I was thinking: instead of an "hard delete" wouldn't be much nicer to have a "soft delete" for members?
Definitions.
Hard delete: remove any information of the poster from (almost) everywhere. The main result is all the messages posted become posted by guests. The main consequence of that is you cannot go to a profile and see the list of topics/messages.
Soft delete: remove from the profile any information regarding the member (email, websites, etc.) but keeps the relation between the member and the messages, so that posts are still not traceable to a certain person, but can be bound together and I can go to a "virtual profile" and still be able to do certain useful things.
And re-animate the soft deleted user with a simple click! That would be great! I prefer soft delete!
+1 . Where were you hiding all these days ?
@emanuele :P
Sounds like a good idea, especially if it would allow to "un delete" under some conditions.
Okay, so the basic "delete but keep the connection" is worth implementing then! :D
Now, on the conditions of the "un delete"... they may be worth a couple of topics. lol
I can think of... 4? possible situations a member is deleted:
1) the member deletes his account (or ask to be deleted),
2) the admin deleted the account because the admin decided so,
3) the admin deleted the account according to policies or similar because unused (for example),
4) no, actually I can think of only these 3.
In case 1 there may be an option: "preserve my data in case I want to return" (unchecked by default, otherwise it would look something like facebok )
I had the discussion about the posts a user made and what happens with them when he wants to be deleted. I changed my board policies so I have a right to publish the posts anytime no matter what. Maybe it's a good idea to put a note about this in the registration form?
I like the idea of "soft delete" ;)