Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place

Should a member be allowed to delete her/his own account?

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moremojo:
To my BetterMost friends:

This is not my situation at the moment, but as many here know, last month I fully intended to withdraw from BetterMost for a complicated and personal set of reasons. I learned to my dismay that I was unable to delete my account on my own, and had to appeal to an administrator to do it for me--the administrators' position being consistently one of sitting on one's feelings in the hope that it would pass in a few weeks.

This was quite frustrating to me at the time, and though my sense of urgency and despair has passed, I still, upon reflection, feel it should be a basic right and dignity of mine to join and at least leave any online forum as it suits me to do so. There can be any number of reasons for a person to undertake such a choice, and it should be the person's prerogative to act as their own free agent in pursuing such a choice, without being compelled to argue or explain themselves to an owner/moderator. This strikes me as the same kind of potentially manipulative and/or misleading stances and actions that played a part in my consideration in withdrawing from online communications altogether.

So I submit this poll to gauge other members's feeling on this question, and perhaps present it as evidence, one way or the other, to administrators as either support or rebuke of their own position.

Respectfully,
Scott

ifyoucantfixit:
       i was of two minds on this issue Scott.  i Do believe it is your right to do that if you choose.
Now having said that.  It did bear out to be the best that you did not do it.  You have stayed  and are still, happily, i hope with us...So there is wisdom on both sides....

Jeff Wrangler:
I didn't know we couldn't.  ??? I figured you could "open" and "close" accounts sorta like at a bank. I guess not.  :-\

louisev:
This option is set by the owner of the forum, and having heard the reasons, I think they are sound ones.  Nothing prevents users from leaving, or from deleting all of their messages, either.  But control over when accounts get  deleted is reserved here for the owner of the forum - in this case, Phillip.  One of the truly compelling arguments for not having users delete their own accounts is to prevent users from deleting an account and creating a stealth account to return in order to cause mischief on the forum.  Another, more common use for it, is in the case where a member decides quite impulsively to leave the forum and wants to leave no trace of their passing, and in most cases (according to Phillip) they change their minds after that impulse passes, and by the time the forum administrator asks "But are you SURE" which is why there is the cooling off period.

But if the purpose in deleting an account is to LEAVE the forum - nothing prevents anyone from ceasing to post, from deleting their writings, or leaving.  All that the administrator has retained is the right to decide when (and if) to delete the user's account.

moremojo:

--- Quote from: louise van hine on September 06, 2007, 02:00:59 pm ---But if the purpose in deleting an account is to LEAVE the forum - nothing prevents anyone from ceasing to post, from deleting their writings, or leaving.  All that the administrator has retained is the right to decide when (and if) to delete the user's account.
--- End quote ---
Then this stipulation should be stated very clearly before or when a prospective member joins. I'm also not sure if members who joined before a change in policy should necessarily be subjected to every nuance of that policy change.

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