I uploaded a small section of a paper I wrote to ask.libreoffice.org, to do with a technical problem I am having with Writer. But I forgot that I had track changes on (I was not showing the changes), so the entire document was uploaded. Now I need to submit it for school, but plagiarism checkers are finding it. The file is upfile xxxx.xxx. Please let me know if it is possible to have a file that I uploaded to ask.libreoffice.org removed. Thanks.
Edit: filename removed (Hagar).
Please retag your question as meta (problem with this site) because this is not an issue with Writer. Press Enter twice to exit retag mode.
@Hagar_Delest: this is a real question about privacy et al. on this site, notably how to delete embarrassing content and making sure it can no longer be accessed. So, question reopened.
This is not a question at all. This is a request for an admin task. It has been done. Period.
There is no actual solution since the file may have been cached somewhere. We cannot do anything about that now.
By the way, I’ve removed the filename, it should make it harder to find the file if someone were feeling curious.
I’m still rather surprised by how the moderation is done here. See for example: Suggestion: Add 'category' dropdown to question submit
It has been closed despite the fact that it could be discussed. It was a real question IMHO, even if not linked to LO, at least to how the Q&A should work.
@Hagar_Delest: and that was definitely not a question, and even not related to things that should be discussed here. It’s a valid topic for discussion - at the proper resource, like TDF Redmine.
Perhaps not a question but an opportunity to explain how this horrible site works. That’s all.
The only proper place to explain is at our wiki “How to use this site”, which you already are improving. “Horrible” is questionable and very opinionated (although there are numerous technical problems due to specifics of its software support).
The only proper place to explain is at our wiki “How to use this site”
Then why are there so many posts pointing to wiki-like answers in this site? Because it’s easier to discuss it in the site instead of editing a wiki. There is a tolerance for some non-questions but not for others (or maybe it’s linked to the contributors in fact?).
Of course this (Ask) site is technically horrible. New users keep replying their own questions, power users keep reminding the same “rules” with almost no effect. Comments are usually not visible by users because there is no mail notification as long as the user name is not mentioned. There is no query feature and the performance of the (Ask) site is far behind anything decent site. Such Q&A is good for geeks, not for a such diverse user base as LO users. At least the new one seems much better (even if based on the same Q&A concept).
Then why
How this question follows the premise? That the rules are not prominent enough on the main page does not make it improper place, nor does it make discussing it in a random question a valid thing (as if that would be more visible!).
I can actually open the file myself at:
ask.libreoffice.org/upfiles/xxxxxxxx.docx
but when I try to delete everything in the file and save it it doesn’t work because it is read only.
If I suffer some sort of repercussions from this at the school I am going to then I think that I might talk to my lawyer about it. I was perfectly innocent here. Someone said, attach the file, which I did. I tried to remove everything from it except the part that was causing trouble, but I forgot that I was not showing the changes and the whole thing got uploaded. No one said be careful about uploading files or anything like that.I mean, there the file is, right there. I can even open it myself. Someone should have the admin rights to delete it.
I emailed hostmaster@documentfoundation.org about this topic and the file was deleted. Please use the email for any such topics.
You really want to cause a security breach! Be an adult. You are responsible for your own security. Displaying the real file name again and again is really a bait for all hackers around. I obliterated the name while the comment can be edited to prevent undesired access. Take elementary measures to protect yourself.
There’s no use discussing with your lawyer. You are the primary culprit. Everything on the Internet becomes public by nature. This is obvious and well-known. You seem to be a higher education guy with a reasoning capability superior to average. If you don’t understand that, use pencil and paper.
This is a public Q&A site where everything posted here becomes Creative Commons licenced. This is clearly shown in the footer of every page. Using this site is agreeing in its conditions. You should think about it before posting.
Mentioning the internal random file name is useless because none of us have administrator access to the site database.
But, you, as owner of question 306290/in-a-libreoffice-writer-document-the-hyperlinks-work-ok-but-the-cursor-does-not-change-to-a-hand-pointer-when-hovered-over-the-link, can edit it and remove the link to the uploaded file.
There is no guarantee that the file will be effectively erased but no public link will point to it.
This may not disable plagiarism check because many search engines (like Google) also use a history cache to hit on deleted/removed content.
This is why we always recommend, when data is private or sensitive, to always sanitize it before uploading. One of the traditional method is to replace real text with “lorem ipsum”, of course provided this doesn’t remove the problem too.
EDIT
Following @mikekaganski’s comment: also make sure “Track changes” is disabled and File>Save as to make sure no “fossil” remains hidden.
To show the community your question has been answered, click the ✓ next to the correct answer, and “upvote” by clicking on the ^ arrow of any helpful answers. These are the mechanisms for communicating the quality of the Q&A on this site. Thanks!
… but in this specific case, replacement would not help, likely because of tdf#125909, which was about privacy issue when change tracking was not shown. Fixed now in 7.2.
If you attempt to remove the file, be sure to take screen shots first.
Is there a process to challenge the plagiarism checker? Before you can be accused of something, they need to have evidence and you need to be given the opportunity to challenge that evidence. The plagiarism checking software needs to show where they are finding the alleged plagiarism, which should lead directly to your post in the forum.
If you cannot successfully remove the paper, I am willing to help you try to navigate through your school’s appeal process.