All that to say, I would add a brief section something like this:
However, by deleting a diary, the diarist doesn't just delete her/his own content: the comments of the diary will be lost, too. To prevent the deletion of more diaries along with the respective comment threads, any frontpager at hand can intervene to withdraw that diarist's right to delete own diaries. This measure only intends to protect others' comments, no negative repercussions follow to the diary-deleting user.
Please note that you are still free to delete the content of a diary you have written (you cannot delete the diary as an object, but you can delete your content.) To do this, simply open the diary in Edit mode and remove the text you wish to delete. For this to work you have to leave at least one mark of content--a full stop will do, or a picture, but something needs to exist in the diary for the diary to function.
For the record, thus far there have been only two users who had to be stopped deleting own diaries.
Only better written, of course. Does anyone have any issues with this? I deleted my own content in this diary and think that if the contents of the diary were worthy of [insert choice noun here--scorn, ridicule, veneration--maybe the writer wrote the world's best poem then decided to delete it] then this should be clear from the comments.
I'm not sure how quotes from the diary in the comments works--I'm assuming that's fair enough as long as the quotes came before the diary entry was removed (heat of the moment and all that!) I know it may render some comments less intelligible but the internet is a large place and I can't see that one person's (removed) words at ET can take the status of Holy Writ.
Hope that makes sense! Don't fight forces, use them R. Buckminster Fuller.
It all looks okay to me. I think it is important that I have the right to delete the content of a diary I write (not the comments.) There are various reasons why a person might wish to delete what they have written--for me, a person who writes a diary is the owner of the words (yes, I know the words can be copied and pasted but it's the principal I'm after here) so I think they have a right to remove them.
