- General
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Ideas
Automatic deletion of inactive accounts
Many sites have anchored in their T&Cs that inactive accounts are automatically deleted if they are inactive for a certain period of time. WoP sometimes has the problem that new users sign up and then never come back.
Would it be possible to include a condition that accounts that have been inactive for half a year or even a whole year can be deleted? (not WoP year!!!)
Before the deletion, an email could be sent to the respective email addresses, so that the users can consider whether they want to come back or not.
This would have several advantages. On the one hand, it saves server capacity, and on the other hand, it is also important for data protection reasons. In addition, it would make the work of the backstory teams easier.
Besides, people are lazy! Very few people actively delete their accounts on various websites when they no longer want to use them.
Furthermore: If a deletion is clearly communicated by our terms and conditions, maybe some people will reconsider if they don't want to be online more regularly in order not to lose their character.
Customer support service by UserEcho
it's a good idea. I think deleting accounts after a hole real life year of inactivity is a reasonable amount of time.
This is a great idea! Some people are inactive forever and it gets annoying. An IRL year is reasonable.
Though I see why some would down-vote this.
Sometimes people take a break so there'd have to be something about not deleting an account if they post a message that they're taking a break.
Other than that, I totally agree with this idea!
I completely disagree with this idea
When you delete an account, you cannot get anything back, if the person worked hard for a load of money on there...it would be gone, all their mails, gone, I'm sure you get the idea, people also use fake emails sometimes so how will they be informed??
Also, as was said above, people take a break whether they are able to tell the site or not and I think it shouldn't be done unless the person has explicitly said "Can you delete my account?"
It would also give more work to the MoMs/HMs of sites, especially if they need to check messages on walls, who probably don't need more work on top of everything else.
It's a wonderful idea in theory in terms of server capacity, but I don't think it should happen due to the hundreds of scenarios where this could turn out badly
Although I don't completely disagree with this, I think there are a lot of loose ends with this. A while back I suffered through some real-life issues, and I was forced to spend about a year away from WoX, I can't imagine what it would've been like to have had my account deleted in that time because I wasn't able to check the email, or to log on. So the work on that account that I poured myself into, would've all been gone. Just gone. And if something like this were to happen to someone else, I could imagine that they would be devastated to have their account lost as well.
This seems like a good idea to me. It would help filter out inactive users, but I also agree that it would be upsetting to have your account deleted if you put a lot of work into it.
Perhaps there can be a system in place so that accounts, say, over level 10 won't be automatically deleted? The majority of inactive accounts are level 1 and profileless anyway, and if you hadn't hit level 10 before you went inactive, you could very easily remake them or start over.
As you say "the majority of inactive accounts" which means there are some situations where this will not work.
I can already give a personal example:
I have been on a site since launch (28th October or maybe September...) and am still not level 10, if I suddenly had to leave the site for a long amount of time I would lose all the money I have worked for (as I am staff) and any other interactions that I may have made, and I assume the same can be said about many other people.
I do not feel this idea should be done as while everyone has made good points, we cannot foresee every single situation, especially since WoX isn't exactly compatible with many parents which can cause people to leave suddenly and not return for a while.
The level idea was just an example. It could be something different like getting a certain achievement or having a set amount of galleons, but it's never going to work for every possible form of activity. If it did, there's be no point having the system in place.
Realistically though, if you have an account that's level 7 or 8 and you don't log in for over a year, the chances of you logging in again are extremely low. Like, 99% of the time.
It could also be made so that anyone who used to be staff will never have their account deleted, because that might mess up the staffbooks and things.
I still think the issue is that it's "99% of the time" there are still lots of situations that mean getting your account deleted is a horrible instance and unfair.
One thing also, (apologises for not making it clear), was that I was student staff should the books wouldn't be changed, but I would still lose everything that I worked hard to do...at the end of the day, I think this should be declined and not added to sites, there are lot of things that could be added but not this, not an attack to all who agree with it, just my opinion
Sites like US have literally tens of thousands of inactive accounts. If you don't log in for over a year, you're realistically not going to use the money you saved up anyway xD even if it was a lot.
I personally feel like it should be added, but I definitely see where you're coming from :D if it was a feature, it would work better if there was some way of avoiding it so people in situations like yours wouldn't have their hard work deleted. But even if that isn't added, the positives far outweigh the negatives.
The thing with the warning email is that some users don't use their real email so they wouldn't get a notification.
And again, "most" which doesn't account for all the people who might eventually come back.
Also the original post mentions about making the backstory team have an easier job... what about the prefects, if an account is deleted we cannot check anything, which means we have to assume they are using the right powers/whatever we need to check.
And having something in the settings will not help as I personally have never been to the settings tab on several sites because I do not need to, I would imagine the same be of other people
And what if it bugs and deletes other accounts, WoX breaks often and I don't think anyone would like an active account they were working on to be suddenly deleted?
I agree with Elijah. You could add a feature that users can set in their settings that their account will not be deleted if they are absent for a long time.
However, I must confess that I have no sympathy when people use a fake email address and then don't come back to the site for two years (or forever). If you use WoP/WoX seriously and even spend real money, you'd better use your real email address in case something goes wrong when paying or something like that. (Or forgetting your password)
Also, it's common for social networks and forums to warn their members that data can be deleted in case of long inactivity. And editing the settings only takes two minutes. You can expect users on the World sites to get it right. You could also inform new users when they first enter the site to check their settings for example.
But this is just my opinion and I respect if there are people who think differently.
Although I can see why this might be suggested, it is an idea that I do not fundamentally agree with. A couple of the reasons have been mentioned already - some users might come back, and so on. But here's some additional food for thought.