Life In 19x19

There is no detectable option to delete your own account. Bug or feature?

Is there a reason you don't want to just stop using your account?

I guess a work-around would be to change your password to something you will forget quickly.

I believe the forum software (phpBB) does not have that feature. Why should it?

I don't think that it ever occurred to the writers of the forum software that someone would want to do it. Most want their account to stay in existence, or they simply don't care.

So you want to delete your account? After 191 posts?

As an admin I can do it. Do you want your posts to disappear too?

Joaz Banbeck wrote:I don't think that it ever occurred to the writers of the forum software that someone would want to do it. Most want their account to stay in existence, or they simply don't care.

So you want to delete your account? After 191 posts?

As an admin I can do it. Do you want your posts to disappear too?

Just asking. And indeed this is the next question, if you delete an account what happens to the postings?

tapir wrote:... if you delete an account what happens to the postings?

There is a option to choose either delete all of them or save all of them.

The problem with deleting posts if an account is deleted is that there is a lack of continuity in thread. On another forum I read there is no option to delete or edit one's own posts after 30 minutes have elapsed. One of the moderators, who had the privilege to remove posts got annoyed and deleted all of his post and left the forum. It made many threads hard to follow because he had a lot of posts. Later, when another person wanted to leave the administrator was willing to delete the account but not the posts.

I am all for the option to delete an account: From a security standpoint, you never know what will happen with the database in the future. For any given online account, for whatever reason, the account information may spread to undesired parties. Changing your password to something random is only a partial measure, as the database will still contain your username and associated email address.

Of course, one should never post anything to a forum if they're not comfortable with it possibly lingering in the ether indefinitely, so it's not reasonable to expect all posts to be deleted from the account (and in fact, for the same reasons that have been mentioned, I agree that posts should remain).

In the meantime, Joaz has (apparently) kindly offered to delete accounts manually (at least for the OP). Which is more than I can say for some sites....

DrStraw wrote:The problem with deleting posts if an account is deleted is that there is a lack of continuity in thread.

I agree with this. A forum should offer the option for an account to be deleted, but posts should remain. If you start deleting posts the entire structure of the forum could begin to fall apart. The only circumstances that should warrant deleted posts would be those of spam-bot accounts. Those type of posts have no contributing factors towards a discussion topic.