Account deletion?

[Martin Frezman]

...it was IMHO started by a troll...

First, I don't think we are allowed to use "The T word" here.

Second, maybe the OP as just asking a question (*) - to which the answer is "No.".

(*) I.e., a question like "Is it possible to square the circle?" (The answer is "No.")
Note that programmers, by their nature, like to theorize and invent solutions to problems, when, quite often, the more prudent course would be to simply say "No.". They're people-pleasers by nature...

[Heater]

It's still mind bendingly weird and unfathomable.

The OP goes to all the effort to sign up and open an account. Then the first post asks how to delete the account.

I cannot make sense of this behavior.

Should we be able to demand that our accounts and/or posts are deleted? I don't know. Certainly I, and presumably many others, would like to retract things we have said after further reflection.

On the other hand, back in the days of print media if you wrote into a newspaper and and your writings published, then there is no going back, it's in the archive forever.

[bensimmo]

Moderators do NOT have the abiliity to delete accounts, (not seen that option anywhere within this bbs software) , if we must, we have to manually delete each single post made, I for one would simply refuse to do such a meaningless mindless job, unless a post reveals personal data. No matter that foreign law demands it, we moderators are volunteers, not mindless slaves. This discussion is pointless and ignores practicalities, and it was IMHO started by a troll. end of discussion please!

That's why you have Admins* to administer the forum and Moderators to moderate the whole forum or the section of the forum assigned, you don't do it, you pass it up to them that can.


*easy enough to find, use the search memberlist.php?mode=searchuser

Anyway, this is something for the RPF to internally decide upon.

[jojopi]

The OP goes to all the effort to sign up and open an account. Then the first post asks how to delete the account.

Did you notice that the sign-up was three years ago? At least one old post, "Help with composite output on xbmc!" has recently been deleted. (I believe that is possible only when it is the last or only message in a thread.) Also, OP has indeed requested deletion of similarly named accounts elsewhere, including some that were more active.

Of course, requesting account deletion in public is still irrational and counter-productive. If you had no remaining posts and did not browse the forum while logged in, then I think you would quickly drop out of search engines. They do not appear to index the profile pages.

[Pithagoros]

Somebody has decided to try and clean up their internet history, which there can be various reasons for wanting to do, none of which are any of our business.

I know this sort of thing is done easily enough on other forums.

[gkreidl]

Moderators do NOT have the abiliity to delete accounts, (not seen that option anywhere within this bbs software) , if we must, we have to manually delete each single post made, I for one would simply refuse to do such a meaningless mindless job, unless a post reveals personal data. No matter that foreign law demands it, we moderators are volunteers, not mindless slaves. This discussion is pointless and ignores practicalities, and it was IMHO started by a troll. end of discussion please!

+1

And one more thing: If you publish something in a printed magazine or book, you will never be able to remove it again.
On the forum you can at leastn later edit your post (even remove all its content).
People should take responsibility for their decisions and actions.

[bensimmo]

Moderators do NOT have the abiliity to delete accounts, (not seen that option anywhere within this bbs software) , if we must, we have to manually delete each single post made, I for one would simply refuse to do such a meaningless mindless job, unless a post reveals personal data. No matter that foreign law demands it, we moderators are volunteers, not mindless slaves. This discussion is pointless and ignores practicalities, and it was IMHO started by a troll. end of discussion please!

+1

And one more thing: If you publish something in a printed magazine or book, you will never be able to remove it again.
On the forum you can at leastn later edit your post (even remove all its content).
People should take responsibility for their decisions and actions.

And they are, they're taking responsibility by asking to be removed
They've no used paper here (assuming nothings been published in the MagPi comments section) so why bring that up.

[recantha2]

Wow. 3 pages of discussion as to whether a SQL "DELETE FROM" or "UPDATE" command is able to be used. The simple answer is, of course Yes. You go into the database, do a bit of simple querying and then delete the data. Should be a 20 minute job, if that. The law change with regards to data removal would apply here, as it would apply anywhere. If you ask, your request must be honoured. Of course, the law's not in place yet. As for the guy being a "troll", perhaps he's registered a new account so that he can get another account removed. We just don't know. It seems to me that anyone who asks a difficult question that others don't like is called a "troll" these days.

[Mortimer]

It would only need to be 'honoured' if the requested is for removal data that comes into the legal definition of "personal data". Even then I would have thought that obfuscation of the account identity to become some sort of inactive, generic account, whilst retaining the posts would be sufficient in most cases.

I wonder if forum policies and rules can be used to ake this job easier, should it arise: Something alongo the lines of making the OP's responsibility to remove posts should they wish too in future. In fact isn't the DPA and any legislation around deletion of personal data predicated on people not being to do it themselves anyway?

[beta-tester]

Once I am back in the office, I'll see what I can do to get a specific download page for this.

Once I get back from hols will see what can be done.

that are long holidays you have. already 1+ month

[W. H. Heydt]

Wow. 3 pages of discussion as to whether a SQL "DELETE FROM" or "UPDATE" command is able to be used. The simple answer is, of course Yes. You go into the database, do a bit of simple querying and then delete the data. Should be a 20 minute job, if that. The law change with regards to data removal would apply here, as it would apply anywhere. If you ask, your request must be honoured. Of course, the law's not in place yet. As for the guy being a "troll", perhaps he's registered a new account so that he can get another account removed. We just don't know. It seems to me that anyone who asks a difficult question that others don't like is called a "troll" these days.

First....deleting data from a relational database should be approached with caution and a full understanding of the schema, so as to avoid unintended consequences.

As for "must be honored"...I can think of a historical instance regarding physical documents in which it's good thing that a copy of the document was kept with a copy of the order to destroy all copies (ostensibly so that people would be able to recognize what was supposed to be destroyed). For a good fictional account of this real event, read Josephine Tey's "The Daughter of Time".

[mahjongg]

Once I am back in the office, I'll see what I can do to get a specific download page for this.

Once I get back from hols will see what can be done.

that are long holidays you have. already 1+ month

Not really! he's only on holiday for a couple of weeks.
I'm also on holiday right now, but did not travel far from home.

[ninninon]

I'm back, just reopened the Notepad file to check my account deletion status of all the the accounts I have under this name. I can't believe you guys are happy to have a 3 page long debate about something so trivial. As for reasoning- I want this name gone, the whole "Ninninon" thing, gone. And, for people saying there is no personal information, they have my email address. Is that not personal information? Where are the mods around here? What's going on? Oh, and I created an account to ask a very simple question ages ago, and still do own a couple of rapberry pi's- it's not like I don't use them, I just don't want any accounts under the name ninninon to exist that I don't use anymore.

[ninninon]

Also, OP has indeed requested deletion of similarly named accounts elsewhere, including some that were more active.

How do you know this?

[ninninon]

Somebody has decided to try and clean up their internet history, which there can be various reasons for wanting to do, none of which are any of our business.

I know this sort of thing is done easily enough on other forums.

I can assure you there is nothing malicious about my reasoning, I just out of curiosity googled ninninon and rediscovered a shit tonne of accounts I'd forgotten about that I wanted removing. With the amount I did have, it would be very easy to generate a sort of profile of my interests, and other information by looking at the kind of forums I post on- now, I understand to some this information is meaningless, and it doesn't bother most people. However, to me this it is important.

[ninninon]

It's still mind bendingly weird and unfathomable.

The OP goes to all the effort to sign up and open an account. Then the first post asks how to delete the account.

I cannot make sense of this behavior.

Should we be able to demand that our accounts and/or posts are deleted? I don't know. Certainly I, and presumably many others, would like to retract things we have said after further reflection.

On the other hand, back in the days of print media if you wrote into a newspaper and and your writings published, then there is no going back, it's in the archive forever.

I set up a thread 3 years ago asking about using the optical out connector on the rapsberry pi. I, however, fixed the problem and deleted the thread. I recently googled ninninon and rediscovered a load of accounts I wanted deleting.

[ninninon]

Since no other mods have weighed in, I'll just say that mods do not have the ability to delete usernames. I do not know who does, if it is indeed possible with PHP. Might be with the latest version we have upgraded to. I like the Idea of using guest/anonymous to replace names. Once I get back from hols will see what can be done. Up to this point no usernames have been deleted.

Yer man with the power is GregA.
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=221962

The OP is clearly a deranged troll, who signs up to post twice and requests their ID be deleted on their first ever post. That's insane behaviour.

Moderating and administering phpBB3 forums is hard enough with the daily crap that arrives (from Russia, India, China and elsewhere) let alone when your first post moderation fails and lets something deranged like this slip through the net.

I may be deranged in some areas, however I am not deranged enough to make an account and not post anything on it. I made a thread asking about optical outs, and fixed the issue. To this day I still own 2 raspberry pi's and may make another account here, just not under this name. I recently googled this name and found lots of old accounts I wanted deleting.

[Heater]

ninninon,

I set up a thread 3 years ago asking about using the optical out connector on the rapsberry pi. I, however, fixed the problem and deleted the thread.

I'm curious. What was the need to delete that thread after the problem was solved?

[W. H. Heydt]

I'm back, just reopened the Notepad file to check my account deletion status of all the the accounts I have under this name. I can't believe you guys are happy to have a 3 page long debate about something so trivial.

But is it trivial? The existence of threads with posts that reference what was said could create problems for those that follow and actually deleting an account could leave loose ends in the database. As a result, much of the debate has been over what methods *should* be used to "delete an account", which has led to discussions of what the law may or may not require.

As for reasoning- I want this name gone, the whole "Ninninon" thing, gone.

Your wish may not be the governing determination. It has already been noted that a private message to a moderator would have been a cleaner solution, since you had only made one post here under your user id at that point. Now you have several more and have--now--reinvigorated this thread, making your user id more prominent that it was before. Seems counter-productive to me...

And, for people saying there is no personal information, they have my email address. Is that not personal information?

That's debatable. At least philosophically, user ids on a unix or Linux system are public information as there are a number of ways to see who has an account and to get some minimal information within the system, from a "whois" or reading /etc/passwd. this is more akin to names in public records than it is to anything private.

Where are the mods around here? What's going on? Oh, and I created an account to ask a very simple question ages ago, and still do own a couple of rapberry pi's- it's not like I don't use them, I just don't want any accounts under the name ninninon to exist that I don't use anymore.

Well...first, it wasn't a question, really. More of a request, or possibly even a demand. Second, I wouldn't count 3 weeks as being "long ago." Third, as noted, a PM to a mod or even to the Director of Communications would have been more likely to come close to your desired result than starting a public thread. I think, like the Engineer, you are being hoist by your own petard. And finally, trying to erase all traces of a given ID from the internet is a hopeless task. Even if you get every last account deleted, there are internet archives that will retain data that will persist. Far better to just not use any of the accounts with the name you want to drop and let it sink into oblivion over time.

[Burngate]

... I want this name gone, the whole "Ninninon" thing, gone.

There are a lot of things I've done in the past 68 years that should be erased from history.
That's why I don't use my real name - the one I was given by my parents before they realised what sort of person I would become.
But it aint gonna happen.

Move to Saskatchewan under an assumed name. That's the best you can do.

[jamesh]

I am back from holidays and will try and find the time in the inundation of work to see what can be done, if anything.

[ninninon]

ninninon,

I set up a thread 3 years ago asking about using the optical out connector on the rapsberry pi. I, however, fixed the problem and deleted the thread.

I'm curious. What was the need to delete that thread after the problem was solved?

To remove the post, and therefore any messages attached to this name. I was thinking there might be a button to delete the account? However, this is turning out to be more difficult than it appeared.

[ninninon]

Ok everyone. I have messaged jamesh to see what can be done. Never, of all the 12 accounts I've had deleted in the past 2-3 months, have I run into so many issues as I have here. There shouldn't be a debate about why, or whether I should be allowed to delete my account- I was enquiring about whether it is POSSIBLE. Some of the other accounts I have had deleted have been on forums with <100 active members, and only 2 mods, and, with no questions asked, I got my account deleted- But for a forum that represents a large company? If, it turns out that this account cannot be deleted, and my name and email cannot be changed/removed, I will most certainly be messaging raspberry pi to find out why, out of all the other forums, they cannot perform a task that even small forums can achieve. To me, this forum has, in a database somewhere, my email, and this name. That is personally identifiable information, and I have withdrawn consent for this personal information to be withheld. Whether or not it is possible is an entirely different matter and I understand is out of the forum members hands. In the meantime, I will see what jamesh can do. Thank you.

[ninninon]

I am back from holidays and will try and find the time in the inundation of work to see what can be done, if anything.

Keep me updated. I just noticed you don't accept PM's so I've quoted you here.

[bensimmo]

As I mentioned above, the option is there built in to the forum to remove the whole account. It just needs the Admin to do it.