"Deactivated User"

[Slavik]

We have users who no longer wish their account to be active, however, for the protection of both users and our site, we have a 0 deletion policy of accounts unless under extreme circumstances.

It would be nice to offer users a way to "deactivate their account" rendering anyone except admins able to do anything with it and basically locking it (as if it were deleted, so no emails, nobody can browse the profile, the user can't log in etc etc) , and if they want it back they would have to contact an admin to have it made available again.

Whilst I don't agree a user self delete would be a good idea (due to the potential for abuse) user de-activation would be a nice middle ground.

 

[Jeremy]

Could this not be accomplished with a permanent ban?

 

[Slavik]

In theory yes, in practice no. Our banlists don't discriminate for the reason, and as such, getting added to it could negatively impact them elsewhere on other services we run or associate with.

 

[DRE]

Thought about doing this.

 

[Sim]

We regularly have users requesting to delete or deactivate their account (we also have a no-deletion policy), I have previously just done it manually by way of moving them to a special user group with all functionality disabled.

It might be nice to have this ability at a user level and I would also like to be able to make sure that only admins can re-instate a user-disabled account.

This type of functionality can also be important when you start integrating mailing lists into your forum - with automated (or newletter) mailouts to community members. If someone want to "unsubscribe" from the forums, they should be able to do it themselves without necessarily needing to wait for an admin to do it for them.

I currently send automated "we've missed you" emails to people who haven't signed on in the past 90 days, with any bounced or spam-marked emails having the users account automatically disabled ... I also get a few people simply replying to my automated emails with "unsubscribe", so having the ability for a user to easily disable their own account would be useful.

 

[jerremy]

I also immediately thought about a separate usergroup with the name something like Deactivated Users. When you give them the right permissions (none), the only thing would be that their profile can be seen (limited of course).
This still don't really fix the problems, I really like the suggestion of such function.

 

[Sim]

I also immediately thought about a separate usergroup with the name something like Deactivated Users. When you give them the right permissions (none), the only thing would be that their profile can be seen (limited of course).
This still don't really fix the problems, I really like the suggestion of such function.

This is what we currently do - works well, however it is a manual process to put someone in that group.

Slavik's suggestion is to take this one step further and allow a user to deactivate themselves.

 

[jerremy]

This is what we currently do - works well, however it is a manual process to put someone in that group.

Slavik's suggestion is to take this one step further and allow a user to deactivate themselves.

We are yet still using vBulletin. There you can manage group memberships also in the usercp at the frontend of the page. Users can apply for memberships by themselves, and we just get a list of people and their motivation and we can easily approve, deny or ignore. Since we're not using Xenfor yet, I don't know if this is possible in Xenforo as well. This would safe you a lot time and would work well, until a more extensive feature as 'Deactivate user' is created.

 

[CTXMedia]

We operate a "no account deletion" policy too - when someone flounces or asks for their account to be closed we put them in the Deregistered usergroup in the ACP which has a public title of Guest and all perms unset. Seems to do the trick for us.

However, I also take the additional steps of manually depersonalising their account profile and removing all secondary usergroups (and in some cases email addresses too).

It would be cool if we had a single action in the ACP (or members could do it from their account settings) that "appears" to do all of that whilst still retaining everything as-is so it can simply be unticked to return them to their previous account state if they later (and they often do) regret the haste of their decision and want to come back.

Maybe we could have some options in the ACP for the default "look" and behaviour of "deactivated" accounts - that would be doubly cool.

So, after all that preamble - I've liked the first post!

Cheers,
Shaun

 

[Biker]

We also have a non-delete policy. Normally I just ban the account, but I have needed alternative options in the past.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

We also have a non-delete policy.

All my support for a feature like this.

 

[CTXMedia]

All my support for a feature like this.

Pssst ... remember to "like" the first post to add your support for it too ...

 

[The Dark Wizard]

Pssst ... remember to "like" the first post to add your support for it too ...

Alright .

 

[erich37]

how does a "non-delete policy" work from a legal standpoint in various jurisdictions/countries around the world ?
I remember FB is fighting with courts in Germany about all of this.....

 

[CTXMedia]

how does a "non-delete policy" work from a legal standpoint in various jurisdictions/countries around the world ?
I remember FB is fighting with courts in Germany about all of this.....

I'm not sure of the legal standpoint, but personally if someone is using a username - as opposed to the real name - then there is no "personal" information other than what they might post or add to their profile. If you clear / anon their profile and any personal posts, then the rest cannot be (legally?) attributable to a specific person and therefore wouldn't come under the same umbrella as, say, Facebook - where it's all about "you".

 

[Sim]

how does a "non-delete policy" work from a legal standpoint in various jurisdictions/countries around the world ?
I remember FB is fighting with courts in Germany about all of this.....

There is a big difference between (possibly private) Facebook updates vs posts made on a public forum.

Standard forum terms of service states:

You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service.

Essentially, once you've published it (on our public forum), you are giving us the rights to keep it published at our own discretion and you don't have the right to demand its removal.

If you don't want it posted, don't post it in the first place.

We have a no-delete policy, but I do offer to users who ask to have their content removed, the option to provide me with details of any specific posts which cause them concern (due to privacy or similar reasons), which I will edit or remove for them - at my own discretion.

I also discourage the use of real names on the forum (especially for users posting under a pseudonym) for the same reason - if someone has problems in the future and wants to depersonalise their profile, we can't just change their username if their real name is used all over the place in other posts.

My largest forum is a real estate investment discussion - so matters of privacy do come up from time to time, but they have never been a major issue and are usually able to be resolved with one or two post edits (and the occasional user name change) if required.

I am strict with my no-delete policy (I will never bulk delete a users posts, no matter how much they protest), but I'm not a horrible person - if they can show me genuine concerns about some of their posts, I'll certainly edit or remove them if I can.

 

[0xym0r0n]

Yes, I'd like a deactivation option much like Facebook has.

 

[tyteen4a03]

We are yet still using vBulletin. There you can manage group memberships also in the usercp at the frontend of the page. Users can apply for memberships by themselves, and we just get a list of people and their motivation and we can easily approve, deny or ignore. Since we're not using Xenfor yet, I don't know if this is possible in Xenforo as well. This would safe you a lot time and would work well, until a more extensive feature as 'Deactivate user' is created.

This is possible through an addon.

http://xenforo.com/community/resources/join-user-group-by-waindigo.225/

 

[Luxus]

Isn't a deactivated user just a deleted user? Deleted users appear in the discussion as guests, but guests can be changed to "deactivated users". And you can undelete/activate them any time with this add-on.

 

[akia]

+1 for this, but I'd like to see it where the user can activate their own account again, with the option for it to be approved first by admin, just like new user signups.

I'd also like to see a option where you can deactivate accounts automatically based on time inactive, so that all those old accounts are archived and no emails etc are sent out, but still have the option for the user to come back at a later date,.