What about some sort of a “waiting period”? I agree that having this as the default or even one of the options might make this too easy… but what if you could request it, and the system would start some sort of timer, allowing the option to be granted, say, after a month.
This way, you can’t just hit the “wipe” button without having to go through the waiting period.
Actually… after typing this suggestion, I guess I don’t see why if someone really, really wants their stuff eradicated… they shouldn’t have to go do it themselves. I just have a hard time envisioning what could be that bad here, even though it has come up. I’m still going to leave the suggestion as it stands. It’s an idea.
Actually… after typing this suggestion, I guess I don’t see why if someone really, really wants their stuff eradicated… they shouldn’t have to go do it themselves. I just have a hard time envisioning what could be that bad here, even though it has come up.
I could see why Roko deleted his entire account when he did. And I expect the experience of clicking each comment individually was cathartic!
I’m trying to estimate how long it would take me to delete all of my comments manually. I’m thinking in the order of 4 or so hours. A LOT of text would be gone! On the other hand writing a bot that would refresh my user page and click every delete/confirm would take about 15 minutes. :)
Indeed, and after seeing the comment to that effect, I realized how much superior that proposal was. Everyone is happy—comments stay put, no insane hand-work is required, and there’s no tracking the person to their old content.
In rethinking about it again due to your comment, I agree that there’s no way I could mean what I said with respect to someone (like yourself) with a huuuge amount of content. For someone who made an “oops” and posted some stuff without thinking about a good user name, perhaps it was a reasonsable suggestion.
I didn’t think through all of the situations in which someone would want to remove an account, and should have done so.
The suggestion for a simple change of username is wonderful.
What about some sort of a “waiting period”? I agree that having this as the default or even one of the options might make this too easy… but what if you could request it, and the system would start some sort of timer, allowing the option to be granted, say, after a month.
This way, you can’t just hit the “wipe” button without having to go through the waiting period.
Actually… after typing this suggestion, I guess I don’t see why if someone really, really wants their stuff eradicated… they shouldn’t have to go do it themselves. I just have a hard time envisioning what could be that bad here, even though it has come up. I’m still going to leave the suggestion as it stands. It’s an idea.
I could see why Roko deleted his entire account when he did. And I expect the experience of clicking each comment individually was cathartic!
I’m trying to estimate how long it would take me to delete all of my comments manually. I’m thinking in the order of 4 or so hours. A LOT of text would be gone! On the other hand writing a bot that would refresh my user page and click every delete/confirm would take about 15 minutes. :)
Indeed, and after seeing the comment to that effect, I realized how much superior that proposal was. Everyone is happy—comments stay put, no insane hand-work is required, and there’s no tracking the person to their old content.
In rethinking about it again due to your comment, I agree that there’s no way I could mean what I said with respect to someone (like yourself) with a huuuge amount of content. For someone who made an “oops” and posted some stuff without thinking about a good user name, perhaps it was a reasonsable suggestion.
I didn’t think through all of the situations in which someone would want to remove an account, and should have done so.
The suggestion for a simple change of username is wonderful.