Deleted Members Plug-In Request

[Templar]

Hello,

It does not look good on the forum to show threads started by "Deleted."

I would like to have a plug in that allows forum admin to eliminate this from the forum by simply allowing us to assign a generic name or ID to the location "deleted" shows up for each and every member who quits and closes their account.

And if someone should click on the new user name, the plug in can give them a message this member has left the forum or something to that effect.

When one person leaves, its not so bad. When 10 leave it is now getting worse and it adds up over time to have bunch of posts and threads by "Deleted" and forum admin should have a way to at least make the appearance of this go away.

And it would be really nice if the deleted members posts and threads could retain their user ID after the leave the forum but that might be asking too much?

Thanks!

[Kami]

Feb 1, 2021 8:11:09 GMT -8 Templar said:

Hello,

It does not look good on the forum to show threads started by "Deleted."

I would like to have a plug in that allows forum admin to eliminate this from the forum by simply allowing us to assign a generic name or ID to the location "deleted" shows up for each and every member who quits and closes their account.

And if someone should click on the new user name, the plug in can give them a message this member has left the forum or something to that effect.

When one person leaves, its not so bad. When 10 leave it is now getting worse and it adds up over time to have bunch of posts and threads by "Deleted" and forum admin should have a way to at least make the appearance of this go away.

And it would be really nice if the deleted members posts and threads could retain their user ID after the leave the forum but that might be asking too much?

Thanks!

I can't speak to whether or not a plugin can be made for this from a coding perspective, but some thoughts on the matter from just a practical perspective:

The reason "Deleted" appears as the name of the user who left is for compliance with privacy laws. Usernames / user IDs are considered identifying information and privacy laws state that when a user deletes their account off of a service, their identifying data should be removed. Some services find ways around the letter of the law, but PB makes an effort to follow both the letter and spirit of it.

In light of this, I am not certain how allowable a plugin that reassigns an ID to a deleted account is; if a deleted user gets assigned an ID, that ID could be used to piece their post history together and glean additional identifying content.

tagging Michael for input.

A less elegant, but probably more permissible solution would be to use the templates to change the word "Deleted" to something else ("Former Member" etc) and link that to a custom page explaining that the member is no longer part of the forum. If you wanted to have fun with it, you could create a persona like "Absent Annie" or whatever for all deleted accounts and then link the name like it's a username leading to the custom page explaining that "Absent Annie" represents former forum members.

A caveat with this solution though is that template modifications don't appear on the stripped down mobile version, but this won't be the case in v6 (no ETA on it, but it's in closed beta right now).

[Michael]

Hi,

We have been internally discussing a way to add a singular generic name to all "deleted" members through the admin panel (think just a basic text field that would apply to all deleted members), much in the manner that Kami described above with the "Absent Annie" example. While it is likely that this does get implemented it will not make it into v5 and will exclusively be a v6+ feature.

[Kami]

Feb 3, 2021 13:21:00 GMT -8 Michael said:

Hi,

We have been internally discussing a way to add a singular generic name to all "deleted" members through the admin panel (think just a basic text field that would apply to all deleted members), much in the manner that Kami described above with the "Absent Annie" example. While it is likely that this does get implemented it will not make it into v5 and will exclusively be a v6+ feature.

Would a plugin that assigns an ID be permissible or no (I believe that's what OP wanted).

[Templar]

Yes, correct. All I was asking for was a generic anonymous replacement for "deleted" would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Kami]

Feb 3, 2021 13:41:08 GMT -8 Templar said:

Yes, correct. All I was asking for was a generic anonymous replacement for "deleted" would be appreciated.

Thanks

You can do this as mentioned above without a plugin, but you'd have to do it for multiple themes if you have them. Is that OK for you? Or would you prefer a plugin?

[Michael]

I am not a lawyer but based on my interpretation that wouldn't be allowed.

[Templar]

Feb 3, 2021 13:44:12 GMT -8 Kami said:

Feb 3, 2021 13:41:08 GMT -8 Templar said:

Yes, correct. All I was asking for was a generic anonymous replacement for "deleted" would be appreciated.

Thanks

You can do this as mentioned above without a plugin, but you'd have to do it for multiple themes if you have them. Is that OK for you? Or would you prefer a plugin?

Could you explain please. I am not concerned with how the deleted goes away, and would like to keep it anonymous, so yes, please explain this more.

[Kami]

Feb 3, 2021 14:57:00 GMT -8 Templar said:

Feb 3, 2021 13:44:12 GMT -8 Kami said:

You can do this as mentioned above without a plugin, but you'd have to do it for multiple themes if you have them. Is that OK for you? Or would you prefer a plugin?

Could you explain please. I am not concerned with how the deleted goes away, and would like to keep it anonymous, so yes, please explain this more.

Sure thing! So this would need to be a layout templates change. You will need to repeat these steps for every theme you have, if you have more than one.

First, go to your admin panel and navigate to Structure > Layout Templates > Mini-Profile.

Next, find this line:
$[user]<br />
This should be Line 2, assuming you haven't edited this template before / if you aren't using a custom theme.

Highlight this, and delete it. In its place, use this:

{if !$[user.is_deleted]}$[user]<br />
{else}<a href="/pages/custompage">Absent Annie</a><br />
{/if}

Replace custompage with the page ID of your custom page, and replace Absent Annie with whatever you want to call the generic name.

Save your changes. Let me know how that goes! You may also want to adjust the "Deleted" text from showing on the main page & thread listing, or removing the Deleted Member text under the display name / link. Let me know!