Halfbakery: Account
Public truth, no take backs   (+1)  [vote for, against]
No deletion of account's conversation. It's not your personal property, it's collective property.

It's all public say. Why should a person sudden have the right to hide all that they have said publicly?

Have an account clause that your comments are immortalized til far far into the future (till the Half-bakery saves the universe) and you can only delete the descriptions/details of yourself. Really this is for the conversation sanity of all the other participants. A user drawn here must have started out caring about the other participants.

A nondescript user logon, and not filling out user description can be used for those whom don't want to back the self.
-- wjt, Aug 22 2019

NO! Everyone has the right to delete/ammend anything they've said here. If I think the opposite tomorrow, then I'll post that instead. Ha
-- xenzag, Aug 22 2019


Much as I dislike the holes that are left when a user deletes their account, I have to agree with the policy of allowing total deletion.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 22 2019


Deletions happen. The purpose of your computer 'screenshot' function is to save for posterity all those comments you wish to use for blackmail and lawsuits.
-- Sgt Teacup, Aug 22 2019


// collective property. //

All your word are belong to us ...

// your computer 'screenshot' function //

Actually, a web page crawler function is better.
-- 8th of 7, Aug 22 2019


//It's not your personal property, it's collective property.//

Unless "the collective" can get [xenzag] to start using a spellchecker, I'll have to disagree.
-- FlyingToaster, Aug 22 2019


I think it would be an improvement, though not as effective as not allowing deletion, to, instead of having deleted annos disappear totally, have them replaced with something like "[removed]" or "[deleted]", like Reddit does. Then at least you know there was something in between the previous anno and the next one, so you can try to mentally fill in (or ask) what might have been said, based on what the reply to it says. As it is, you might not even realize the next anno is replying to a now-deleted one until you get most of the way through reading it.

A further improvement in compromise could be to turn those "[deleted]" indicators into communally editable summaries of what was said, so that readers can still have context even though the original writing is gone—it could work like Stack Exchange's "community wiki" answers. But that could be a lot of programming effort.

(Note: Mentioning other websites above is only to refer to their features for explanatory purposes, and is not intended to imply endorsement of those websites or their administration. Indeed, I am unhappy with them.)
-- notexactly, Aug 22 2019


What if when someone deleted their account, their annotations became a part of just a generic anonymous one for unattributed but stated stuff? The history would be preserved, but they'd no longer be identified with it.
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 22 2019


//Unless "the collective" can get [xenzag] to start using a spellchecker, I'll have to disagree. [FlyingToaster] Your disagreement encourages, and endorses my potential agreement. You get stronger when you swim against the tide.
-- xenzag, Aug 22 2019


Yes, but you also encounter more turds.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 22 2019


I’ve noticed that.
-- xenzag, Aug 22 2019


Admittedly people want to amend or go back on what they say either because they were wrong or facts change. I still see no reason why they should be able to hide that change. It's even humbling to know that the change of mind is a valid, stronger ok act. There have been no arguments to say why the right to vaporise public statements is valid. It can only be a way to hide.

Then again mass deletions may cause people to start having wild remembrances of things not said.
-- wjt, Aug 23 2019


I once revealed that 8th of 7 was actually a large subterranean room full of millions of horse flies that had collectively become self aware following a simultaneous lightning strike and sewerage leak. Tended to by the weekly visits of "Max The Minion" who brings buckets of festering vegetables to feed the hungry flying synapses, the flies were always happy, and their secret was safe. I felt it was my civic duty to my fellow creatives here to reveal the truth of this perverse arrangement. I did however subsequently delete the location details etc, but if you have your way, all of this will now be laid bare again. Just imagine the hordes of fly spray and flame thrower equipped zealots (Trumpites of course) who will emerge again from their Mexican bone strewn caves and head zombie like to exterminate both the 8th of 7 horde and Max's Frankenstein GM vegetable patch. Is that really what you want? Really?
-- xenzag, Aug 23 2019


Ah yes, that was when they put you on the stronger medication, wasn't it ?
-- 8th of 7, Aug 23 2019


Remembering ( in all it's forms), is the key to being/doing better.
-- wjt, Aug 24 2019


It's never bugged me that someone can leave and take all of their written content with them.

What bugs me is that the written words of others go bye bye as well.
I think it would be good if all content not authored by the leaver remained intact.

Trying to piece together what the original content and replies might have been from the broken annos of others would be jolly good fun.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 24 2019


It's true..... If you delete an idea, or your account, you take all of the comments and links you didn't create with you into the void.
-- xenzag, Aug 24 2019


I know. Some of the things annoed by others on [UnaBubba]'s postings were pure literary gold.

Then <high-whistle, splat, puff-of-smoke> gone.

That day caused a great disturbance in the force, as though tens of voices were suddenly silenced...
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Aug 24 2019


// What if when someone deleted their account, their annotations became a part of just a generic anonymous one for unattributed but stated stuff? The history would be preserved, but they'd no longer be identified with it. //

That also happens to be what Reddit does: the username on posts and comments posted by later-deleted accounts changes to "[deleted]", and it isn't a link to a user profile anymore.
-- notexactly, Aug 25 2019


Guilty as charged, twice, for very personal reasaons.

If someone says "Don't", I immediately get the impulse to "Do". It's simply in my nature to rebel. You campaiging for this makes me feel the urge to do it again. It's hardwired in me. I try and control it, but sometimes it's too late
-- blissmiss, Aug 25 2019


Dear blissy, don't vote for Elizabeth Warren...
-- RayfordSteele, Aug 28 2019



random, halfbakery