Other Deleting my Account

[SimpleGuy]

How do I do that? If I don't have that power then could somebody direct me to someone that does?

 

[Cold Ramen Noodles]

Accounts cant be deleted. If you'd like to stop using it, you can change the email it's associated with and change the password to something you can't remember.

 

[StoneWolf18]

How do I do that? If I don't have that power then could somebody direct me to someone that does?

As what Bubble said, we don't ever delete anything because that causes database problems so those are the suggested ways to limit access to it. ^^

 

[Role Model]

As what Bubble said, we don't ever delete anything because that causes database problems so those are the suggested ways to limit access to it. ^^

I fail to see how deleting a user account could cause problems for the database? Obviously you have user numbers set up, and those would become skewed as accounts got deleted and that number continuously rose, but that's not a "problem" per se, moreso a nuisance.

Unless you have your database set up in some obscure manner that isn't practical or "the norm" deleting data should not cause any problems, as long as the deleted data is not connected to any other data.

 

[AThiefOfSpades]

The Dark Wizard This question has been asked and answered so many times you should probably just pin this so people can find it

 

[Meredith]

I fail to see how deleting a user account could cause problems for the database? Obviously you have user numbers set up, and those would become skewed as accounts got deleted and that number continuously rose, but that's not a "problem" per se, moreso a nuisance.

Unless you have your database set up in some obscure manner that isn't practical or "the norm" deleting data should not cause any problems, as long as the deleted data is not connected to any other data.

Deleting accounts isn't an option as I recall under the site's software but even if it was the staff are hardly going to delete the account of everybody who wants to leave. That's an entirely unnecessary workload for the staff members. If you wish to leave the site you can change your email and password, just change your password, or just... not log in. Besides, don't you have anything better to do than argue with staff answers to user questions? ;P

 

[Role Model]

Deleting accounts isn't an option as I recall under the site's software but even if it was the staff are hardly going to delete the account of everybody who wants to leave. That's an entirely unnecessary workload for the staff members. If you wish to leave the site you can change your email and password, just change your password, or just... not log in. Besides, don't you have anything better to do than argue with staff answers to user questions? ;P

I'm not the one who asked the question. I'm simply stating that deleting data from a database wouldn't cause any major consequences like Stone said.

EDIT; Read that as "argue with staff answers to YOUR questions", sorry.

And also, I'm not really arguing. I'm just inputting my two cents.

 

[Mx.Trinity]

How do I do that? If I don't have that power then could somebody direct me to someone that does?

Just personally asked this the other day, you or the staff would need to go through one by one deleting all of your posts. SimpleGuy

 

[Meredith]

I'm not the one who asked the question. I'm simply stating that deleting data from a database wouldn't cause any major consequences like Bubblegum said.

EDIT; Read that as "argue with staff answers to YOUR questions, sorry.

And also, I'm not really arguing. I'm just inputting my two cents.

Even if it wouldn't, it would be labor-intensive and not worth it, as manual deletion of posts is a pain in the ass.
And I was teasing

 

[Role Model]

Even if it wouldn't, it would be labor-intensive and not worth it, as manual deletion of posts is a pain in the ass.
And I was teasing

What I'm suggesting has nothing to do with work-load or anything of the sort. That's a completely different point than I'm making. All I'm saying is that deleting data from a database should not incur any problems.
And depending on where this server is hosted, by law, administrators may be REQUIRED to delete data per user request. I.E. Germany.

I couldn't care one way or the other about a "delete account" button. That was not my point.

 

[Meredith]

What I'm suggesting has nothing to do with work-load or anything of the sort. That's a completely different point than I'm making. All I'm saying is that deleting data from a database should not incur any problems.
And depending on where this server is hosted, by law, administrators may be REQUIRED to delete data per user request. I.E. Germany.

I couldn't care one way or the other about a "delete account" button. That was not my point.

Fair enough. They're in Cali (USA) if I recall so they're not under any obligation - because of this, I can see it not making sense to do, though I seriously don't understand this sort of 'misinformation fight' when the point is moot.

 

[Role Model]

Fair enough. They're in Cali (USA) if I recall so they're not under any obligation - because of this, I can see it not making sense to do, though I seriously don't understand this sort of 'misinformation fight' when the point is moot.

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB568

"(1) Permit a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application to remove or, if the operator prefers, to request and obtain removal of, content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application by the user."

Of course, this only applies to minors, but the point stands.

 

[Meredith]

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201320140SB568

"(1) Permit a minor who is a registered user of the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application to remove or, if the operator prefers, to request and obtain removal of, content or information posted on the operator’s Internet Web site, online service, online application, or mobile application by the user."

Of course, this only applies to minors, but the point stands.

All well and good if you can prove you're a minor, I suppose.

 

[Role Model]

All well and good if you can prove you're a minor, I suppose.

It doesn't matter either way. My point is that the excuse "deleting data would break stuff" is not a valid point because it's not true. If you want to answer the question the user asked, simply say "Yo, we're too lazy. Just don't log in" instead of spreading misinformation on how systems work.

 

[Mx.Trinity]

It doesn't matter either way. My point is that the excuse "deleting data would break stuff" is not a valid point because it's not true. If you want to answer the question the user asked, simply say "Yo, we're too lazy. Just don't log in" instead of spreading misinformation on how systems work.

careful, you're gonna get warned. :x

 

[Role Model]

careful, you're gonna get warned. :x

Howso?

 

[StoneWolf18]

I dunno how all that works it just what I was told.

 

[AThiefOfSpades]

Role Model ...your point that it wouldn't mess up the system is off...if they deleted all your data, any replies to you in roleplays, OOC, etc would cease to make sense, confusing the hell out of a bunch of people looking through your stuff later for no valid reason. THAT'S why, or so I've read many a time here

 

[Role Model]

Role Model ...your point that it wouldn't mess up the system is off...if they deleted all your data, any replies to you in roleplays, OOC, etc would cease to make sense, confusing the hell out of a bunch of people looking through your stuff later for no valid reason. THAT'S why, or so I've read many a time here

That's not messing the system itself up. The way he implied would make it seem that deleting a user account would cause the database itself to be corrupt. The data tied to your account would be deleted of course, but that's not actually breaking anything. That's, again, a nuisance, sure, but not causing any real harm.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Hey,

It does cause some technical issues, but if someone really really wanted it, we could do it. We have not done in the decade that the site has been running and never will. Apart from any technical issues, its a pain in the ass because unlike other blogs, forums, and discussion platforms, role playing is a collaborative project. Deleting any one's posts in mass ruins A LOT of roleplays and older archived content and it makes it seem like people were just posting/talking to it self.

Stories can't be stories if massive chunks suddenly start missing. We keep a log of all post edits, deletions and usually and always revert mass deletion and just permanently ban the user. Our terms of service and site rules clearly state that while we don't own your content, we have the right to archive and preserve it for all of time. If and when your writing is ever commercially published, then come back with a proper note and we will delete it for you.

It doesn't matter either way. My point is that the excuse "deleting data would break stuff" is not a valid point because it's not true. If you want to answer the question the user asked, simply say "Yo, we're too lazy. Just don't log in" instead of spreading misinformation on how systems work.

You don't know how our setup works .

It could be argued that you are spreading misinformation.

 

[ApfelSeine]

I fail to see how deleting a user account could cause problems for the database? Obviously you have user numbers set up, and those would become skewed as accounts got deleted and that number continuously rose, but that's not a "problem" per se, moreso a nuisance.

Unless you have your database set up in some obscure manner that isn't practical or "the norm" deleting data should not cause any problems, as long as the deleted data is not connected to any other data.

To my knowledge, it causes problems for the database because it's intentionally set up to store everything. I don't know exactly how it works from a technical angle, but I do know that the policy is that posts and suchlike are only hidden, not deleted, so that they can be recovered later if they were deleted in error, or if it needs to be recovered for some other reason. In the case of accounts themselves, if a user leaves but then decides that they want to come back be a part of the site after all, recovering the account is easy peasy. It's less about laziness and more about covering our bases (though I do agree with the sentiment expressed earlier that it would simply not be a productive use of staff's time to handle every user that wants to leave the site, when instead they could either not log in, or prevent themselves from logging in). Also, we don't want to let users delete their entire account since that would let users who were close to being banned or who were marked as spam to simply delete their account and start over. The way the system works now, alternate accounts are linked to the original account, so all points and bans apply to all accounts the user has. It prevents people from circumnavigating that system. As such, there doesn't really seem to be a positive aspect to letting users delete their accounts. At least, not which I can see.

So in short, I am not tech savvy enough to know of the potential software reasons behind it. The things I listed are the bureaucratic reasons that I'm aware of though. It simply does not make sense to delete information that might be needed later on, or which a user might wish to recover. Plus, deleting accounts would allow potential circumnavigation of our system for tracking alternate accounts for the same user. There are reasons for the policy of not deleting things from the database to be in place, and those are the ones I'm aware of. There might be more, but I hope that explanation is helpful to you.

(EDIT: Ninja'd by wiz lol. Leaving this up anyways. I hope it's coherent since I'm pretty tired while writing this )

 

[Role Model]

Hey,

It does cause some technical issues, but if someone really really wanted it, we could do it. We have not done in the decade that the site has been running and never will. Apart from any technical issues, its a pain in the ass because unlike other blogs, forums, and discussion platforms, role playing is a collaborative project. Deleting any one's posts in mass ruins A LOT of roleplays and older archived content and it makes it seem like people were just posting/talking to it self.

Stories can't be stories if massive chunks suddenly start missing. We keep a log of all post edits, deletions and usually and always revert mass deletion and just permanently ban the user. Our terms of service and site rules clearly state that while we don't own your content, we have the right to archive and preserve it for all of time. If and when your writing is ever commercially published, then come back with a proper note and we will delete it for you.



You don't know how our setup works .

It could be argued that you are spreading misinformation.

I specifically said unless you're set up in a way that is not normal or some obscure manner. From all my years in IT and data systems management, the general practice is (as said below by Apfel) to not delete data but mark it as hidden. However, deleting data has never caused any problems in any system I've used, so long as that data isn't crucial to the site itself. User accounts are not crucial and I can hardly see how, unless you have user accounts linked in such a manner that the site's user count won't change (which Xenforo has setup themselves) and you're making ad revenue based on how many members the site has (which you don't have ADs, so..), there should be no noticeable technical failure or glitches after deleting user data.

The original point being that in any normal case scenario, you can delete just about anything from a database and nothing will happen. And if your database is setup in a way that it does, you need to change it, because as I've quoted before, technically you HAVE to delete data about a minor per their request.

To my knowledge, it causes problems for the database because it's intentionally set up to store everything. I don't know exactly how it works from a technical angle, but I do know that the policy is that posts and suchlike are only hidden, not deleted, so that they can be recovered later if they were deleted in error, or if it needs to be recovered for some other reason. In the case of accounts themselves, if a user leaves but then decides that they want to come back be a part of the site after all, recovering the account is easy peasy. It's less about laziness and more about covering our bases (though I do agree with the sentiment expressed earlier that it would simply not be a productive use of staff's time to handle every user that wants to leave the site, when instead they could either not log in, or prevent themselves from logging in). Also, we don't want to let users delete their entire account since that would let users who were close to being banned or who were marked as spam to simply delete their account and start over. The way the system works now, alternate accounts are linked to the original account, so all points and bans apply to all accounts the user has. It prevents people from circumnavigating that system. As such, there doesn't really seem to be a positive aspect to letting users delete their accounts. At least, not which I can see.

So in short, I am not tech savvy enough to know of the potential software reasons behind it. The things I listed are the bureaucratic reasons that I'm aware of though. It simply does not make sense to delete information that might be needed later on, or which a user might wish to recover. Plus, deleting accounts would allow potential circumnavigation of our system for tracking alternate accounts for the same user. There are reasons for the policy of not deleting things from the database to be in place, and those are the ones I'm aware of. There might be more, but I hope that explanation is helpful to you.

Your point about marking data hidden is generally true.
But you're all mistaking what I'm putting out. I do not think that users should be allowed to delete their accounts. It's annoying for staff, it's annoying for users who want to review old roleplays, and I don't think that data should be deleted unless it needs to.
You seem to think I'm on the side of the OP. I'm not.

Maybe I haven't made it clear enough, and I apologize if I haven't. All I'm saying is that deleting a user account would not break the database, or cause major technical issues. All of the problems you have listed can be fixed if you put in enough time to change how the current setup is. As for banned accounts, that's a case-by-case basis, and considering banned accounts (as far as I'm aware, unless Xenforo updated) can't even view their account control panel, they shouldn't be able to delete their accounts anyway, and if you're doing a proper IP ban they shouldn't be able to deactivate their alternate accounts either.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

The Dark Wizard This question has been asked and answered so many times you should probably just pin this so people can find it

Could have sworn it was pinned somewhere. We've been recently reorganizing all of our site rules and way we display official documentation for the site.

The original point being that in any normal case scenario, you can delete just about anything from a database and nothing will happen. And if your database is setup in a way that it does, you need to change it, because as I've quoted before, technically you HAVE to delete data about a minor per their request.

There are several methods of cloning/backing up that get really pissy when you delete something. Every site's needs are different.

But regardless of that:

• You agree to be 13+ when you sign up to this website with a parent's consent.
  
• I don't live in California
• Courts and Lawyers exist.
• Laws that definitely protect the kind of site that we are that supercede what ever California exist.
• Minors caught on the site are automatically banned via all the means we can technologically use but we won't delete legitimate posts within the confines of our site rules made by said banned users.

The point is that we aren't going to be deleting accounts, whether for a technical reason or not. It is our right as a website and one we regularly exercise. We aren't going to wreck the continuity of roleplays and toss away all the hours that people put into their written works when everyone someone wants to delete their account because of the drama of the week.

We don't collect personal identifying information. No names, addresses, etc. Just a username and an email.

 

[Role Model]

I want to add that I'm not trying to argue. I just don't think you all see the point I'm trying to make. If your site is setup in a way that deleting user accounts would break the site, so be it. I'll walk home with my head down in shame. I'm not trying to incite an argument and I apologize if my tone comes off that way. I'm simply a blunt person.

Anyway, at the end of the day, this doesn't matter. Both of our opinions are that data should not be deleted unless it absolutely has too. Let's agree on that point at least, so we don't end on a negative note. I love the staff team here, I love the site and I love how it works. I'm not trying to get marked as a troublemaker already, especially since I've just gotten back into roleplaying.

(The deletion of a minors data protects anyone under 18, and from my understanding (what I was recently informed) the site is hosted in CA which is where the law is in place. Again, I don't know where the site is hosted I only brought it up as point that, in some cases, you HAVE to delete data and if your system is setup in a way that you can't do so, then it needs to be changed, only replying to that because I saw that you just replied. I'm not familiar with American law, but a quick search on the CA government website brought that up and I was under the impression that the site was hosted in CA.)

 

[The Dark Wizard]

I want to add that I'm not trying to argue. I just don't think you all see the point I'm trying to make. If your site is setup in a way that deleting user accounts would break the site, so be it. I'll walk home with my head down in shame. I'm not trying to incite an argument and I apologize if my tone comes off that way. I'm simply a blunt person.

Anyway, at the end of the day, this doesn't matter. Both of our opinions are that data should not be deleted unless it absolutely has too. Let's agree on that point at least, so we don't end on a negative note. I love the staff team here, I love the site and I love how it works. I'm not trying to get marked as a troublemaker already, especially since I've just gotten back into roleplaying.

(The deletion of a minors data protects anyone under 18, and from my understanding (what I was recently informed) the site is hosted in CA which is where the law is in place. Again, I don't know where the site is hosted I only brought it up as point that, in some cases, you HAVE to delete data and if your system is setup in a way that you can't do so, then it needs to be changed, only replying to that because I saw that you just replied. I'm not familiar with American law, but a quick search on the CA government website brought that up and I was under the impression that the site was hosted in CA.)

Oh I'm not arguing with you and I know you aren't being hostile !

Don't worry. I'm just hoping this helps more people.

The site is not currently in CA.