# Why is it that one can not delete one's CC account?



## EltonFrog (17 Aug 2015)

The Goodbye FB thread has got me wondering. If I wanted to delete my CC account ( which I don't) and remove my posts, photos etc I can't. It's not just this forum either, I belong to four other forums (dormant though) but I cant delete these accounts either.

Why is it I can delete FB, Twitter, LinkedIn yet not this or other forums.

Any ideas?


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## Drago (17 Aug 2015)

[QUOTE 3858392, member: 259"]You'll have to cancel all your likes first.[/QUOTE]

Shouldn't take User long!


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## EltonFrog (17 Aug 2015)

User said:


> You didn't read the small print, did you? @Shaun is actually the Devil and he now owns your soul.
> 
> He can also sell your organs for spare parts...



That doesn't frighten me, I used to have a Northern Rock mortgage.


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## Scoosh (17 Aug 2015)

CarlP said:


> The Goodbye FB thread has got me wondering. If I wanted to delete my CC account ( which I don't) and remove my posts, photos etc I can't. It's not just this forum either, I belong to four other forums (dormant though) but I cant delete theses accounts either.
> 
> Why is it I can delete FB, Twitter, LinkedIn yet not this or other forums.
> 
> Any ideas?


From the User Guidelines and Rules:


> *Leaving* - On registering for a user account you accepted that information you posted publicly will remain in our database and on public record, even if you later decide to leave the site or close your account. If you leave our community (of your own free will or otherwise), you may request the removal of any personally identifiable information linked with your account or content, however we will not delete your user account or any other associated content you have posted on the site.


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## jefmcg (17 Aug 2015)

Because Facebook is a huge company with 250+ million market cap, that subject to pressure and bad publicity, and has almost infinite resources to make changes.

CC is a small place, based on presumably open source software that probably is not designed for deletion, so would require reprogramming from the ground up. Combine that with .... what do you do with quotes of you? remove them? remove the entire quoting article? 

Facebook also insists on you using your real name, and most people do. I'm guessing you don't have a credit card named "CarlP", so you account won't likely come up in a google search on your name. And you can change your account name, so that gives you some privacy, too.

What @Scoosh quoted - if you delete an account, you will corrupt the database and break everything.


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## Tin Pot (17 Aug 2015)

CarlP said:


> That doesn't frighten me, I used to have a Northern Rock mortgage.


Safest mortgage in the UK.

You can delete all your own content, and alter your email address, details, Personally Identifiable Information, etc the account itself contains nothing that needs deleting, really.

If you had a concern, it would be in the backups of the data. It is unlikely (speaking generally) that a forum owner has backups with the capability to search and destroy specific users and their associated data. That would cost money.

The EU has something to ay about this, so ultimately you have recourse there.

HTH


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## classic33 (17 Aug 2015)

Scoosh said:


> From the User Guidelines and Rules:


How many actually read that part I wonder?


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## EltonFrog (17 Aug 2015)

Scoosh said:


> From the User Guidelines and Rules:



That doesn't answer the question. When I signed up for FB Twitter and LinkedIn, I agreed to similar T&C's but I was able to delete my accounts anyway (they don't make it easy) . Why can't folk delete their forum accounts if they want to? The right to be forgotten so to speak.


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## ianrauk (17 Aug 2015)

classic33 said:


> How many actually read that part I wonder?




How many people read any of the HELP, rules & regs? I'll tell you... not very many.


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## EltonFrog (17 Aug 2015)

classic33 said:


> How many actually read that part I wonder?



Not me. You?



ianrauk said:


> How many people read any of the HELP, rules & regs? I'll tell you... not very many.



No me.


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## classic33 (17 Aug 2015)

User said:


> You didn't read the small print, did you? @Shaun is actually the Devil and he now owns your soul.
> 
> He can also sell your organs for spare parts...





Shaun said:


> Anyway, how do you know it's me, a real person, typing all this stuff - I could _be_ the server! :borg:


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## classic33 (17 Aug 2015)

CarlP said:


> Not me. *You?*
> 
> 
> 
> No me.


Aye.


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## EltonFrog (17 Aug 2015)

classic33 said:


> Aye.



I feckin' knew you were a feckin' wierdo.


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## jefmcg (17 Aug 2015)

CarlP said:


> That doesn't answer the question. When I signed up for FB Twitter and LinkedIn, I agreed to similar T&C's but I was able to delete my accounts anyway (they don't make it easy) . Why can't folk delete their forum accounts if they want to? The right to be forgotten so to speak.


So, for a practical example, if you could delete you account .... 

What should happen to this thread if you do?


delete your posts, and leave the others intact, making it incomprehensible?
remove all posts, deleting other people's content without their permission?
leave your content here, but not attached you your username? Well, to do that, it would still have to have a unique name. So they would rename your account, but you can do that.
If you can come up with a practical way of removing an account, without garbling every thread you've been in, then I will volunteer to help shaun implement the change.


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## Shaun (17 Aug 2015)

Facebook and other sites insist that you register using personally identifiable information (and that the same information is made public as part of your use of their services and is also often used by themselves or other parties for marketing [and is stored on their company systems and those of other parties too]). They are obliged to remove such stored personally identifiable information at the users request, in the case of Facebook around 90 days after deletion is requested. They'll delete your timeline, comments, photos, likes, etc. but due to the "self" nature of such an account it doesn't impact greatly on other people's profiles or timelines.

In the case of CycleChat your account is created using a chosen username (pseudonym) which is not covered by any regulations and is not personally identifiable information. Equally any posts you make or threads you start are directly linked with others on the site and removing them would break the conversations. Since you are not posting them as "you" it is reasonable to leave them in place if you later decide to leave because nobody will be able to identify that they were posted by you. Everyone who registers for an account agrees to this when they sign-up and I have no problem in deleting any personal information from anywhere on the site, such as address, telephone numbers, email addresses, etc. (_people sometimes post this info on ride or classified threads and forget they've posted it_).

It is also a practical consideration; when people leave (_for whatever reason_) they usually intend it to be permanent, but in practice we've found that a good number later make a return (sometimes years later) and wish to re-open their original account.

Hope this helps. 

Cheers,
Shaun


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## blazed (17 Aug 2015)

jefmcg said:


> So, for a practical example, if you could delete you account ....
> 
> What should happen to this thread if you do?
> 
> ...



It's quite straight forward for the admin to delete an account if there is not an option in the admin control panel it would be done via the mysql database.

Deleting an account would automatically delete any thread created by the user and any post created by the user. It would remove the quote from anyone's post who quoted the users post. It's not really a big deal but I can understand why many forums don't allow it. 

Unless someones real name and info is plastered on the forum I don't see why anybody would care about having their posts/account deleted though.


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## classic33 (18 Aug 2015)

jefmcg said:


> Because Facebook is a huge company with 250+ million market cap, that subject to pressure and bad publicity, and has almost infinite resources to make changes.
> 
> CC is a small place, based on presumably open source software that probably is not designed for deletion, so would require reprogramming from the ground up. Combine that with .... what do you do with quotes of you? remove them? remove the entire quoting article?
> 
> ...


Was he with the TSB I wonder?
A "Classic Plus Account" by any chance.


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## Shaun (18 Aug 2015)

[QUOTE 3858622, member: 9609"]so how long are you going to keep all the threads and posts for ? and why ? Take a thread like "Tea" what are you going to do with it ? is anyone ever going to read it all from the beginning?
should there not be a time limit where posts drop off and disappear after say 5 years, it seems a bit wasteful to keep all of the witterings from made up characters for ever.[/QUOTE]

For as long as CycleChat is around we'll keep the content; some of the older threads and posts are still regularly referenced, many years after they were posted.


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## classic33 (18 Aug 2015)

[QUOTE 3858622, member: 9609"]should there not be a time limit where posts drop off and disappear after say 5 years, it seems a bit wasteful to keep all of the witterings from* made up characters for ever.*[/QUOTE]
I'm not made up!


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## jefmcg (18 Aug 2015)

User said:


> Publish it as a book?


Well, there is a precedent!


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## theclaud (18 Aug 2015)

CarlP said:


> That doesn't answer the question. When I signed up for FB Twitter and LinkedIn, I agreed to similar T&C's but I was able to delete my accounts anyway (they don't make it easy) . Why can't folk delete their forum accounts if they want to? *The right to be forgotten so to speak*.



Just out of interest, why do you see that as a right? Are people not responsible for what they post here, just as they are responsible for what they say/write/do elsewhere?


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## EltonFrog (18 Aug 2015)

theclaud said:


> Just out of interest, why do you see that as a right? Are people not responsible for what they post here, just as they are responsible for what they say/write/do elsewhere?



I don't see at as right, but mention in that post as a concept as put forward by others Including the EU. People are absolutely responsible for what they say and do on the Internet. Personal responsibility and all that. 

I put forward the question with regards to this site merely out of curiosity, and as they say in the best US legal dramas, it was asked and answered.


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## Spoked Wheels (18 Aug 2015)

jefmcg said:


> What @Scoosh quoted - if you delete an account, you will corrupt the database and break everything



Not necessarily, the code should be able to handle the exception not data found easily. Every programer I know would write exception handlers like a matter of yes or yes. The people that design and code a piece of software like CC aren't inexperienced software developers.


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## summerdays (18 Aug 2015)

Have you ever looked at a thread where someone has gone back and removed all their posts for whatever reason? What remains behind is a muddle. And that could be seen as a positive by someone having a flounce, wanting to leave in a flurry of disruption.


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## Spoked Wheels (18 Aug 2015)

What annoys me though it's you cannot delete an account with parcel2go. I wonder if that is legal, they hold financial information.


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## JMAG (18 Aug 2015)

Spoked Wheels said:


> I wonder if that is legal, they hold financial information.



Can't you just update any information you don't to leave there? Interesting and slightly disturbing nonetheless.

While I'm here I might as well confess that my name isn't really JMAG, it's Squirrel Hunter


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