted posts in this way. It's one of very few genuine advantages of the Reddit platform. Over there, if the OP deleted the post, the text they wrote would no longer be visible, but all the comments under it still would be. And people could continue to have that discussion, so long as they had the link.

We live in a world where everything you do or say on the internet is potentially part of someone else's training data. Lemmy is already a shitshow for that but you can bet that "ooh, piracy board" is fair game for everyone because nobody would be dumb enough to sue about that.

If someone wants to delete a comment for ANY reason, they are more than welcome to.

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.

I like to upvote posts with lots of debate around them even if so don’t agree with the OP because I want the OP to be encouraged. People should be rewarded for bringing thought-provoking content here, even if it’s imaginary points.

This is one thing I don't like about Lemmy. If a thread gets deleted, it's gone. On reddit, it just gets hidden.