ennui Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 How do you delete your forum account? I can't find the option anywhere. Thanks.
iNow Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 Deleting your account would completely screw up every thread you've ever posted in, and would cause consistency errors in the discussions. You can just stop logging in if you no longer wish to use it.
Phi for All Posted February 7, 2009 Posted February 7, 2009 How do you delete your forum account? I can't find the option anywhere. Thanks.Can you share why you would want to delete the whole account? Perhaps there are some options we can explore.
ennui Posted February 15, 2009 Author Posted February 15, 2009 Ah, okay. That makes sense. I guess it would destroy a lot of threads if an account was deleted. I'm not interested in deleting my account(!), I was just going through all the settings and wondering where it was.
chemist Posted June 2, 2009 Posted June 2, 2009 Hello, I'd like to delete my account but recently found out that deleting accounts isn't an option here... I know that it is possible to ban members so - out of curiosity I was just wondering why it isn't possible to delete accounts too... I understand that deleting old posts of members that want to leave would be problematic but I've always wondered what forums do with the inactive accounts when they start piling up?
swansont Posted June 3, 2009 Posted June 3, 2009 Banned accounts still exist — just in a banned status. Their posts don't disappear.
Sayonara Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 Inactive accounts with no posts that have had no login for two years or more get purged occasionally.
CaptainPanic Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 How much data does an account contain? Looking at my profile, including pictures, avatars and all, that's about 2 MB? Assuming that's the average: On a 50 euro, 500 GB harddisk you can store 25.000 accounts. That means that 1 account represents a whopping 1/5 of a cent (0.002 euro). I guess that's how much motivation there is to delete stuff.
Sayonara Posted June 5, 2009 Posted June 5, 2009 It's not the hard disk footprint that is the overhead for a site like this; it's database size and complexity.
the tree Posted June 12, 2009 Posted June 12, 2009 A consistent, and well maintained database is a happy one. Datacentres like whevereverthehellSFNlives would use very big, very fast HDDs but processors in general can only be so good - so the important thing is more often how good a database is rather than how compact.
Sayonara Posted June 12, 2009 Posted June 12, 2009 It doesn't matter if the database is a good one or a bad one; they all have overheads (of various type) and any opportunity to reduce those is well taken. So yeah, "a consistent, and well maintained database is a happy one."
efzauner Posted January 12, 2013 Posted January 12, 2013 new note to self: Don't sign up to any websites where you cannot delete your account, and where you cannot read the instructions on how to delete your account before signing up! Every web site has a way to delete accounts, and yes their posts are removed.. so what? This is just a crooked way that websites can claim "millions" of users so they can charge more for adds. Like the song goes, "Once you check in, you can never leave" very dishonest. -1
Phi for All Posted January 12, 2013 Posted January 12, 2013 new note to self: Don't sign up to any websites where you cannot delete your account, and where you cannot read the instructions on how to delete your account before signing up! Every web site has a way to delete accounts, and yes their posts are removed.. so what? This is just a crooked way that websites can claim "millions" of users so they can charge more for adds. Like the song goes, "Once you check in, you can never leave" very dishonest. But this is a discussion forum. If your account is deleted, it removes your part of the conversations. If everyone who leaves gets deleted, the threads would be extremely difficult to understand. Very confusing. We have a single line at the bottom of the front page that lists total posts, total members, newest member and most online at a time. I'm offended that you feel we do this to be dishonest. We're a science site. Data, sharing, observation, experimentation over hype and marketing. I'm sorry you're not having a good experience here.
swansont Posted January 12, 2013 Posted January 12, 2013 Every web site has a way to delete accounts, and yes their posts are removed.. so what? This is just a crooked way that websites can claim "millions" of users so they can charge more for adds. Like the song goes, "Once you check in, you can never leave" very dishonest. If every web site has such a function, none of them can exist to claim "millions of users". Anyway, it's also dishonest for people to show up and later pretend to not have said things they actually said, which is what deletion would be doing (as Phi said) It's a big invitation to troll. So we don't give them that option. We can ban people at their request, but that's the same as just not showing up anymore. Those who have asked to be banned have an interesting tendency to soon register a new account. I think most of the staff would prefer to simply not have to deal with the hassle.
Iota Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 Surely it would be an option to allow users to delete their accounts without deleting their posts and answers. I'm sure other websites manage this; it just means said user's profile is no longer viewable and their email isn't plugged into the website and linked to the account.
iNow Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 (edited) Maybe usernames could be manually changed by an Admin to “ALUMNI-NoLongerActive” or some similar. That would allow posts to remain and thread continuity to persist. Perhaps profile info could be wiped clean, email removed, login deactivated But why? It’s. A. Private. Site. It’s not a government database. Not a corporate interest. No commercial activity has occurred. No PII collected. You agreed to the T&Cs upon registering. If you weren’t comfortable with those, you shouldn’t have clicked Agree and proceeded. Edited November 21, 2017 by iNow
Iota Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 8 minutes ago, iNow said: You agreed to the T&Cs upon registering. If you weren’t comfortable with those, you shouldn’t have clicked Agree amd proceeded. If that's the official position of scienceforums.net then I suppose that is that, then, isn't it. As you hold no corporate interests or responsibility in that sense, it may not be in your interest to provide your users with peace of mind or the option to opt out of being associated with your site. 10 minutes ago, iNow said: Maybe usernames could be manually changed by an Admin to “ALUMNI-NoLongerActive” or some similar. That would allow posts to remain and thread continuity to persist. Perhaps profile info could be wiped clean, email removed, login deactivated But why? I can think of many reasons as to why somebody might no longer want their email address attached to one of their old accounts. The reason as to "why" someone wishes to leave seems redundant from a user-friendliness perspective. Also, if it is possible then "why not?" also comes to mind. Too much effort, I guess? Just seems bizarre that people can never leave.
iNow Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 I’m not representing the site. I’m just anothe user like you. If email is your worry, you can unclick “Allow members to contact me via email” and shutoff all notifications... or just edit it and change it to nonsense. You've not convinced me of the benefit, especially given how many multiple options that exist for you personally to manage your privacy without any intervention whatsoever from site staff.
Iota Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 I'm not attempting to convince you, I'm posing a question which it seems several members are also interested or concerned about. Seeing as you're just another user like me, feel free to ignore my query so that it can be answered by someone more appropriate who isn't just another user like me. But remember: No. Public. Site. Is. Private.
iNow Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 2 minutes ago, Iota said: But remember: No. Public. Site. Is. Private. If this is your concern, then you should note that even if the admin here deleted your posts from the local server a copy of your activity still already exists in multiple places elsewhere and would be unaffected by that action.
StringJunky Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 Modify your profile and remove everything > Change your listed email address to a non-existent one > Get on with your life.
iNow Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 4 minutes ago, Iota said: I'm not attempting to convince you If you’re looking to alter the way the site is run, or to gain support from others for your position so they join you in advocating for this effort, perhaps you should start.
StringJunky Posted November 21, 2017 Posted November 21, 2017 (edited) 5 minutes ago, iNow said: If this is your concern, then you should note that even if the admin here deleted your posts from the local server a copy of your activity still already exists in multiple places elsewhere and would be unaffected by that action. And will be statutorily held for a minimum of two years, in Europe, by an ISP.and search providers, who have crawlers. Edited November 21, 2017 by StringJunky
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