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2013BRM

Original Poster:

39,731 posts

313 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
how please

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
2013BRM said:
how please
Just walk away and don't log back in.

spitfire4v8

4,025 posts

210 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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There's always a steady stream of posts asking to remove accounts. Why can't PH just give a remove account button? Is it just that they want to sell as many users as possible to advertisers and therefore make it virtually impossible for people to remove themselves? I've never understood this policy of not allowing people to remove their account when they want. Can anyone explain it?

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
spitfire4v8 said:
There's always a steady stream of posts asking to remove accounts. Why can't PH just give a remove account button? Is it just that they want to sell as many users as possible to advertisers and therefore make it virtually impossible for people to remove themselves? I've never understood this policy of not allowing people to remove their account when they want. Can anyone explain it?
How do you "remove an account"? Do you delete all the posts from every thread they've contributed to? What about where they've been quoted?

It'd make an utter nonsense of historical threads.

Why do people feel they NEED to "remove their account"? Why can't they just walk away?

t400ble

1,804 posts

150 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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Normally they are chucking all the toys out of the pram.......

Sheepshanks

40,901 posts

148 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
How do you "remove an account"? Do you delete all the posts from every thread they've contributed to? What about where they've been quoted?

It'd make an utter nonsense of historical threads.

Why do people feel they NEED to "remove their account"? Why can't they just walk away?
The user name could be deleted from the database without affecting previous posts. There are a couple of obvious reasons why that wouldn't be done though.

I guess people ask for it to make a point - as this is a commercial site if I ran it I'd want to know why a 15yr / 40K post member wanted to leave.

spitfire4v8

4,025 posts

210 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
TooMany2cvs said:
spitfire4v8 said:
There's always a steady stream of posts asking to remove accounts. Why can't PH just give a remove account button? Is it just that they want to sell as many users as possible to advertisers and therefore make it virtually impossible for people to remove themselves? I've never understood this policy of not allowing people to remove their account when they want. Can anyone explain it?
How do you "remove an account"? Do you delete all the posts from every thread they've contributed to? What about where they've been quoted?

It'd make an utter nonsense of historical threads.

Why do people feel they NEED to "remove their account"? Why can't they just walk away?
This:

Sheepshanks said:
TooMany2cvs said:
How do you "remove an account"? Do you delete all the posts from every thread they've contributed to? What about where they've been quoted?

It'd make an utter nonsense of historical threads.

Why do people feel they NEED to "remove their account"? Why can't they just walk away?
The user name could be deleted from the database without affecting previous posts. There are a couple of obvious reasons why that wouldn't be done though.

I guess people ask for it to make a point - as this is a commercial site if I ran it I'd want to know why a 15yr / 40K post member wanted to leave.

road hog

2,658 posts

242 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
just get a lifetime ban biggrin

Countdown

49,249 posts

225 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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Sheepshanks said:
I guess people ask for it to make a point - as this is a commercial site if I ran it I'd want to know why a 15yr / 40K post member wanted to leave.
If I had 5 people joining for every member leaving I'd probably not be too bothered smile

eldar

25,246 posts

225 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
t400ble said:
Normally they are chucking all the toys out of the pram.......
Look at me, I'm really going, and you can't stop me. A sulky flounce.

TankRizzo

8,012 posts

222 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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They always come back, either as themselves or an AE.

Doofus

34,285 posts

202 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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I 'walked away' once. I just quietly went, no flouncing. But, like everyone else, I came back eventually.

I found that once you've spent time in such an irritating, immature and pointless environment as PH, people in the real world just don't instill enough ire, and you find yourself craving that fix.

smile ((c) Vipers 2015)

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

155 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
quotequote all
Sheepshanks said:
The user name could be deleted from the database without affecting previous posts.
Except it couldn't, not really.

A post in the database is listed as a record of <user id x>, <thread y>, timestamp, text etc.
When the thread is viewed, <user id x> is looked up, and resolved to "Sheepshanks". If you remove that entry, it'll resolve as "user ID unidentified"... BUT the quoted user ID is stored as text, as is where a user is merely referenced by name. Then add in users with names that might be misquoted or edited.

But even if the user ID was deleted, what's to stop somebody else then creating a new user ID of "Sheepshanks"? Your previous posts would still be mis-credited, but quoted text would look like they'd said it.

But I guess that's what you mean by "couple of obvious reasons".

AndrewEH1

4,922 posts

182 months

Wednesday 4th November 2015
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I wish the Mods would just perma-ban anyone who creates a thread like this, no don't that will really annoy whoever wanted to close their account.

Goaty Bill 2

3,592 posts

148 months

Thursday 5th November 2015
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Doofus said:
I 'walked away' once. I just quietly went, no flouncing. But, like everyone else, I came back eventually.

I found that once you've spent time in such an irritating, immature and pointless environment as PH, people in the real world just don't instill enough ire, and you find yourself craving that fix.

smile ((c) Vipers 2015)
Classic, and so (almost) true thumbup