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How do members delete their accounts?


Christophe

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So far I have been deleting accounts manually after being asked by members.

Is there an easier way so that members can delete their own account in their profile where it would put the account in a "to delete" queue and it would be possible on the ACP to delete those accounts in one swoop instead of having to manually do them one by one? The reason you would want a soft delete is in case someone's account it hacked but shouldn t the functionality for members to delete their own account be there anyway?

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So far I have been deleting accounts manually after being asked by members.

Is there an easier way so that members can delete their own account in their profile where it would put the account in a "to delete" queue and it would be possible on the ACP to delete those accounts in one swoop instead of having to manually do them one by one? The reason you would want a soft delete is in case someone's account it hacked but shouldn t the functionality for members to delete their own account be there anyway?

​My hook will be updated eventually: http://community.invisionpower.com/files/file/6749-delete-my-account/

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Personally, I like the idea of people being able to delete their own accounts.

It would be nice to have a built-in delay (maybe 7 days) between when the request is made and permanent account deletion takes place. This would allow someone to change their mind and "reclaim" their account. Sometimes people get in a huff and want to delete, but change their mind a couple days over when things blow over.

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​Thank you so much

As a sidenote I wanted to hear what people were thinking about this? Why should you not allow members to delete their accounts?

Besides the marketing reasons and the need for retention etc...

​Well, imagine when a person with several thousand posts and topics deletes their account, topics that they have posted in are now missing replies and you've got other people now responding to posts that do not exist, breaking conversation flow. When their topics are deleted, many posts of other members go with them.

I'd rather remove all personal details and rename an account, leaving it as an empty husk.

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Besides the marketing reasons and the need for retention etc...

​My reasons are pretty much marketing and retention combined with what @Cyrem said. I've had plenty of people who have gotten "mad" at something someone said and send me an email "delete my account, I'm never coming back" but I was able to calm them down and now they're happy again. One member was a key part of my community too and would have taken a large hit in posts, knowledge and a lot else with him if just "deleted" him and everything he's done.

It's just something personally I'd rather handle and discuss personally (not a button), not annoying like a Comcast Customer Retention center but obviously if there is something I can do to keep a key member, I'm going to. 

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​Well, imagine when a person with several thousand posts and topics deletes their account, topics that they have posted in are now missing replies and you've got other people now responding to posts that do not exist, breaking conversation flow. When their topics are deleted, many posts of other members go with them.
I'd rather remove all personal details and rename an account, leaving it as an empty husk.

​Well I think a solution would be that you do not delete the topics but instead replace the name with a generic or "deleted account" username. That way the contents are still there.

If the member want to delete his/her posts they still can do that which will still then bring the issues you mentioned but those are fine if the person does it post by post.

My point was to save the admins from having to delete accounts every day (when you have 100.000+s members there are always people wanting their account deleted) and that takes time...but you bring good points about some topics missing replies. I have seen big boards leave the posts but only remove the account and if people click on the account they get a 404 or a generic deleted message

 

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​Well, imagine when a person with several thousand posts and topics deletes their account, topics that they have posted in are now missing replies and you've got other people now responding to posts that do not exist, breaking conversation flow. When their topics are deleted, many posts of other members go with them.
I'd rather remove all personal details and rename an account, leaving it as an empty husk.


No, only the account is deleted, via Admin CP or via my hook. The content is preserved and can be assigned to another member with a simple query.

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Personally, I like the idea of people being able to delete their own accounts.

It would be nice to have a built-in delay (maybe 7 days) between when the request is made and permanent account deletion takes place. This would allow someone to change their mind and "reclaim" their account. Sometimes people get in a huff and want to delete, but change their mind a couple days over when things blow over.

​This is a mighty, damn good idea!

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​Well, imagine when a person with several thousand posts and topics deletes their account, topics that they have posted in are now missing replies and you've got other people now responding to posts that do not exist, breaking conversation flow. When their topics are deleted, many posts of other members go with them.
I'd rather remove all personal details and rename an account, leaving it as an empty husk.

​I like how SMF handles this. The user deletes their account but their thread content stays. Clicking username now leads to no profile and their name is black.

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From a legal stand point (in some locations) the content doesn't belong to the site, it belongs to the person that posted . If someone wishes to delete an account all the content that is associated to them, then a legal obligation "may" exist for this information to be deleted as well.

Yes it breaks conversation flow, no I don't agree with the submission being deleted as well as the user account. Deletion of accounts should always remain with the staff of the site and all topics/post should remain unless explicitly requested to be removed by the account holder in question.

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From a legal stand point (in some locations) the content doesn't belong to the site, it belongs to the person that posted . If someone wishes to delete an account all the content that is associated to them, then a legal obligation "may" exist for this information to be deleted as well.

​I don't know anything about it from a legal standpoint, but maybe the forum owner could write this into the site's terms of service?

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From a legal stand point (in some locations) the content doesn't belong to the site, it belongs to the person that posted . If someone wishes to delete an account all the content that is associated to them, then a legal obligation "may" exist for this information to be deleted as well.

​lol this is 100% not the case with commercial sites for obvious reasons. Take Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and the like for example. As you create your account you release ALL rights of absolutely everything you post from text to images to behavior to clicks...everything. That way you can not sue for infringement of © when it is you yourself posting the content. Yes...all the photos you posted on Facebook mean you granted FB a perpetuity license to use them in anyway they want. Anyway, the TOS of the site should cover the issue of content posting. Take Youtube, the content is still © the member but by uploading video you also agree to allow other users to re-use your video/content. This is why you can t DMCA people for tearing down something stupid you may have said in a video :)

Anyway, thanks Adriano for that mod

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Incorrect, by registering the account, you grant the website the usage of your content and you agree to the terms of service. The LOL was unecessary and irrelevant and it is not obvious with commercial sites and shows a lack of understanding on the subject.

Why do you think individuals can submit requests to google to have information removed from search engines results?

You do not give them automatic ownership of your content. Please understand the difference (it's important to know the difference). if you delete your account, you don't have any of the information retained on the site. It is removed along with the photos, videos etc that you have shared. Whilst you are a member of the site, you grant that site usage rights and you accept the terms of service of the site.

The content still belongs to you, if you post something on any of those sites which incites hatred or could be prosecuted for, it's not facebook, youtube, google, invision etc that gets prosecuted, it's the member that has posted that content - it's not best analogy but it gets my point across. As a site owner, you should fully understand these fundemental differences and if you don't you should seek legal advice.

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Too bad this discussion always gets buried under these discussions about content rights and content deletions. 

That isn’t the point and not what Christophe and many others have requested before: the simple functionality, that users can actively ask for account (not content) deletion and that this ends up in a queue the admin can then execute easily. Just as you can handle account registrations approvals. It doesn’t have to be harder than that. 

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It's unfortunate @opentype but it is necessary to comply with the law and the rights of the individual - whether you are a fan based community or a commercial site. Do I agree with the removal of content? Not really, it affects post/topic stats and can take away from the conversation flow.

The option to have a "delete account retaining content" & the option of "delete account and delete all content option" does make sense.

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Incorrect, by registering the account, you grant the website the usage of your content and you agree to the terms of service. The LOL was unecessary and irrelevant and it is not obvious with commercial sites and shows a lack of understanding on the subject.

​I responded to a broad statement by pointing out that statement was wrong and false in the case of Facebook.

There is no need to tell me that I "shows a lack of understanding on the subject." when it seems you did not read what I said. In the case of Facebook I recommend you read FB's terms of service.

When you create accounts on those sites, you release your rights and give a perpetual license to those sites to use the content and the data from your usage of the sites. This is exactly why there have been constant and serious privacy issues regarding Facebook and their usage of people's photos associated with their face recognition technology coupled with their behaviors on the site and content posted. And I am not even talking about ads where users profiles photos are used to promote products from third parties where "John Smith from Alabama likes Pepsi so should you" little banner ads.

"You do not give them automatic ownership of your content." I said you give a perpetual license to that content for them to use in any form they wish. By giving them a license you can not claim "all rights reserved" anymore. Look, the point I was making is that people should not post anything they don t want to lose control over the content about. Don t post personal pictures on a site where the site may reuse those images. Don't post excerpts from your novel on your friends wall if you want to keep that story plot private until your book is out. The point is be aware of privacy issues and what you do on those sites.

Anyway...I am not English so you have to pardon the phrasing

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I don't delete accounts. I tell them they can simple stop using the account and I will remove personal details if needed. But I like to have their IP on file for all my members as I've had trouble with trolling in the past related to this topic. I also have had many come back regretting they deleted it. So I just keep them all as is with personal information blacked out to the public view.

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