posted
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. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
I don't know. Unless you want to contact the mod/janitor and ask them personally as an admin to delete you.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
You could always give your password to someone and have them change it and not tell you the new one. Posts: 2762 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
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.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
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.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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posted
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.
Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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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.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
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?
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
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.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
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...
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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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.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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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)
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
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.
Posts: 9538 | Registered: Aug 2003
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posted
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.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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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. Posts: 7954 | Registered: Mar 2004
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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.
Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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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. Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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posted
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 Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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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.
posted
I don't think you can reasonably expect to be able to get rid of anything you put on the internet.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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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.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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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! Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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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.
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.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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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.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
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.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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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.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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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.
Posts: 1327 | Registered: Aug 2007
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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.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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