HowTo: Get your account deleted

Being a spammer is the swiftest way, but then you really have to be a spammer. If you just start spamming now, I'll probably only delete your spam and you'll survive.

But seriously, how do you get deleted and what's the policy on deletions?

The process is simply:
1) Send me a PM asking to be deleted
2) Wait up to 28 days
3) Discover you've been deleted

Why the 28 days wait? Well it's important to know what deletion is and what it isn't. I want you to have the time to get things sorted, and I also want the grace period to not have to drop everything to perform administration tasks of the forum (i.e. if I'm on holiday).

What deletion is: We delete your account, your account ceases to exist and you cannot login using that account, it's not recoverable or reversible and you lose all of your PM's, comments, etc.

What deletion isn't: We don't delete your posts.

What? That's right, deleting the account doesn't delete the posts. Instead the posts become owned by no-one and are orphaned in the system as static items that no-one has the right to edit or modify in any way.

But why? Well fundamentally it's because that's the way vBulletin does deletions. However it suits me just fine as it also means that threads in which you've been active don't now have lots of holes that would make them incomprehensible to re-read.

There's also the issue of what to do when someone has quoted something you've said? Well, this is programmatically very hard to do. It's hard to find posts in which a segment of what you've said may have been quoted. So we don't do this at all. We just don't bother.

And is that OK? To not have your posts deleted? Well yes. When you signed up the signup screen all the way back to the very first version of this board and the first day it opened had a single clause on it, pretty much it says:

If you publish any content via this service, you agree to do so under the Creative Commons license here: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/ . You further agree to ensure that any copyrighted content that is published using your account is respected using fair use, attribution or by whatever method the copyright owner requested.
And on the bottom left of every page in the site there is indeed a little creative commons logo to reflect the fact that posted content is covered by the license.

So why have this license?

Well, it wasn't done with deletions in mind. It was done simply to emphasise that you own your content, that you should be credited with whatever you have said/posted, and also to enable people to hit the "quote" button and to only post excerpts and mis-quotes (probably classed as a derivative works), etc.

It so happens that the license also means that I don't feel any need to go and change how vBulletin does deletions of accounts. I don't particularly want to go and nuke your posts leaving holes in conversations, and thanks to the license that you've posted under I don't think I have to go out of my way to do such things. At no point in the history of this site have I not had that creative commons license in place and so if you chose to post content then you did so with that in mind.

My view is that yes I'll nuke your account if you want to.

I'll also promise to do so within 28 days of you asking.

However you may want to use the time before deletion of your account (up to 28 days) to edit your posts if you strongly feel that the content that you had posted should also be removed, as the owner of your posts you have the ability to edit out your posts and the moment I delete your account you will lose this ability as you will no longer have an account associated to the content.

In summary:

I can delete your account if you want.
Your posts will remain visible, but no longer owned by any existing user.
If you really want those posts deleted then go and edit them all before you ask for deletion.
It can take up to 28 days to be deleted, I'm not rushing to nuke you.

i have just found out that i am not the biggest tart on this forum.
i am mortified.
please delete me.

You'll need to ask via PM. Did you not read the message above? jesus... tart!

And when you've deleted him, delete his account too.

second place tart is a title that nobody wants!

david, thorough work as ever, thanks.

can we campaign to have failed tarts deleted?

TART FAIL!

PM - to: Velocio (supreme being)
from: TSK (a little less supreme to say the least)

Dear Mr. Velicio,

There is a picture of a failed tart on the site.

It is disturbing and confusing (I am feeling a little hungry and repelled at the same time). Please can you use your munificent super powers and delete it.

Yours, with oddles of sworn fealty.

The Seldom Killer

Is there any way of changing the email or associated google account with the profile?

Well yes. When you signed up the signup screen all the way back to the very first version of this board and the first day it opened had a single clause on it, pretty much it says:

If you publish any content via this service, you agree to do so under the Creative Commons license here: creativecommons.org/licenses/by-s­a/2.0/uk/ . You further agree to ensure that any copyrighted content that is published using your account is respected using fair use, attribution or by whatever method the copyright owner requested.

New users signing up now don't have to agree to anything since it's done through Persona. There are no terms and conditions they've seen or agreed to in advance.

And on the bottom left of every page in the site there is indeed a little creative commons logo to reflect the fact that posted content is covered by the license.

Not any more.