Does Neowin delete member accounts?

[jason13524]

Maybe there should be a system whereby if you select to delete your account, all personal info is automatically deleted, but the account is renamed to something random and then left alone. Therefore all posts etc. will still be in place.

The account, your username, login and details shoud go but the posts stay.

[Hum]

The same as before, Steve, Marcel and Brad. Dotster are just a domain registration company. I have no idea where you go the idea that bought Neowin from. We just registered the domain with them, there's nothing more to it than that.

OK, but Colin refering to Neowin as based in the USA, kinda makes you wonder. ;)

[Colin-uk Veteran]

Ya I'm pretty sure the EU wouldn't look kindly to people hosting stuff in another country to skirt around laws :p

thats not why were hosting in the US :p

[jason13524]

It's not difficult to delete personal information from your profile by yourself. As for personal information in posts, that would be impossible to detect automatically in order to delete it.

Relatively simple, the account is deleted and query all posts based on that username and delete them. When using a database you have a lot of control.

[Vice]

thats not why were hosting in the US :p

Not yet.

I hope this account deletion law does come in. It is better for everyone.

[metallithrax]

It's not difficult to delete personal information from your profile by yourself. As for personal information in posts, that would be impossible to detect automatically in order to delete it.

I wasn't actually meaning any info contained in posts, and yes it is easy to remove the info yourself and then just no longer log in.

[noroom]

He has the right to delete his account from here if he wants.

I think I agree with this, unless someone can give me a good reason to not delete the account?

I agree. Neowin is turning out to be worse than Facebook.

it ****s up the database

You have no idea how databases work, do you? Just stop displaying the username in the post for deleted users, just show "[deleted user]" or something like that as the author, and keep the contents. You should even scrap the entire userID from the database, and replace it to point to a special entity, the deleted user. Regarding other people having typed your username in their posts, nothing you can do about that.

[+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹]

Relatively simple, the account is deleted and query all posts based on that username and delete them. When using a database you have a lot of control.

That disrupts the flow of the threads, which is why Neowin doesn't so it. I believe he was referring to deleting only personal information while retaining everything else.

[devHead]

I think it's funny that xplatinum, the OP, has never returned and posted anything else in the forum since his original question.

Maybe he read the first reply or one of the ones after it and decided that's what he would do and just hasn't come back. So why are all of us still discussing this?

[Vice]

I think it's funny that xplatinum, the OP, has never returned and posted anything else in the forum since his original question.

Maybe he read the first reply or one of the ones after it and decided that's what he would do and just hasn't come back. So why are all of us still discussing this?

Because some of us care about users ability to delete the data they created?

Like me for one. You can delete your Facebook profile, you can delete your Digg.com and Reddit.com accounts. These are all high profile sites and Neowin I think should become more professional and give us the same ability.

[DaveLegg Developer]

OK, but Colin refering to Neowin as based in the USA, kinda makes you wonder. ;)

The company is registered there. There's nothing shady to it

[DrCheese]

Ya I'm pretty sure the EU wouldn't look kindly to people hosting stuff in another country to skirt around laws

The EU can think what it wants, it has no power whatsoever to fine/arrest people simply for hosting a website outside it's jurisdiction.

I agree. Neowin is turning out to be worse than Facebook.

This has been neowins policy since.. forever. You agreed to it years ago before facebook even existed when you created your account. Whist they could change it in future, It's not really neowins problem if you didn't read the EULA.

[DeathLace]

Because some of us care about users ability to delete the data they created?

Like me for one. You can delete your Facebook profile, you can delete your Digg.com and Reddit.com accounts. These are all high profile sites and Neowin I think should become more professional and give us the same ability.

You can't delete your FB profile... you can only 'deactivate it'... it's still there though.

not sure about digg and reddit... but realistically i'm sure they do the same thing as FB.

[Crisp]

So basically if you want to be deleted, get yourself banned.

[Neztea]

Here is my advice.

1.) Hack Neowin.net

2.) ???

3.) Profit!

In all reality though, once you join neowin, there no way of leaving.. Ever...

One of us.. one of us... :devil:

Neztea

[Vice]

You can't delete your FB profile... you can only 'deactivate it'... it's still there though.

not sure about digg and reddit... but realistically i'm sure they do the same thing as FB.

On digg you ask the staff to delete it and they will delete it. All your posts on the site are also automatically deleted when that happens. When you delete your account on reddit you have the choice to erase all your posts aswell (Every post simply gets replaced with [Deleted]).

So I wouldn't say its like Facebook no.

[Corris Veteran]

So basically if you want to be deleted, get yourself banned.

No, the account and its contents will still be present, you just won't be able to use it.

[AJerman]

I suspect there will be laws passed eventually that will require web site administrators to allow you to entirely delete any account you have, and I would definitely support it.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

[Thread Moved from GD to S&FI]

[Threads Merged]

[xplatinum]

I think it's funny that xplatinum, the OP, has never returned and posted anything else in the forum since his original question.

I originally posted my question in the General Discussion forum and my thread was moved/merged with this one. I never """returned""" because I had other things to attend to in between my original post and now.

I did not know there was a policy about not deleting user accounts. I don't like the idea of having hundreds of subscription across the internet (even if I don't use them). That boils down to personal preference. I like having my subscriptions list "clean". If I move away from place A I want to leave for good. Same goes for the Facebook debate. I don't want traces to be left and nobody can argue with that. You don't have to agree with the way I see things but that does not make my way of seeing things wrong.

For those who wondered why I wanted to leave. Neowin is not what it used to be anymore, and I noticed that a while ago. Yesterday I replied to a news story only to find out the next morning that my post was DELETED without notice. And no, I did not break any rules doing so. And even if I did, I should have received a PM or a warning of some sort.

So yeah, case closed. I will remove all my personal details and block notifications.

Thanks to those who actually contributed to the debate.

[treemonster]

I agree. Neowin is turning out to be worse than Facebook.

You have no idea how databases work, do you? Just stop displaying the username in the post for deleted users, just show "[deleted user]" or something like that as the author, and keep the contents. You should even scrap the entire userID from the database, and replace it to point to a special entity, the deleted user. Regarding other people having typed your username in their posts, nothing you can do about that.

what i do know that in practice on the numerous forums i've used in the past decade that after accounts have been deleted that had posts, and the more posts the more likely this was to happen, that the DB screwed up in various ways(some comical), performance of the forum became painful to use, and in 2/3 cases the entire DB had to be purged and the forums started from scratch.

i'm sure there have been improvements to both DB and forum software to not delete the critical info that would mess up the DB, but in a best case scanrio, when it comes to deletions there would still be place holder posts saying "deleted" or something similar with a placeholder account, when according to the EULA you are not entitled to that because your posts become the property of the forum owners while they claim no liability for the content thereof which is enforced through active moderation to keep out illegal info from teh public eye while retaining records there of for future court cases if subpoenaed.

even 4chan doesn't purge all records of you having been there.

as for your personal info, you are more than free to delete that info or never have shared it in teh first place, and if you are dumb enough to post your personal info on teh internet such as neowin, the staff here have said they will go back and delete it for you at your request.

[DrCheese]

Neowin is not what it used to be anymore

ah the rose tinted glasses....

"Back in MY day!"

[Fubar]

to all the peoplw whinging about the TOS of neowin, they havent changed for bloody years, dont like it **** OFF... Simples...

Serously though what personal data do you really need to put into a tech forum ???

[Orange Battery]

to all the peoplw whinging about the TOS of neowin, they havent changed for bloody years, dont like it **** OFF... Simples...

But they cant, thats their issue :laugh:

Had to reply to that, no issues either way with what is kept on here or anywhere else really. I don't add anything I wouldn't mind everyone seeing.

[Fred Derf Veteran]

For those who wondered why I wanted to leave. Neowin is not what it used to be anymore, and I noticed that a while ago. Yesterday I replied to a news story only to find out the next morning that my post was DELETED without notice. And no, I did not break any rules doing so. And even if I did, I should have received a PM or a warning of some sort.

Without knowing the specifics, I will point out that trolling posts and replies to trolls are often deleted without notice (via PM anyway). On the forums, I will tend to post a [Thread Cleaned] type of message so the peeps in question at least know who to hate.