Re^3: False Passwords Void / Method to Disable Your Account

[Argel]

Is this just a stop-gap to a better solution in the future? It seems to me that the long term the goal should be to create a "Disable" button that erases that users real name, email address, and password. And maybe that users home node for good measure?

[Co-Rion]

No. You can set all these yourself, and as this is a one-time thing, I don't see any need to spend time on making this functionality into a button.

[Argel]

One time deal? Are you planning on removing the code that disables an account? If not, is this going to be documented anywhere?

[tye]

The correct question is "Do you plan on disabling your account more than once and thus need to have the process automated down to a single button push?". That is how this is a "one-time deal".

Of course, having a single button push to disable your account sounds like a really stupid feature. You could make it less stupid by adding an "Are you sure?" prompt. And who am I to tell you exactly how you want to leave your disabled account? It would be better to let you pick which items you want to blank out or replace with alternates as part of the process. Since implementing an "are you sure?" dialogue seems hardly worth the effort for such a can-only-be-used-once feature, we'll just require you to declare your intention twice before you submit.

So I've collected the most commonly desired-to-be-blanked fields on a single form. Simply enter "0" twice to indicate that you are sure you want to disable your account and press the one button. All implemented. Now we just lack some documentation updates.

[Zen]

Where is the button to do this?

[ambrus]

Would it also remove the information from google cache and the wayback machine, and distribute “corrected” copies of the old printed newspapers to everyone's homes?

[Argel]

The email address and real name are only stored in the database, right? So unless the user (or hackers) intentionally disclose that information it shouldn't be cached anywhere else.

[ambrus]

Yeah, and if perlmonks deleted your email when your account is disabled then you couldn't get an email from the administrators if they found out your password was stolen (either because the attack was done before you disabled your account, or, like now, the attackers got hold of an earlier backup of the database). I don't mind that, because I for one don't want such an email (the Create A New User page even sort of promised they won't send me one), but you just might want to know.