Under what circumstances are accounts *completely* deleted?

[John Elessar]

Yes, I am well aware of the "Deactivated Account" tag/setting...I mean when you see someone's post, but instead of seeing their post, and user name, all you see is "n/a".

From another thread:

Originally Posted by Clover

Once we receive notification, you will have a 24 hour wait period before account becomes fully deactivated. A little time for members to think the decision thoroughly. Keep in mind, accounts and posts are never deleted.

[my bold]

So what happened to said accounts? Is this action reserved for rare and extreme circumstances? Spammers or trolls? Or does the member come along and insist that not only do you deactivate their account, but that you also delete said account completely from the board, posts, PM's, and user name, all gone for good?

The reason I ask is that this happened to an old friend here, who had not been active for 3+ years now, I log in one day wanting to read her old PMs to me, and I get this tag. I've seen it for other members too, note...

NOTE: I do not expect an answer in her specific instance per se, per general board policy, but if what the mod above said is true, then what happened to these members?

[LadyMay]

Good question!!

[John Elessar]

To clarify: I did find some other users who have had this done to them-you can still see the text of their posts, but their name no longer is clickable (so as to see their profile and perhaps PM them), they will not show up on their user name if you try a search, and under their name instead of "Seeker" or "Master" you see the "n/a" thing, no join date, no number of posts.

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by John Elessar

Yes, I am well aware of the "Deactivated Account" tag/setting...I mean when you see someone's post, but instead of seeing their post, and user name, all you see is "n/a".

From another thread:



[my bold]

So what happened to said accounts? Is this action reserved for rare and extreme circumstances? Spammers or trolls? Or does the member come along and insist that not only do you deactivate their account, but that you also delete said account completely from the board, posts, PM's, and user name, all gone for good?

Spammers or Troll accounts are not deactivated they are banned. You an remove an account fully from the site, but that is rarely done. There have been a few cases where Admin has done this with "legal" request for the protections of a member that is being lets say stalked or put in harm.

The reason I ask is that this happened to an old friend here, who had not been active for 3+ years now, I log in one day wanting to read her old PMs to me, and I get this tag. I've seen it for other members too, note...

It is to be noted that Spiritual Forums has had a couple of major crash issues that have effected member accounts and threads. We had one that took down the whole site and all the history of the site. We re built from nothing, then one that took out some members and some posts.

We do not have access to members PM's we would need the host company to open permissions for that one. We do not remove member's PM's that is up to them.



NOTE: I do not expect an answer in her specific instance per se, per general board policy, but if what the mod above said is true, then what happened to these members?

Members hold the control over removing PM permissions, and E Mail permissions and their E Mail Address from their profiles. We have the "Contact Us" E Mail to read Admin.

We do not remove threads that are started by banned or deactivated members. When a member is banned we then do not want our members having interactions with them, if deactivated then the member has made the choice to leave us and they do not wish contacts.

Lynn
SF Admin

[InsertSanity]

Originally Posted by Lynn

Members hold the control over removing PM permissions, and E Mail permissions and their E Mail Address from their profiles. We have the "Contact Us" E Mail to read Admin.

We do not remove threads that are started by banned or deactivated members. When a member is banned we then do not want our members having interactions with them, if deactivated then the member has made the choice to leave us and they do not wish contacts.

Lynn
SF Admin

My second account that I was about to switch to was banned before I even had the chance to deactivate this one. I didn't have a choice to leave or stay.

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by InsertSanity

My second account that I was about to switch to was banned before I even had the chance to deactivate this one. I didn't have a choice to leave or stay.

Hello

Any Dual Account Notifications are removed there is an E Mail Contact Us that will find an Admin to assist with account issues.

This is located at the bottom of the site and takes members to the G Mail Account the site has.

From there we can sort out registration issues, name changes, activation or deactivation.

Lynn
SF Admin

[John Elessar]

Here's a thread chock full of "canceled" members-names no longer clickable, or searchable.

What happened to them, exactly? Were they suspended indefinitely (I know the OP was), then an additional step taken to delete their accounts (but leave their posts up)? A hard drive crash, as intimated above? Something else?

[Clover]

Originally Posted by John Elessar

Here's a thread chock full of "canceled" members-names no longer clickable, or searchable.

What happened to them, exactly? Were they suspended indefinitely (I know the OP was), then an additional step taken to delete their accounts (but leave their posts up)? A hard drive crash, as intimated above? Something else?

I believe the server goes through a purge. Many of those names are deactivated or banned accounts, I believe many of those who have not logged on the forum for over 90 days. The forum once stated on the innerface table that is had over 27,000 members, it is down to 9,000 now. It appears there was a massive cleaning/purge from the company server. How the logistics behind that works is beyond me, perhaps, another staffer can chime in. Staff does not permanently delete accounts.

Cloves