Forums / Maintenance / Suggest Ideas

Okay, this has been brought up several times, but I feel I should stress this point.

Within the programing of the Know Your Meme forums is an anti trolling device known as the "Edit/Delete Time Limit", which only allows people to edit or delete their posts within 30 minutes of creating them. As a tactic against trolling, this has worked wonders since it was introduced.

Now then, as many of you may know, the act of deactivating your account completely ignores this implied rule and hides all the posts the user had ever made from the public. This feature undermines the website rule greatly! It still allows people to troll by deactivating their account.

I suggest the following:
~Add rules to deactivating. The person must have a valid reason to want to deactivate their account. Don't allow users to deactivate if their reason is "I am bored of this website, lol." they can just log off an never return. However, do allow deactivation's to things like continued harassment, privacy worries, etc.
~Rewright the code to not hide deactivated accounts. I have seen the mod bar before and I know you have a "Spam" button that you use to get rid of Spam Accounts. Just keep the programming on the Spam Button the same and adjust the programming on the "Deactivate" button to stop hiding things.

If the website is truly unwilling to do anything about this, I suggest getting rid of the Delete Time Limit, as that is being undermined anyways.

I'm against the removal of the edit/delete limit on posts for reasons I already explained numerous times before.

But I agree with the option of keeping posts when deactivating accounts. The option with deleting spammers doesn't need to be changed, as with them we really want everything gone. But with deactivation there can be various reasons to not want their posts removed.

But not to forget we also have cases like all the warcraftnerds. You of course want those posts removed without directly permabanning the account. So just add an option that lets the mod who deactivates the account decide whether to remove or keep the posts. A simple checkbox could be enough. Based on the user we're dealing with, we are offered the choice to keep or remove their posts.

I photoshopped that checkbox in it, but it gives a good example of how easy it could be.

I've always thought the 30 minute time limit was a bit restrictive. Getting rid of it would be stupid (get 20 karma on a post? replace with rickroll hurrdurr), but a few extra minutes to go back and change stuff you forgot would be nice.

I'm not a fan of the ability to instantly deactivate your account and hide all your posts forever in a few clicks though. There really should be mod approval before people can do that.

And that mod bar is really cool. You should do an elaborate April Fools Day prank with them somehow.

Oops, I meant "Might as well deactivate the delete time limit". I don't actually want it gone, but I just wanted to draw an undesirable equivalent.

Actually, Random Man's suggestion makes the most sense to me, as in terms of work needed to implement it is minimal due to it being one value.

And yes, if not to be implemented in the programming it should definitely be implemented in the rules of the website and be regulated by Mod's.
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Example:

"Rules for Voluntary Account Deactivation:
~The deactivation must be approved by more than 1 moderator.
~There must be a valid reason for deactivation. Admitting to a Duplicate Account, website Social Problems, Personal Info Security, etc are valid if explained properly.
~Reason's such as "I am bored of this website" or anything to that effect and any suspicious testimony should be denied."

I agree about hiding all posts. This may be a bad example, but no new member, current or future, will find out how the Internet can now find stars thread started. The posts should still be visable, even when the account has been deactivated.

EDIT: here's another thing I never understood, how come when you upvote or downvote a comment, you can't change it?

From what I know, it's meant to stop people from upvoting something twice.

That sounds more like a bug that James couldn't fix more than anything, not really a problem if you ask me.

BUT, back on topic… I would like to at least have this thread collaborate in making rules for Voluntary Deactivation's.

The main problem is that you guys have tied the Spam Account Deletion code to closely to the Deactivate User code. These should be two separate codes.

What deactivating an account should do:
-Freeze an Account's wall: locking it's comments section, showing a "Date Departed" in place of the Bio, and leaving a black and white version of the person's last avatar.

Deactivated accounts can currently only be viewed by the staff, not by mods. So currently only staff can reactivate accounts. In that way, it would make sense to give banhammer mods the option to look at deactivated accounts (allowing us the option of reactivate in the process). I never really got why we can deactivate them, but not view them afterwards. It's like throwing software in the recycle bin on your computer but be declined access to the recycle bin afterwards in case you threw something out you want back, we can't fix our own accidental damage.

I have mixed feelings about the wall freeze though. Especially with deactivated accounts that were just used to break rules (flood the forum, post porn/gore in image galleries). Why would we need to freeze those? I don't see it needed that everyone is allowed to watch deactivated accounts.

But we're getting off topic here. The topic was the removal of comments and forum posts with account deactivation.

This.

God damn, fucking this.

Okay, lets work backwards, is there any reason's why we should give users the option to deactivate themselves?

If we start like that, we might as well ask if we should be allowed to take away the user's freedom of choice. If they want to deactivate their accounts, it's their choice and we should respect that. Based on the reasons for deactivation, we can decide how far we're willing to heed their request.

I guess you have a point. Mod's should be able to determine what is reasonable or not. (I hope)

If there is a choice between posts being shown or being hidden, it should be entirely up to the user and not up to some arbitrary decision of the moderators or administrators.

A checkbox would suffice.

Bringing us back around to the main point: That allows users to break the Half Hour Rule and Troll the crap out of the userbase.

I don't see the point of completely removing your account from a site. I'd just go inactive until I felt like coming back. If I did delete my account, then I wouldn't be able to come back with the same level of 'prestige'.

It's all about tenure.