Totally agree with this. People should leave or take a break if it’s not healthy for their life. They shouldn’t leave because a community decision went against their wishes.
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I think anonymizing is better than deleting, because deleting tons of posts impacts a bunch of threads. I actually think that if anything we should reduce the editing window and deleting window for users.
I also think when removing users at their request we shouldn’t anonymize to like anon12345, we should do some sort of randomized name generator so that the posts are easier to follow for anyone reading after the fact.
It could be like NamelessMan or SheWhoLeft or something, or it could be totally random off a word generator.
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This is really my primary objection. It can make Swiss cheese of the archive of debate. I also think of some security issue it should not be a thing that is regularly done.
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I agree. This has brought up the editing window issue again and now I am firmly against longer windows if people can just get upset and go back and delete posts as a means of teaching the community a lesson. Obviously this is a real thing because it just happened.
That causes other people to lose their posts. This alone should be enough to keep people from asking for a mass delete. If someone wants to leave and they have a couple sensitive posts they want removed they can request it, otherwise anonymizing is the way to go.
You must be able to log into the database and “DELETE posts WHERE user_id=X”, but there’s no way it wouldn’t at least screw up the thread navigation for any posts that replied to that post. I guess you could probably do “UPDATE post_table SET post=“deleted” WHERE user_id=X” (could be more than one table and make this a little more complicated). You’d need a fully functional dev environment to fuck around with stuff like this.
Pretty sure Will was Wil or Wil789789 or something like that and was/is a good poster.
JBro also a good poster and one of my internet friends from pretty much when I started on 2p2 in 2005. :( STTF forever!
:( Playing with the admin pages is no fun. Playing with the database is.
@microbet I’ve looked at the schema for Discourse and it’s intimidating AF. I’m not touching it.
@anon46587892 I’d rather change the setting that limits the number of posts a person can delete in a single day. If somebody really wants their account deleted they should do the work themselves.
But I really think it’s best to give a temp ban cooling off period and then revisit. People only say they want their accounts deleted in the heat of the moment, and I don’t think such drastic actions should be taken under those circumstances.
The number of people who will truly want their account deleted after considering it for a week or two is going to be vanishingly small and we can address them on a case by case basis. The middle of a drama bomb is the worst place to make these decisions, for all parties.
Yeah, agree. If there were a button someone could push someone might be righteously indignant that admins don’t delete their account, but since it’s not trivial I think going “meh, I don’t feel like it” is the best way.
Even non-OPs are going to be quoted and deleting them will mess up threads. Anonymizing the user maybe ok, but there will be plenty of times someone just replied with their name and it won’t be caught. Posts also get cached by search engines.
Could somebody who voted for a cooling off period in the first poll but snap deletions in the second give their reasoning for that? Because choosing those two options doesn’t make any sense to me. I often get the feeling when we have multiple polls that people vote thoughtfully on the first one and then completely misunderstand the second.
Like, I’m not sure how somebody deserves a chance to rethink a perma-ban request but complete account deletion gets granted immediately.
Literally? No, as long as the mods can keep up with deletions.
Symbolically? Every post contains inter-species erotica if you think about it. Which you will.
Crap I assumed he was WillD who was also a good poaster
Wow even 22 had threads live on started by Another Loser didn’t it?
I don‘t understand why the cool down period for a permaban is shorter than for an anonomyzation.
I would still want the option of deleting if there is a safety and privacy concern, but I otherwise think it good for the standard to be that deleted accounts make all previous manifestations of the account anonymous. It’s the sort of caveat I’d say add to the terms and conditions. No one will read it, but it’d be nice for anyone who does and appreciates the clarification upfront.
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Like say we just get hit by a superhax brigade of alt-right doxxers, I may want a nuke button in that event, but would that even have any practical effect or is that like “duck and cover” when a nuclear bomb lands in your back yard?
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I don’t think losing the history of discussion is trivial. It was a choice made when to move because other factors overrode them.
Plus all those threads and posts are still online. So it is not the same at all. Losing entire threads because someone wants to take their ball and go home is not cool. Anyone not understanding that should probably just stop posting now.
It should not be a surprise to anyone or really a discussion when it comes up. We should not turn the forums into Swiss cheese because someone got a feather up their ass.
Perhaps a clear disclaimer explaining the policy and laying out that account wide deletions of content will not happen.
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Just get under a desk, it’ll be fine.
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