Questions about dealing with deleted accounts

[Tommy]

Maybe these are plug-in requests - I'm sure it's all been asked before but I did searches and couldn't find anything specific.

I understand why members are allowed to delete their accounts or have it deleted but couldn't we have a cooling off period before it becomes permanent? I agree with what someone else here said in another post that most of our high profile deleted accounts have experienced second thoughts and come back requesting to get their accounts back or they start a new account and continue on.

Is there a coding way to change the deleted member name and rank wording that appears on all posts left behind? Username "deleted" and rank "deleted member" look like a staff option and in our case it never is but we end up having to explain that it wasn't us. Our staff rarely bans (except for spammers) but we would do that before even considering deleting a significant account.

If this isn't possible, how about a small step in that direction by just not showing the "deleted member" rank if an account is deleted?

[Kami]

Mar 17, 2024 9:41:36 GMT -8 Tommy said:

Maybe these are plug-in requests - I'm sure it's all been asked before but I did searches and couldn't find anything specific.

I understand why members are allowed to delete their accounts or have it deleted but couldn't we have a cooling off period before it becomes permanent? I agree with what someone else here said in another post that most of our high profile deleted accounts have experienced second thoughts and come back requesting to get their accounts back or they start a new account and continue on.

Is there a coding way to change the deleted member name and rank wording that appears on all posts left behind? Username "deleted" and rank "deleted member" look like a staff option and in our case it never is but we end up having to explain that it wasn't us. Our staff rarely bans (except for spammers) but we would do that before even considering deleting a significant account.

If this isn't possible, how about a small step in that direction by just not showing the "deleted member" rank if an account is deleted?

While I cannot say definitively why there isn't a "cool down" period before an account is terminated, I would surmise that privacy laws have more hoops to jump through to have a period of time before the removal request (ie pressing the delete button) and when the data is actually removed. That's just a semi-educated guess though, so take it with a heaping helping of salt.

All that said, you are not obligated to keep the default phrasing. You can change this per theme in your layout templates. Personally, I have it set up to call out "Guests" and "Former Members" rather than "Anonymous" and "Deleted". You can also use the layout templates to remove or change any of the titles for guests and deleted accounts.

If you have multiple themes and find that changing this per theme is too much of a hassle, you can (probably) request a plugin.

It is worth noting a couple of things tho:
- Plugins and templates don't work on the mobile view. If you have the mobile view enabled (which it is by default) for users in their phones, these changes will not appear and they can still see the default text.

- Plugins are written in javascript and run after content is loaded. It will not be noticeable to most people / in most circumstances, but there can be a delay which will show the original text briefly before showing the replacement.

hope that helps!

[Scott]

Tommy -
Because our service extends to all countries, we have different data protection and privacy laws we need to be compliant with. (This also includes regional laws, such as US state laws.) Immediate account deletion keeps us legal with everyone. However I will mark this as a Feature Request should the option to have a "cooling off period" become available.



As far as changing "Deleted" to something else, perhaps this will help  (This comes with the same caveat that Kami mentioned above, that it will not affect mobile version):

support.proboards.com/thread/667204/changing-word-deleted-resolved

support.proboards.com/thread/666395/changing-user-deleted-different-name

[Tommy]

Thank you Kami for the ideas and Scott for the links, that sounds like a pretty good workaround especially since most of our members including myself mostly access the forum from desktops.

Scott I totally get what you explained about the right to delete. What has never made sense to me though is if I understand it correctly, if a member deletes their account they completely forfeit the artistic license to their posts. Does one right out weigh the other?

Thanks again both.

[Kami]

Mar 18, 2024 10:59:45 GMT -8 Tommy said:

Thank you Kami for the ideas and Scott for the links, that sounds like a pretty good workaround especially since most of our members including myself mostly access the forum from desktops.

Scott I totally get what you explained about the right to delete. What has never made sense to me though is if I understand it correctly, if a member deletes their account they completely forfeit the artistic license to their posts. Does one right out weigh the other?

Thanks again both.

I defer to Scott on the Official PB Answer but I think I can shed some non-official light on stuff Scott may not be at liberty to mention. Over the years what I have seen as the policy / how the policy has evolved with new legislation, there are two things that happen when a member deletes their account, but doesn't delete any content they submitted prior to doing so:

- Unless the content contains personally identifiable information (real name, home address, phone number, etc), any content that was freely submitted remains on the forum to preserve chronology of threads.

- If there is a legitimate claim on their intellectual property (not all posts count as such, the content MUST be content that can be copyrighted, trademarked, or patented to be considered intellectual property), then there's some room for debate there.

I think where people trip up usually is what constitutes as "intellectual property". Is a post inherently intellectual property? In most cases the answer is "no", because the content likely cannot be copyrighted, trademarked, or patented. But, someone blatantly plagiarising someone's post is in violation of the TOS. Since both statements are true, many people I think wind up assuming that PB holds that all posts are intellectual property, when the reality is it's two separate things.

Intellectual Property is a legal definition of a work that is original, creative, and can go through the official process of being recognised as such by filing the appropriate paperwork (irrespective of if the creator decides to go through the process); it is not a colloquial term that refers to "I thought of it therefore it is mine".

When a user deletes their account, most of the content they posted is likely neither IP nor personally identifiable, and therefore having freely submitted that content, those posts are not eligible to be removed. If the post is IP, it's a more involved process because they did freely submit that content to the forum; does revoking access now that their account is gone by their own choosing — even tho they neglected to remove their own content, or were unable to in the event that a thread was locked, prior to deleting the account — hold up legally? There is no one-size-fits-all answer to that, (un?)fortunately.

[Tommy]

Thank you Kami that does make sense.

A couple of years ago we had a member get upset over something we never figured out what, and he painstakingly deleted over 700 of his own posts before deleting his account. We actually let him join again a year later with his promise not to do that again and sure enough he did it again. Not as many posts the second time around thankfully.

[Kami]

Mar 18, 2024 19:10:19 GMT -8 Tommy said:

Thank you Kami that does make sense.

A couple of years ago we had a member get upset over something we never figured out what, and he painstakingly deleted over 700 of his own posts before deleting his account. We actually let him join again a year later with his promise not to do that again and sure enough he did it again. Not as many posts the second time around thankfully.

No problem! But yeah unfortunately, if they choose to delete the posts they submitted prior to deleting, that is well within their right. It might be beneficial to archive to a posting-disabled board and/or lock threads when their done to prevent that in the future, but the above caveats re: personally identifiable info & IP apply.

[Tommy]

Mar 17, 2024 10:31:43 GMT -8 Kami said:

All that said, you are not obligated to keep the default phrasing. You can change this per theme in your layout templates. Personally, I have it set up to call out "Guests" and "Former Members" rather than "Anonymous" and "Deleted". You can also use the layout templates to remove or change any of the titles for guests and deleted accounts.

Hi Kami, if I may revisit this - before I posted this thread I searched through the layout template looking for 'deleted' so I could play with changing it as you said to something like former member etc. I was unable to pin down the bit of code that is controlling that though. Can you show me where to find it?

I understand about the mobile view not showing it the same.

Thanks,
Tommy

[Scott]

Tommy - did you have a chance to review the links I posted? It's been a while since I looked this, but if I recall correctly it involves some template code changes in addition to just changing the existing 'deleted' text.

[Tommy]

Mar 26, 2024 6:55:12 GMT -8 Scott said:

Tommy - did you have a chance to review the links I posted? It's been a while since I looked this, but if I recall correctly it involves some template code changes in addition to just changing the existing 'deleted' text.

Oops, sorry Scott I originally made a mental note to come back and check the links then I complete forgot I have a bad case of CRS and it flares up way too often lol.

Thank you Scott, looks like I'm on the right track now.