user self deletion/account deactivation

[nexialys]

Hi, i'm asking this here just to see if someone already worked something about this.

is there a hack somewhere for giving the ability to users to delete their own account, or at least deactivate it ??

and if no, is there someone here having some requests on such a hack ?

[AN-net]

i dont like the idea of this since someone can easily go on a user's computer and delete their account, either at work, school, or home...

[nexialys]

ya, but if someone is able to access your account in a single way, to delete it or write stupid things or scramble your account or anything is possible... deleting it would not make it more dangerous... just keep your password secure.. ;)

[AN-net]

if a user wants to delete their account then they should have an admin do it;)

[nexialys]

yeah, but for a community of more than 50 000 users, do you think it's fair to ask someone to take the time to delete 5 or 10 users per day only because nobody had a script to deal with this?!

remember, ALL the systems you visit aside of the forum softwares have the ability to let the users delete their account: msn, yahoo, download.com, hotmail, etc...

[AN-net]

maybe instead of deleting their own they send in deletion tickets which are sent to admins and the admins can either approve it or disapprove. and then all the tickets at the end of defined period are processed and the users are deleted;)

[Natch]

IMO accounts should NEVER be deleted - only moved to a group which has no access.

[nexialys]

Natch, you're not far from the truth, but the problem is "what do we do with the content" ??

usually, users that want to be deleted wants their stuff deleted as well, their access to the board is not to be taken under consideration...

i never saw someone deleting his account only to tell: i don't want to have access to this board anymore...

usually, it looks like: i don't want to have my name on that board anymore...

so the point is... what would be the use of such a feature, and on what level you can tell you'll be using it...?!

[AN-net]

i think my idea of ticketing is good since an admin can verify if that user who they claim to be and will lower the likelyhood of fraud deletions;)

[nexialys]

ya, i know that a good filtering is needed... what to let the system be usergroup based ?! so the spammers can't register hundreds of times to delete afterward...

and what if users are forced to enter a reason to the deletion, like for tickets, but something more precise: users enter a reason, and the system put them into a usergroup with no access, like banned, and the admin have the choice to delete them after reading the reason...

no?!

btw, i don't like the idea to completely delete a user, like in the system right now... if someone delete an account and 5 minutes later someone else register with the other username, everybody will think that it's the same user... not fair. putting the user into stasis is better...

but a system is needed inside the board i think...

something like:

1- users with proper permissions can access the link in the usercp to delete.

2- after verification and validation, the user is forced to enter a reason, and when sent the user is logged-out and the reason is sent to the admin that will deal with the deletion or not.

3- btw, the user is now in a usergroup with no permission, so the account is valid and not deleted... but every count is set to zero, as guest... so the old content is not reachable if the user change his mind...

good idea ?!

[Natch]

Another option would be if you wanna retain their content, but they don't wnna have their name in the public view on the forum, add them to Tachy :D

[Zachery]

Another option would be if you wanna retain their content, but they don't wnna have their name in the public view on the forum, add them to Tachy :D
Depends on the TOS, but generaly my sites, all content is copyrighted to the site so, in a sense me. ive had a few users request deletion and i told them we dont do that, but i will lock your account. They aruged abit but i told them that they agreeded to the terms when they signed up.

most of the time i find that after a user requests a deltion they change their mind within a week.

[nexialys]

so if users have their own access to a feature like that, depending on the options, this could be good ?!

'cos i have one done... with some good features and some others to create soon:

1- users with permissions can access the Self Delete feature in their userCP
2- depending on choice of the admin, users are:
--a: killed/completely deleted (exact same function as when admin kill a user)
--b: sent to a usergroup of the admin choice (8 = banned)
3- can be forced to enter a reason (sent to the admin)

...i asked the question to see the possibilities of features, i even had someone asking for pruning users each time they delete themselves... it makes a board with a lot of empty posts... possible, but stupid!

other features ?!
.... i may not release the hack here, usually when someone release such hacks, the thread is filled with debates about the features instead of support... so i may simply give a link to it in my sig...