Can someone effectively close their own account?

A

Alvin63

Well-known member
I know technically they can't but I've had a member who appears to have done so as they no longer appear on the "Most messages" list. When I check their profile it says User state: "Awaiting email confirmation from edit". So presumably they have changed their email address but not confirmed it. This is a member who decided to leave by the way but didn't ask for their account to be closed saying "might be back". However all their videos have been set to private (leaving black boxes in threads) so looks pretty permanent to me.

I guess basically, by changing their email (I'm guessing) and not confirming they are now in an "unregistered" state?
 
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I guess changing your email address and then not confirming is kind of a workaround. If you use a dummy email that either doesn't exist or that you immediately close (e.g. an Outlook.com alias that you delete), you would effectively have closed it permanently, too. We instituted a process for members to request closing of their account by the staff but it is rarely used.
 
It has surprised me. The member was fairly technical generally but clearly closed their account themselves then. I'm still a bit confused. The email address showing on the account is the same as before. So if they just changed the email but then confirm and didn't log in again, would that do the same as changing it to a new email and then deleting that email? Trying to work out the difference.

Maybe I should set it so people can't change their email without requesting to do so?
 
So if I changed their user state to "Valid" would it make their account open again, even if they didn't log in? And reinstate points list etc? Just curious.
 
Alvin63 said:
Presumably then they could open it up again if they later confirmed their email?
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Yes.

Alvin63 said:
What was the process you instituted please?
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They send a DM to a moderator or admin requesting. We confirm after a cooling off period (we learned the hard way) and then set User State to Disabled if they confirm that they want to leave. We used to ban them but since the terms for returning from a voluntary departure are more lenient than for appealing a permaban, we felt that wasn't quite right.
 
Alvin63 said:
So if I changed their user state to "Valid" would it make their account open again, even if they didn't log in? And reinstate points list etc? Just curious.
Click to expand...
Have never tested that, actually, since we've never had someone use the changed email scenario. For my method above, that's how a return works. I would think it would but it would also bypass email confirmation which is not really a good idea.
 
Yes that's what has normally happened with me. People message you to ask if they can close an account and there is a cooling off period. This member knew about the cooling off period after another member left. It's kind of shown me who is in charge! A member closing their own account. I doubt most people would think to do that. Or even know how forum software works.

I have changed user state the other way round before (from Valid to unregistered) to close an account. I assume if I set it to valid it would be as if the account hadn't been closed, but then would the new email still work to log in with? If they decided to come back?
 
Looks like there's an addon to disable the option for members to change their email address. I don't see much harm in them having to ask admin to do it. Unless anyone can suggest why it would not be a good idea?
 
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