Allows account deletion while preserving previous contributions or activity.

What's your goal, Aster? 

What you're describing reminds me of a friend who cured himself of his Twitter habit by changing his password to a long string of nonsense and not letting his password manager store it :D - everything he'd written remained but he no longer had access to it.

Would that be close enough to meet your needs here?

 ASTER:

disconnect my social and communication accounts

It's not possible to remove social accounts oneself then? That's a different and very specific request. Someone with access to the members' database could probably delete the info for you. Otherwise block MDL on the social accounts' side.

For email, make a throw away account somewhere free like Outlook and switch your MDL to that.

 ASTER:

"I want my work to live on without an owner."

Remove your avatar, profile info, whatever else you want disappeared. Change your user and display names to something not associated with yourself and leave.

It will have the same effect without asking the devs for what could be a major retrofit of the site code.

And if you're very certain that none of this will work or meet your needs, make a specific request to admins asking for help disconnecting your socials. They'll need you to have an email but it doesn't have to be one you'll continue using.

Ok Aster, if you're going to ignore the suggestions, if you're going to take one small thing, misread it and turn it into a battle, go for it.

I'm not going to fight you. I have no interest in fighting you. I sought out and reframed your goals so it's something you can do.

Good luck.

I realise it has been a long time since this post was made, but I think this is a valid suggestion. Just like deleted accounts on reddit, where the username on comments would then show as '[deleted]' but their comments still remain as part of the conversation. It could be provided as an option for people who would like their part in the discussions on here stay on, while no links to their original profiles remain. The original option for complete removal could of course remain for users who want complete deletion.

This is assuming the user's activity on here is completely removed, following the discussion here: https://kisskh.at/discussions/support/144274-activity-remain-and-account-deletion. The FAQ only mentions that the account will be deleted, and not whether the activity will remain but anonymised like on reddit, so some clarity on this issue would be appreciated.

Taking this one step further would be a possibly more nuanced implementation of  inactive accounts. Like if a friend passes away, it would be nice to memorialise their contributions here, so that a part of their story lives on, and their account remains protected from being deleted due to inactivity somewhere down the line - similar to how Instagram says 'Remembering' on their page. It's a small thing, but would mean a lot to the people close to them. (If this needs another post, or already exists, please let me know.)

@Elisheva, I understand your suggestion, and it kinda works even if it requires a bit more work out of the user. However, manually anonymising the account and then leaving does not remove the user email (or other sign-in method used) from the account, which would then have to be again manually deleted by creating a support ticket, though idk if an account can even exist without some form of linked sign-in method. Surely a more elegant solution to deactivation would be to allow users to choose what remains just before confirming account deletion? Of course, at the end of the day, the devs would decide if it is actually feasible, but at least as another developer (not MDL), this seems reasonable to be put into consideration. Even from an admin perspective of managing account states, it's more practical to have a clear distinction between active/deactivated/memorialised accounts rather than having some manually altered ghost accounts in the database that appear active but have no attached sign-in method (if that is even possible).

 HolyAvocado0o:

@Elisheva, I understand your suggestion, and it kinda works even if it requires a bit more work out of the user. However, manually anonymising the account and then leaving does not remove the user email (or other sign-in method used) from the account,

Perhaps you didn't - read back, I offered a hack for how to handle the email requirement. Hacks are all we can implement ourselves. Without knowing how the site code is structured, any suggestion we offer beyond that is just entertaining ourselves.

In other threads at the time, Aster seemed quite anxious to leave the site quickly. Given how long it would take for the devs to make, test (imagine the disaster if they tweaked the log-in code and got it wrong) and implement the necessary changes, I thought it worth thinking things through to figure out what was possible to do then and there - pragmatic, goal-orientated thinking rather than theoretical wouldn't it be lovely if the devs did this. Because quite frankly, the devs do what they want, whenever they get around to it and ignore everything else.

It was a good faith attempt to help Aster accomplish what they said they wanted. Aster is still active on the site though. Seems leaving wasn't that important after all.

 Elisheva:

Perhaps you didn't - read back, I offered a hack for how to handle the email requirement. Hacks are all we can implement ourselves. Without knowing how the site code is structured, any suggestion we offer beyond that is just entertaining ourselves.

I did read your hack - it involved asking support and hoping someone with access to the users database can manually remove socials  and emails from the account. My response referred to that as a problem, saying it is unlikely that can be done in the first place due to integrity checks, and that a proper implementation from the dev side is the elegant way to go. 

Indeed it is true that only the devs know how feasible an idea is, which is why this forum exists - to gauge interest for new suggestions so they can see for themselves if it is worth implementing. A blanket 'no' and a hack that is unlikely to work is not the only response a suggestion should have. I'm simply saying we bring this up and let the devs decide, agreeing with @Aster, as while a hack might exist, it's worth putting forward this suggestion for a possible implementation in the long run.

After all, these are suggestions, not demands, and in a forum called 'Suggestions'. They don't need to be implemented if the devs don't find it feasible. A hack is nice, but this is not a support ticket.

 Elisheva:

pragmatic, goal-orientated thinking rather than theoretical wouldn't it be lovely if the devs did this. Because quite frankly, the devs do what they want, whenever they get around to it and ignore everything else.

I appreciate you suggesting the hack - it is indeed the only thing that anyone who wishes to deactivate without removing all their posts and comments can attempt to do right now. Which is exactly why this suggestion post exists in the first place. I believe this section of the forum, named 'Suggestions', should be a safe space to gauge interest for new suggestions too, whether hacks exist or not, so that devs could decide if it is feasible or not. Otherwise, why would anyone suggest anything new on here?

 Elisheva:

It was a good faith attempt to help Aster accomplish what they said they wanted. Aster is still active on the site though. Seems leaving wasn't that important after all.

I don't get why you're attacking them. This isn't personal, and they have their own reasons for posting a suggestion and choosing whether to use a platform or not. Frankly, I'd find it useful in the future too. So might other users who don't know of this forum's existence and yet might like to deactivate their accounts without erasing their comments and reviews. Suggestions for features are not limited to be used by one person. If that was the case, they would have opened a support ticket instead.

 ASTER:

When I share a suggestion, it isn’t only for my own benefit it’s meant for the site and for others who may share a similar perspective. If considered and implemented, it could potentially be a valuable feature.

+1 on this. I'm one of the others who finds this useful for the future, thank you for making the post >"<

 ASTER:

When I share a suggestion, it isn’t only for my own benefit it’s meant for the site and for others who may share a similar perspective.

I understand this. I truly do not need it explained to me. If you really do believe in mutual respect, please respect me in this.

The work-arounds I offered might likewise help someone else. You presented a problem, I sought to understand it better and offered things which could be done which are not dependent on the devs rewriting code. In case you or someone else ever felt the need to use them.

Your Suggestion is still here - available for the devs to see, for discussion, and for anyone who wishes to add their support with their votes.

That is all.