Answer: As a general rule the answer to this will be "no". For reasons and exceptions read on.
The primary reason for not deleting user accounts is that it destroys the functionality of the search feature. All posts made by a forum account are associated with that account to allow users to see who made the post (obviously). If an account is deleted then all those post links are lost and as far as the database is concerned they become "guest" posts. This prevents people researching who find a certain post made by a given user interesting from searching for other posts made by that same user. It is no longer possible to sort out different posts made by different accounts, since they are all just "guests". If your reason for wanting your account deleted is to damage the functionality of the search feature then the answer will be "no".
One might seek to remove these orphaned posts by deleting them all. This will however destroy many past topics, making them unreadable. This is unfair to people who might find reading past topics very useful. Preserving old topics is important since it is a historical record of events and public opinion of events that might be useful for others to read in the future. As such, all an account's posts will not be deleted to enable an account to be deleted.
If an account only has a few posts and the account holder wishes it removed after a relatively short time, then in this case the posts might be deleted and then the account removed, since it will cause minimal disruption. Especially if the posts are "off topic".
If your wish is simply to "leave" the forum because you do not wish to continue posting for whatever reason then there is no reason that this necessitates your account being deleted. Old accounts left on the board do no harm by being there, and as we have discussed, removing them actively damages the board. It also leaves the option open to the user to return to the same account at a later date. There are many cases of users who's lives have changed leading them to decide that they did not have time to take part in the forum any more, who have later returned to their accounts months or even years later. There is nothing wrong in doing this.
If you have more than one forum account (which is a violation of the forum rules) then you can message an administrator and they can arrange to have your accounts merged.
If you feel that you have some special reason for needing your account to be deleted then you may message a forum administrator to discuss it. But there must be a genuinely good reason for doing so. Accounts are not deleted whimsically or "just because". |
