Last time I asked this sounded like a really difficult thing to do... does anyone know if I can get my account here deleted without having to manually remove all my posts?
Not trying to be dramatic, just feeling like my time here is done, and figured it'd be easier to make a clean break of it if I wasn't tempted to post. Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
I don't know. Unless you want to contact the mod/janitor and ask them personally as an admin to delete you.
Posted by Lissande (Member # 350) on :
You could always give your password to someone and have them change it and not tell you the new one. Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
When I asked Papa Moose about it a few years ago, I think he said he couldn't do the post-deleting thing any easier than I could. I don't want to cause a lot of extra work for him. I'm not even sure how to access all my posts, though, the search seems to cut off after 50 or so. Maybe I have to search for 50, delete 50, then search again?
It'd be great if there was a way to just click "remove user" and have all record of me here disappear.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:It'd be great if there was a way to just click "remove user" and have all record of me here disappear.
For a given value of "great," maybe.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Even if you're going to leave, there's no reason to delete all your posts. That would make all the conversations you took part in unreadable. Have someone change your password, delete hatrack from your bookmarks, and clear your browser history. If you're not trying to be dramatic, just leave in a way that won't piss a bunch of people off. Deleting all your posts is acting like a jerk on the way out.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
Oh, the person who changes your password should change the email address in the profile, too, so you can't just request the password be reset.
Not that I want you to leave. I've always enjoyed your posts, and especially reading about the progress of your career. But if it's what you want to do, that's your call.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Yeah - are you actually wanting to delete all your POSTS? Or just remove/disable your user account so you can't use it again? I don't understand the need to delete posts. You said you just don't want to be tempted to post. So just make it so you can't log in.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
True.... I just feel uncomfortable about the idea of losing control over all my old posts, which would happen if my account was disabled but the posts not removed. What if, 5 years from now, my opinions about people who spend 16 hours a day playing video games have changed, and I want what I've written now to be edited or removed? I understand why the community wouldn't necessarily want that to happen, but isn't it important that individuals here be free to both post and remove their posts at will?
I'm having trouble thinking of a real-world analogy. I mean, very few of your words or actions are enforceably permanent in the real world... marriage has divorce, crimes have statutes of limitations, bankruptcy only affects you for 7 years.... do we want opinions written on the internet to be iron-clad permanent, no recourse for changing your mind down the road?
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Basically, I think it should be about as easy for one to decide that they no longer want to be a part of this community as is the reverse, and have the option to remove their own account and all record of their presence here whenever they like. I know that's not necessarily a good thing for the community, but I think it's an important right for the individual, much like having the option to divorce is a bad thing for society but a good thing for the individual members who need it.
Posted by msquared (Member # 4484) on :
Grow up.
Marriage has divorce, but the record of your marriage is still out there. People say things on the record all the time. You migh be surprised.
So you said something when you were younger? Big deal. Tell the person that you changed your mind since then.
msquared
Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
5 years from now, there is a possibility that the threads will not even be around because either Hatrack will have pruned them to save space or it may have moved to new software.
5 years from now, I really doubt anyone will really care about your opinions on video games (no offence) and then try to look them up to enforce(?) them on your future self.
Heck, I don't think even Google indexes these pages and the Internet Archive probably does not archive UBB, but I could be wrong...
Posted by El JT de Spang (Member # 7742) on :
Then you have nothing to worry about. The forum prunes old threads, and you can be sure most of your posts will be gone in 5 years.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
quote: but isn't it important that individuals here be free to both post and remove their posts at will?
I think this idea has been heavily debated before on here. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.
There are LOTS of things in my past I wish I could go back and "undo" and "unsay" but that is not an option in most of those arenas.
(p.s. - and maybe it is GOOD that I can't undo things - that I am held accountable to my mistakes of the past. That way, it makes me more cautious about how I perceive things, and what I say, going forward)
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
And if I don't want to entrust my wishes to the vagaries of self-pruning forum software? Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
You are talking like you don't want any personal accountability for anything you may have said at any given point in time.
If you don't want accountability for your opinions, maybe they shouldn't have been shared in the first place.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
And, actually, Google does cache this forum, so things written here are quite permanent.... unless they're removed, in which case a request can be submitted to Google for that particular cache to be cleared.
Posted by ElJay (Member # 6358) on :
I think the point that hatrack prunes threads is very important here. Yes, they might still be accessible through something like the Wayback machine, but they will be whether you delete them or not. If you just leave them alone, in a couple of years they won't be available on the actual forums.
And you can get divorced, but if your spouse wants to keep your wedding photos and show them to everyone, you can't stop him. Participation here is collaborative. If you don't want to give up the ability to change something later, just delete it from your bookmarks and clear your cache and don't actually do the password change. And then don't worry about it. If you manage to stop visiting for a month, you'll probably never come back, and if you suddenly realize you absolutely have to change your opinion on something, you'll be able to.
If you do, please clearly mark your edit. Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
quote: If you don't want accountability for your opinions, maybe they shouldn't have been shared in the first place.
I completely agree. I've grown a lot since I started posting here, and I do regret a lot of things that I've written in the past. It's one of the reasons I'd like to clear this slate and start over fresh. I honestly doubt that the community would be any worse off without the handful of opinions I've posted here, but I feel like I'd be much better off removing this forum from my life. And, more importantly, I think that the individual should be the one who gets to make that decision, justified or not.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
quote:If you don't want to give up the ability to change something later, just delete it from your bookmarks and clear your cache and don't actually do the password change. And then don't worry about it. If you manage to stop visiting for a month, you'll probably never come back, and if you suddenly realize you absolutely have to change your opinion on something, you'll be able to.
I've done this before, and I always end up coming back. Everyone does.
If my account is still here and my posts are still here, then I'm still here. And I don't want to be here anymore. If there were a way for me to erase my account, I would have already left. Posted by Mucus (Member # 9735) on :
Actually you're right, this forum is indexed by Google. I didn't check the cache since pretty much by definition, when the forum thread is pruned the cache will be deleted too.
The Internet Archive is a bit tricker, it seems like the index pages are stored but not most of the threads.
Of course, we're getting a little hung up on the last sentence of my post, the sentences prior to that was my focus Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
Why delete beyond your profile? It's not as if a search could link Zeugma to your real identity.
Anyway, gonna miss ya. Have a really really really GOOD life.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
I think of Hatrack more as writing an open letter. Once it's been mailed you can't always get it back.
And other than that, I agree completely with msquared.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
quote: And, more importantly, I think that the individual should be the one who gets to make that decision, justified or not.
You do get to make that decision. Just go back and manually delete every single one of your 1673 posts you've made.
You don't want the option of deleting posts, you want the option of doing it with ease.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
oh - come'on! We've got to keep Zeugma engaged in this debate indefinitely so they can never, ever leave!
You know, this place IS kinda like the Hotel California.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Wow, quite the warm goodbye.
Adieu, Zeugma!
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Zeugma, it's too late, you already were here. Just like I was in alt.astrology 13 years ago with some now head-smacking comments under my real name. I even had the chance to have them deleted out of Google Groups when Deja News got bought out, but I left them there. I bet they're more embarrassing than anything you've posted here (I can't think of anything that I would consider embarrassing from anything you've posted).
Do what you need to not come back, and move on. I don't begrudge you that. But take it as a reflection of who you were at the time, and accept that, while understanding you aren't like that any more.
-Bok
Posted by kojabu (Member # 8042) on :
Goodbye fellow Cornell alum!
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
Shouldn't this topic have "Mayfly" in it? Sort of by definition?
Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
There's no way to scrub the memories of your throwdowns with Leto from the universe's memory. Posted by Javert Hugo (Member # 3980) on :
By "universe", I, of course, am referring to myself.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I don't think you can reasonably expect to be able to get rid of anything you put on the internet.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zeugma:
quote: If you don't want accountability for your opinions, maybe they shouldn't have been shared in the first place.
I completely agree. I've grown a lot since I started posting here, and I do regret a lot of things that I've written in the past. It's one of the reasons I'd like to clear this slate and start over fresh. I honestly doubt that the community would be any worse off without the handful of opinions I've posted here, but I feel like I'd be much better off removing this forum from my life. And, more importantly, I think that the individual should be the one who gets to make that decision, justified or not.
You don't want to leave; you want never to have been here. But you don't get that choice. Our pasts are indelible. You can disassociate ourselves from them, but they're always there. Pretending otherwise is immature. Sometimes understandable, but immature nonetheless.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Isn't it wonderful that we, as human beings in this amazing modern world, have an almost infinite ability to re-invent ourselves? If I don't like my job, I can quit it and start another. If I don't like my education, I can dump it and get a new one. Don't like how I act around people? I can always move to a new town and give it another shot with new people.
If I'd been forced to remain the same person I was 5 years ago forever, I think it might have killed me. I make a huge effort every day to get closer to being the person I want to be, and part of that process means leaving the old me further and further behind. Which makes the idea of the old me being permanently enshrined on the internet rather frightening.
About 200 posts down, 1400 to go! Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
But people will ask what you did before, and can likely find out half a dozen ways. Your new school will generally want to know about your old school.
Your "old me" never disappears, just hides itself in other places and other people.
Then, of course, there's the fact that without you being your "old me" at some point, you likely wouldn't be the "current me".
And in removing your old me, you make dozens of people look nonsensical if anyone wants to go back and read old threads that used to have you in them... And even then, so long as people quoted you in their posts, you'll never be really deleted.
So why go through all that work?
-Bok
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
You could take the easier and more pleasant path of just never opening Blayne threads.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zeugma: Isn't it wonderful that we, as human beings in this amazing modern world, have an almost infinite ability to re-invent ourselves? If I don't like my job, I can quit it and start another. If I don't like my education, I can dump it and get a new one. Don't like how I act around people? I can always move to a new town and give it another shot with new people.
If you quit your job and start another, it doesn't change the fact that you worked that job.
What you're doing now is cowardly and infantile. If you're a different person than you were, you should take pride in having changed, rather than vandalize a site you obviously don't care about.
Posted by MrSquicky (Member # 1802) on :
quote:Isn't it wonderful that we, as human beings in this amazing modern world, have an almost infinite ability to re-invent ourselves?
That's rarely true. You can change your circumstances, but, for the most part, wherever you go, there you are.
Running from one situation doesn't generally change who you are. It may change the aspects of yourself that are most brought out in the new situation, but real personal change comes from confronting your past self, not running from it.
This pop-psych concept of re-inventing yourself is about as valid and helpful as most other pop-psych.
Posted by twinky (Member # 693) on :
I presume you will also be deleting threads you started?
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by twinky: I presume you will also be deleting threads you started?
Not this one, at least. Not in any meaningful way.
Wow. I come across as being too harsh and judgmental.
I apologize to Zeugma.
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
Didn't someone try and archive hatrack before? I mean, other than the archive we have for landmark posts. I'm sure I came across it when searching for some old threads recently on teh interwebs.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm afraid.
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Here we all were, suspecting Kama, but it was Tom all along...
-Bok
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
It could be both, you know.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Daisy...Daisy...
Posted by Threads (Member # 10863) on :
quote:Originally posted by Zeugma: Isn't it wonderful that we, as human beings in this amazing modern world, have an almost infinite ability to re-invent ourselves? If I don't like my job, I can quit it and start another. If I don't like my education, I can dump it and get a new one. Don't like how I act around people? I can always move to a new town and give it another shot with new people.
Its even simpler on the internet; just stop using Zeugma as a username. Then you can avoid deleting 1400 posts.
Posted by TheTick (Member # 2883) on :
That's the third or fourth alias she's used...
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
quote:Originally posted by TheTick: It could be both, you know.
*Head Asplode*
-Bok
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Zeugma, although you may change as you get older, I kind of don't want you to delete all those posts you have about you getting your experience/job in animation.
I really liked reading about your "developing story" (so to speak). It would make me sad to see it all go.
Posted by BlueWizard (Member # 9389) on :
I really can't imagine why you would want to do this. If you are tired of the group, then just go away and ignore it.
You've made over 1600 comments and more importantly many people have responded to your comments. When, if, you delete your post, you throw all those comments by other people out of context. That doesn't really seem fair to them.
Further, of course, your ideas and opinions are going to change over time...it's called 'life'. But that doesn't mean whatever you said wasn't valid when you said it.
More importantly, if you just wait a few weeks, any comments you did make will have fallen into deep obscure history. Those comments will be buried so deep that know one will ever know they existed. And if you are worried about your opinions changing in 5 years, I must say that in 5 years your comments will be buried under many thousands of posts, and essentially, and for all intent and purpose, lost.
I think you are attaching far and away to much importance on the existence of post make in what is essentially casual conversation. Do you also want to go down the the local bar or coffee shop and erase the memories of every person who has ever heard you speak. Sorry, but in my mind that makes as much sense as what you are trying to do here.
I say, if you choose, just go away and let you comments fall into the deep and dusty annals of history.
Plus, who is to say in a few months or years, you won't want to come back?
Just a thought.
Steve/BlueWizard
[ September 12, 2007, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: BlueWizard ]
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
Everytime I see something like this I read it as "I'm going to leave, so pay attention to me!" And yes, I am a hypocrite since I posted a "goodbye" thread myself once. But I feel differently now, and guess what - I didn't go back and delete all my old threads from when I used to feel that way and yet I live.
If you want to go, just go. Deleting posts on your way out seems petty and designed to irk people, especially since anyone who has read Hatrack recently knows that a large portion of the community finds it reprehensible behavior. This feels stuntish to me, like you're just trying to get attention. If so then congratulations, it worked - you have a two page thread so far, hope you're pleased with your results.
Everything Steve/Blue Wizard said above is true - there's no reason to worry about your comments still hanging around five years from now because most likely they won't be accessible. And destroying ideas because you think you won't agree with them in five years is silly, most people change and grow and their opinions morph, it's called growing up and maturing and gaining life experience. I think it's better, in fact, to be able to look back with perspective and see how you've matured, hopefully you'll be proud of where you are then and looking back will be a pleasant experience.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
friends at school once passed around a petition stating that I do not exist.
Posted by MattP (Member # 10495) on :
*looks around* Did someone just say something? *shrug*
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
Dude, you and I obviously use different definitions of "friend".
Posted by Mike (Member # 55) on :
No, no, they're friends with each other, not with Blayne.
Posted by hugh57 (Member # 5527) on :
Until you can invent a time machine, and find a way to overcome all the paradoxes involved in changing history, you will never be able to delete your past completely, as much as you may wish to. Just ask anybody who has run for (and even been elected) President in the past few decades, or any of the corporate executives who thought their emails were "deleted."
Posted by Kama (Member # 3022) on :
hatrack agrees I don't exist. is hatrack not my friends? Posted by Leonide (Member # 4157) on :
i would never befriend an overblown, sentient computer program.
Unless her name was Jane.
Posted by Nick (Member # 4311) on :
*hugs Kama* How can you hug a person who doesn't exist?
It's a shame to see a member leave, especially when said member contributes a lot to board discussions.
I left Hatrack for 2 years myself, I posted a goodbye thread, and thought I would never look back. Then a tragedy in my life occurred. Hatrack was a wonderful distraction to keep my mind away from grief.
I wouldn't delete your account, who knows when you decide you might want to come back? I never thought I would, yet here I am 3 of 4 times a week. Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Zeugma, I will miss you. I hope you do whatever you need to to find peace and comfort, and I wish you the very best of that, always.
quote:Originally posted by hugh57: Until you can invent a time machine, and find a way to overcome all the paradoxes involved in changing history, you will never be able to delete your past completely, as much as you may wish to. Just ask anybody who has run for (and even been elected) President in the past few decades, or any of the corporate executives who thought their emails were "deleted."
I don't think she wants to delete her past completely. I think she just wants to remove that part of what is tied to her name over which she has some control from this site.
The fact that she can't delete everything quoted, or that it doesn't mean it didn't happen, etc., is irrelevant. I'm pretty sure she just wants to remove what she can, and then the fact that she could have (but didn't) won't tug on her mentally.
I sympathize with the desire. When we were first told that threads would be pruned after ~6 months of disuse, I felt free (and happy! so happy ) to delete my old posts. Then the pruning never really happened, and I came to understand that leaving these holes in the record really bothers people here -- which I get intellectually now, even if it doesn't make sense to me on a visceral level -- I stopped doing it.
However, if I ever do something amazingly awesome for this site -- like, I don't know, save kacard from being hit by one of Tatiana's screamin' incoming asteroids, which would Earn Me A Zillion Awesome Points, because the world would fall apart without kacard -- and y'all want to reward me, well ... let the deleting begin. *grin
---
For me at least, it's not about you. It's not about wanting to be dead to you guys, or wanting not to have been here. It's just that I feel the ties to everything so much. It aches to be tugged constantly by things out in the world -- pictures of me, written records of me, everything. I find it so hard not to brood and brood on what has been and gone that the relief of [deleting it]*** is blissful.
I don't know why it helped to delete my own posts, but it sure did. I don't know why it helps to avoid pictures, but it sure does. I don't think it's rational, but it is viscerally compelling, and -- oddly enough -- it doesn't get bigger and bigger when I do it. It just goes away. Mmmmmm. Go away.
And I don't have a death wish, nor do I have any desire not to be in the moment now. Actually, that's all I want -- to write to and speak with my friends, now, to tickle my love and feed him berries, now, to love and laugh and create and savour, now. It's just that much harder for me to be in the now when I feel so strapped to other things in the past. (Yes, I know, one can argue that this doesn't make sense, but then that's what makes this "irrational.")
Good Heavens, when I got rid of almost everything I owned as we moved to Canada, it was like being reborn. Now that we are moving again, I'm high on the paring down yet again. It distracts me from other things (like old posts still hunkering down like bricks all around me). And, yes, I don't want to cause pain, so I will make the choice (each day, again and again) not to delete.
It's my gift to y'all. But if you hear that kacard has taken up astromony and that a teensy beaner of a rock is heading for the area, just let me know. I'll be right there.
---
*** a concession and gift to Tom (see a few posts below) -- was originally "letting go," but I believe he finds this characterization to be more accurate, and I am happy to oblige
[ September 14, 2007, 05:03 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by Bokonon (Member # 480) on :
Kama, I believe now! It is Tom who is the dirty, stinking, silicon entity!
-Bok
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
Aw, what a sad thread. Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
quote:I find it so hard not to brood and brood on what has been and gone that the relief of letting go is blissful.
I don't think that deletion counts as letting go. Not caring that they're still around is letting go. Deleting them is like "letting go" of your envy of your neighbor by killing your neighbor.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
I could happily rewrite that as "I find it so hard not to brood and brood on what has been and gone that the relief of [deleting it] is blissful."
Would you prefer this?
And I do accept that the deleting of posts strikes you as a brutal process. I hope you can accept that to me, it does not. I still do [and will continue to do] you the respect and courtesy of not deleting any more, you know, even though your emotional response to it is quite different than mine.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
I'm not actually criticizing you when I post stuff like that. I'm honestly trying to understand the feeling and logic behind the mental process. It's as foreign to me as religious faith, in a lot of ways, so the questions I ask are no doubt as annoying.
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