I have at different times listened to different people request that their membership here be cancelled (or words to that effect). According to one official response I read today, the way the system is set up prevents this - it would negatively affect various things like posts & uploads (sorry for the non-technical description - I'm working off the top of my head). Therefore the best that can be done is to make the membership "inactive." If I've got that part correct, would it be possible to simply create a 'null' member name (in addition to deleting galleries etc) to replace the original members' name? By null I mean a completely fictitious one that's equivalent to an "inactive" status - thus there is integrity when the site reports xxx amount of active members. I admit I don't know the technical considerations but I thought this may be an "outside the box" solution that addresses both the (ex-)members' desire not to have their name on the membership roster and the system's need to have a member name to attribute posts to (or whatever it is). No response is necessary. I understand this is a sensitive topic and won't have my feelings hurt if this gets locked or moved to the mod forum. This may have been totally unworkable but... ...I'm at least trying to think of a win/win solution. Thanks for your consideration.

Maybe there's some fail-safe method they could implement to allow malcontents to delete themselves. Some way that is hacker-safe, to keep hackers from deleting their enemies' accounts. If it's a problem removing (or retaining) the deleted person's name in the database, then just do it yahoo-style and make that name permanently taken, so nobody can try to use it again and monkey into the database, market info, etc.

"malcontents" ROFLMAO! Just does'nt get any better than this!

For anyone who knows databases, the problem should not be as severe as it would seem. It has been said before that posts are never really "deleted", just hidden from public view. So removing those posts should be no big deal, nor should marking a member's account "inactive".

I would suspect that the issue is more of willingness than it is of technical difficulty.

Message edited on: 05/15/2004 07:50

Yes, it all falls back on to the shoulders of the operators of the particular forum. "Technical Difficulty" is a "Homer Simpson" excuse for the reactor having a meltdown.

I agree cyber, it could be a simple as a yes|no field.

I can only speak from my own experiences......getting your account, gallery, artist page deleted from here is damn near impossible....even when you ask nicely!