h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

When did this come about?

Thomas asked that his account be deactivated and all his posts have been removed from a conversation

What is the new policy off deleting accounts, on request only, or if they have not been used for sometime, banned researchers??

Hi Peanut, there's nothing new here, in fact I think everyone who uses this site has heard of Nighthoover?

Accounts can be deleted if the user sends in an email requesting it, we give it a bit of a cooling period to make sure they want it, and then it gets deleted. We don't choose to delete an account, no-one who's ever been working at or running h2g2 has ever done that, and is very unlikely ever to do that. But we do respect the wishes of the users of the site.

Ah, well I got that wrong then because I was under the impression that you couldn't delete an account and that whatever you had written in conversations could not be removed on request

I am very surprised that more people haven't taken up this option

If you wish to take up this option and close your account Peanut, then just email [email protected] and they'll help you out.

I don't want to but I am sure that there have been circumstances when people have wanted to do that but haven't been able too, or have been under the impression that it is not an option

besides I thought the whole nighthoover started with I want to be cancel but then they were told they couldn't do that, so just had to leave it and not use it which is where I got the idea that accounts couldn't be cancelled

Deleting peoples posts plays merry hell with context of threads and I have just never seen it done before

There is as it stands there is not even edit button, I thought once you have posted that it is it it posted and here to stay permanantly

Been back and in 2001 you couldn't cancel accounts apparently although I get that might have changed

but still deleting everything someone has written

how long is the cooling off period out of interest?

Completely depends on when we can get around to it and double check with them. Don't forget there's only a few of us working behind the scenes, and people don't always reply to their emails quickly.

But we just need to make sure that they mean it because it's irreversible

You're showing a lot of interest for someone not thinking of closing their account. Are you sure you're not wanting us to?

Yes, you sure that there isn't some wishful thinking on your behalf

It changes a lot for me in some respects,there is something about the permanacy of posts that I s'pose I think is an important fundamental about h2g2

Like I said I have never seen it that someones conversations are just completely removed unless they have been modded. Perhaps it is just me but I never thought it was an option and I am very surprised that people haven't done it in other circumstances

Actually i am really upset by it. I don't have a problem with people wanting to delete their account but everything they have ever written here I do, unless I have the option to have any reply that I have made to them deleted too

but again I really think that goes against the grain of the permanancy of postings and is disruptive

I would prefer it that in the T+Cs that people are made aware that there is no edit button, what you post in forums and converations is here to stay although they do have the right to delete their accounts their postings will stay

Nothing is permanent, especially not data. I think the likelihood of one or two user's postings being deleted having a lasting and resonating impact on the whole site is pretty small, and whatever reasons anyone has for wishing for all their postings to be removed are, to them, good enough to warrant such a drastic measure. I don't imagine for a second there's suddenly going to be a flurry of active and prolific Researchers demanding their posts be deleted with immediate effect so I don't understand what there is to be so upset about.

Yes, it does sound as if missing posts could disrupt the context in conversations. I'm not in the habit of rereading old threads, so I've never come across instances where old posts have disappeared. Just researchers who have turned into

Well Mr D I appreciate that you might not find it upsetting, would it be too much to acknowledge that I might, because it sounds to me like you are just dismissing my feeling

This is something I can get over but still for me it is a big change in the way I think about things which I get is different to other people.

And yes I know nothing is permanant but the no edit button, the mis informed idea thatI had was what you had written could not be deleted on request. This meant to me what you write or say, however you like to look at it, was not retractable, as in you can't just make them disappear, you can of course retract them. For some reason it is important to me, something about words not being nottakebackable once they are out there as in you can't just make them go away Struggling to express myself, grrrr

My threads are important to me, I have a filing cabinet full of them on my space plus a load that I don't file but are still important. There is a lot of eperiences here good and bad that I thought I got to keep until the site went down, or there was some announcement that, I don't know, there is a time limit on things or whatever, or we get given an edit button

If someone can go back for whatever reason and delete everything they have put in it which completely alters the context of my postings then yes it does matter to me personally

There are some threads here that are I want to remain documented and I consider my reasons for that to be important and valid, now I know that I should keep copies elsewhere I will

I never didn't acknowledge that you find it upsetting (I can do grammar, me), I said that I don't understand why it is. I have long since given up any pretensions that I am as empathetic as humans are allegedly supposed to be. Sometimes that means people think I'm cold and unfeeling... but I'm not, I just find it difficult to relate to the emotions of others unless they're laid out on a silver platter. Too functional to be on "the spectrum" proper, but not functional enough to be "normal".

Your idea is not misinformed. Us who don't want to do the flounce to end all flounces cannot just get individual posts of ours deleted unless they legitimately break the house rules. We don't get to have stuff taken away like that without removing ourselves entirely.

For myself, I treat conversations here like I do conversations anywhere... they are a product of their time and the feelings and whatnot that are happening at that time. To me they are not important historical documents. Sometimes I may look back at something, but generally I like to live for the present, rather than raking over the past. If stuff is important enough to be kept that's what the EG, the UG, and The Post are for (also gettign things published and keeping a blog and whatnot). To be honest unless you go about your everyday life with a dictaphone and record every conversation you have I still don't understand why it is upsetting that a few old conversations might not retain some context... I can't imagine it upsets you when you cannot perfectly recall a spoken conversation you had five years ago, so why is this any different?

And really, I'm not putting you down despite your deciding that I am, I just genuinely don't get it.

Also, if it's a personal issue, shouldn't that then be taken up with the person who requested all their stuff be removed?

I hadn't decided anything Mr D, I said how I felt. I didn't decide to feel that way, and once I felt it, I wasn't decided it was how I should feel, or would feel

I feel (felt) differently about my space here and it is emotional in a way, but it felt like having pages ripped out of a sort of diary
I'm sorry that is not logical and I can't right now organise my thoughts to why I feel like that

it about my space, what words mean to me and the nature of shared experiences and a jumble of things

And also you can flounce like that

I am really glad that people haven't done that so that I have seen

Never mind what i feel personally which really isn't an issue for Ask

Thank you I now know that you have been able, and continue to be able delete your accounts and all your postings,if you so choose, it is just a matter of me not keeping up

I'm with Peanut on this one A wholesale wiping out of everything someone has said here is actually unrealistic to life in that once, in real life, that you say something, you cannot take it back. Part of the charm of this place, and part of its power, is that it is very near impossible to have something you say deleted unless it breaks the house rules.

Now, says some of you, it can be done. If someone has only posted one or two things I can maybe see that but to erase all postings of someone who has been active for years, months and, yea, even just weeks, would be catastrophic and destroy the conversation part of the site.

And I think that whoever holds the reins of power to do that should take a vote from everyone here to see if the researchers, members of this community, agree or disagree with this new policy. And all emails should be used to reach "quiet" researchers about this too!

I think this is VERY alarming that those of you working in administration on this site have this capability. Looking through backlog, I have seen references to it not being possible to delete all evidence of a person's presence here. So, what is true? And if things have changed since you left the BBC, shouldn't it be clearly announced for all to see?!

I'm right, arn't I!

Peanut, you're not the only one with a problem on this count - mine is less serious but still.

Deleting an account is one thing - ie removing a PS and all its content from view.
But
Actually deleting all record from all corners of the site is another thing altogether and I'm struggling to imagine the results of removing every posting, every entry ever made by, say, me...

The thought of removing links from such a complex web has given me the heebie-jeebies. Things must have changed since My Day, children