Well my recent experience with deletion was annoying.
I wanted to delete two of my maps, I could not find a delete button so I made an empty map named "DELETE THIS" and spammed the description with "xxxxxxxxx"
A mod deleted it without me making a thread that way.
Is that less of a hassle than just posting a Staff Contact thread asking us to remove them?
That is totally understandable, but as I said the author should be in full control of his or her work, not just technically. I would be ashamed to see if a rouge mod or user uploads stuff that previously been deleted, even if it is for a very dumb reason. I know this is supposed to be a community and deleting is not good in the first place, but it should be noted that this is not a service the resource creators are giving to the community, it is their free time and passion they are spending, even if they just want to showcase soemthing they have made. I for myself can totally understand if someone wants to make down their stuff for good and I can understand if they want to reinstate them if they have calmed down.
They/you are in full control. We never refuse resource removals if the user legitimately wants it gone. Just think that instead of a delete button, you create a thread in Staff Contact and ask us to do it. We will probably ask you why you want it gone, and ask you to seriously consider it beforehand. But if you still insist, we'll remove it.
This is a very simple mean to sway off people who just want them taken done because of a negative comment or in the heat of the moment. And in the cases where the authors seriously want them taken down, they will be taken down. It's a win/win situation.
Also, having a delete button for your own resources doesn't stop people re-uploading stuff that's been taken down. All you can do in these cases is report the resources, and let moderators deal with it. This procedure would be the same, irregardless of which system we have for deleting resources.
But if you are concerned or can't simply be bothered with the fact that users are unpredictable and can make stupid decisions just make the sytem idiot-proof and hassle-free. That way you will save both time and effort in the long run. This IS a community after all and the majority should lie in the hands of the active users, IMO.
The system we're using, in my opinion, is exactly that.
Reasoning for deleting stuff you made doesn't need to be even legitimate. You can do it just because. Your work - your decision. Website where you uploaded your work is a host and should only request for legit explanations from author when he asks for content he removed to be un-deleted and put back on.
If we ask you for a reason, it's to make you reconsider if you truly want them down. Not that you need to justify it to us.
In my opinion, once you delete it, it is deleted. No re upload or bringing it back to submissions section.
We would probably not even have half of our current database if we went by this philosophy.
People want their resources down because they got one negative review, or because one user didn't give it a top score rating, or because the sky is gray, or because it's Monday and Mondays suck donkey balls.
And preventing people to upload their stuff because they took it down is not just punishment for the user, it's punishment to every user who wants to download and use the resources, and punishment to the site in general.