Guesting out, Disabling Accounts, and Deleting an Account

[guest043013-2]

Mods,

Could we sticky a thread on this topic so all can see? Seems like this comes up about 1-2 times per week. I will summarize what I think are the rules on this, but I am sure I am missing some of the finer points.

Disabling an Account:

You can have your account disabled by emailing the mods at dallas@eccie.net . Email should include a reason why you want your account disabled. Does not have to be fancy - I just realized that I was in over my head will work.

Guesting an Account:

If your security has been compromised, if for some reason, you need your handle to disappear, you can email the mods at dallas@eccie.net with a reason. Reason here needs to be a bit more substantive. A stalker, an outing of your real world identification, etc.

Deleting an Account:

This does not occur. Most people asking for this want all traces of their presence removed from the board. Can't happen. If a particular post is a security risk for you, that may be able to be dealt with, just email the mods at dallas@eccie.net with a link to the post and an explanation why and they will investigate. But it is impossible to remove all traces of your presence here. If you have posted on the internet, anywhere, not just ECCIE, you have been memoralized in the cyber world forever. Best bet is to look at Guesting your Account above.

Lost your Access or Want a new Handle:

Email the mods at dallas@eccie.net or at websupport@eccie.netand they will help you recover your ID. Do not start a new handle, recover your old handle. Multiple handles are not allowed. In rare cases, a new handle may be allowed if the security issues make the old handle unsafe for you to continue. If the security issue with the old handle was of your own making (you beat up a provider, then tried to disappear, as an example), you aren't likely to be approved for a new handle. New Handles may be linked to old handles (basically, same account, just a new name on it & you retain all of your posts from the old handle.) or may be a new account and you start over as a new person, all clean & shiny.

Any handle changes are subject to approval of the mods and administrators.

Changing your mind:

Okay, you took one of the steps above, and now you want to re-join our merry little band of loonys. Basically, read the Lost your Access above.

Timing:

The mods and administrators here are high paid, dedicated employees with nothing else to do but assist guys with getting laid and gals with finding guys willing to pay them to get laid. However, your request may take time to address. In some cases, the decisions will be made by committee, and as such, the decision may appear to move at the speed of Congress. Allow a few days. If after a few days, a gentle email reminder to the mods may speed the process.

Stalking the mods, harrassing the mods, spamming the board, or generally making a nusiance of yourself may result in unintended consequences.

[chipper]

Could we hilight the "High paid, dedicated employees"?

[Guest060513]

This message was created automatically by mail delivery software.

A message that you sent could not be delivered to one or more of its
recipients. This is a permanent error. The following address(es) failed:

sdfluffy@eccie.net
(ultimately generated from Dallas@eccie.net)
No Such User Here"

[guest061212-1]

Audrey, Sdfluffy is no longer around. The admins have probably forgot to remove his disabled email address from the Dallas distribution list.

[LazurusLong]

Originally Posted by tigercat

Deleting an Account:

This does not occur. Most people asking for this want all traces of their presence removed from the board. Can't happen. If a particular post is a security risk for you, that may be able to be dealt with, just email the mods at dallas@eccie.net with a link to the post and an explanation why and they will investigate. But it is impossible to remove all traces of your presence here. If you have posted on the internet, anywhere, not just ECCIE, you have been memoralized in the cyber world forever. Best bet is to look at Guesting your Account above.

Sorry tigercat but this entire paragraph is incorrect.

Deleting a user account does not take any special effort or action, it is simply a function of the Admin panel.

When an account is deleted, if that account started a thread, the thread remains along with all the replies and the system simply "fixes" the post counts.

I'm guessing the reason the owners choose to only delete accounts that are obvious troll accounts and/or those accounts that are created using actual real names of individuals is due to the desire to prevent someone from asking their account to be deleted in order to remove what could be used as research looking for posting styles and word choice.

But ECCIE does in fact Delete accounts as the need arises but just not when a member requests it.

Whether Guested or Deleted, anything that was quoted will still contain the complete user account name. Sure, the staff could do searches for any instance of the handle and change or delete said reference but that would add a lot of extra work.

If someone uses your account name to direct a thread or question at you, even without it being quoted, it would fall into the same area of still being able to be found.

vbulletin also has a feature that would automatically purge accounts after a certain period of inactivity and that purge is nothing more than mass deletes and is part of the vbulletin software and many boards choose to purge handles that are not active or logged in for at least 6 months, some give it a year.

Since most reviews pretty much become worthless after 12 months, any handle that posted a review more than a year ago and hasn't logged back on would most likely be better off deleted along with the review.