I can tell you what my 179985 was: a copy of 179986 posted to the wrong parent. Also note that I had just registered a few months before — I was young and foolish then. :-) In retrospect it was a mistake to erase that node. I should simply have considered it. [Update: I'm not sure I had the powers to do that back then, though. And I only learned that reparenting is possible much much later.]

I've only ever "willfully" erased a couple of my nodes in one thread — I got drawn into a flame with an Anonymonk (who seemed to have particular fun railing on me personally at the time; it was a pretty aggravating week and I lost my cool, which basically never happens). I regret that about as much as I regret making these posts in the first place; I did it as a statement and vowed never to do it again.

And I haven't since.

I think the general sentiment with regard to that behaviour has also changed over time; or maybe it is only mine that has.

Even when I embarrass myself nowadays, I will only <strike> the relevant portions and possibly add an update to explain. It is no fun at all to feel like an idiot at times, but my take is: if you didn't want to remove all doubt, you shouldn't spoken in the first place, eh?

I am flattered that you consider me among those who can get away with it because of who they are, though. :-)