Thoughts on deleting member accounts

[Talisman]

Today at 01:06 PM Jethro said this in Post #17
Talisman some good points dude, thanks for clearing up the "delete" semantics.

...A person finds themselfs as a member of a site which they didn't actually register at ... totally disagree with policy or content ... don't want to be associated with it. Surely they have a right to having their details removed from that sites records....

...if you are a member of say a political party ... political party changes it's direction ... right to have your membership and membership details removed from that party's database as they are in fact misrepresenting you.

No, not at all, Jethro.

Maybe it would help to look at this from a more neutral position. You keep giving us examples that are controversial..... in which case the involved parties are fairly well inflamed or the relationship is a bit heated. That's usually a lot harder to sort through, looking for an objective means for making what amounts to a very routine policy decision.

How you decide to close out memberships on people who quit should be done exactly the same way. No matter whether the member leaves because they're ticked off and everyone's mad about something .... or whether they just got bored and they're leaving under more pleasant circumstances.

Let's look at this same thing from a different angle...

One day (a few decades ago when we didn't have computers), you felt this overwhelming urge to commune with nature, and you joined a birdwatching club in your local area. (You see... nothing to do with computers and it's not political. ....... Well, not very political..... as long as the local developers refrain from cutting down too many trees.)

For the next two years, you enjoyed going on nature hikes with the others and spotting and identifying all the birds you could find. Then, you got bored with the club and you decided to quit. You sent the club president a little note thanking them for all the fun times, but asked that they DELETE you from the club.

Now what happens? I think.... whoever does all the record keeping for that club would take you off the current list and your name would be removed from their mailing list. But, realistically, I think that's the extent of it. They probably wouldn't do anything else. (And why should they?)

Just because you don't want to continue your association with that club, doesn't mean anybody will trudge downstairs to the basement where they stashed 5 years worth of club-related documents .... so they can start shredding every piece of paper they've ever filed away that's got your name on it.

During the range of dates you were a member of their club, you WERE a member. So nothing is being misrepresented.

[Talisman]

Today at 02:05 PM Jethro said this in Post #20
Your thoughts Talisman, am still trying to find a loop hole in your arguement in the previous post, but seems pretty tight and defiantly gives me some food for thought. Back to you on that one later dude

Oh good. LOL!

Hope the bird thing I just posted gives you fits .....

[Steve Machol]

Today at 01:06 PM Jethro said this in Post #17
[B]Another thought for you. A person finds themselfs as a member of a site which they didn't actually register at (maybe they registered at a previous incarnation or something), they totally disagree with policy or content at that site and don't want to be associated with it. Surely they have a right to having their details removed from that sites records .... remember they didn't actually register at that site.

I agree that the user in this case has the right to ask to have his account deleted, or at a minimum changed in such a way that all identifying info is removed (name, email address, etc.) If the Admin doesn't want to remove an account, I don't understand why they wouldn't at least change the info to remove personal data.

[filburt1]

Users themselves can remove all information about themselves (except for IP, obviously) via their User CP's, Steve

[Steve Machol]

Not if you require email activation and they want to change the email to one not associated with themselves.

[filburt1]

But in the context of account deletion, should it matter? They can change their e-mail to some nonexistant address, and because they'd never get the e-mail, they'd be perpetually locked out, anyway...right?

[Steve Machol]

True. However I really don't see the problem with an Admin complying with this request.

[filburt1]

Keeping records, among other things. Also the user removal system would have to be edited to include hacks that store information per user (for example, deleting mail messages for a given user when that user is deleted from the admin CP). Yes, it's simple, but it would be hell to maintain for sites with a lot of hacks.

[Steve Machol]

I meant changing the data to remove personal info. This is not something that would affect your hacks or database at all.

[filburt1]

Ah gotcha.

Had me confused for a moment