User Deletion Of Own Account?

Hi All,

I've had a look around the groups and tried using the search function with nothing coming back, so figured I'd ask here.

As we know end user privacy, end user records / content is important but I don't think there is anything built in to elgg to enable a user to seek the deletion of their own account?

Is there a current plugin, (SiteAccess?) that maybe could be expanded to give end users a "Delete Your Account", then deleting all their content / records in the system upon deletion request and action?

Just a thought people, if the above can't be accomplished, does anybody know of any other way around this issue.

Regards,

  • Well, in that case why even go to the extent of changing the name!.. why not just write code that tells the site to produce a generic 'This user is no longer a registered member' page every time their profile is called, and also prevent their username produced by searches.

    Obviously, you would then tell users that they can 'de-activate' and activate their accounts' rather than delete. The good thing about it is that so long as they have their username and password they can always login and activate their account. Here's the scenario:

    1. User logs in;

    2. User deactivates account;

    3. Automatically, user profile will be replaced by 'This user account is de-acitvated';

    4. Search will no longer produce that user in search results, but will continue to produce the content that user created;

    5. User can come back, login, re-activate account with one click. This means that they do not need to re-register.

    What do you think?

     

  • @Carlos... this is not a million miles from what I was suggesting above, i.e. anonymous = 'This user account is de-acitvated"/suspended/inactive/hidden... it does not matter what term is used.  But in this state the user can reactivate at will with their username and password...

    OR if really desired, contact Site Admin to have it removed of personal content (desireable for many people) then the public discussuion posts etc would belong to the site and marked as anonymous and could never be retrieved by them, even if they re-register.

  • Mark and Carlos - this sounds to be the best solution.

    I like the idea of keeping content but renaming as anonymous. I think any user who has posted stuff that they regret (contact details, flame wars etc) should be given a notice before deactivating account to delete posts that they really don't want displayed even as an anonymous user.

  • Great... is there anyone out there that has the skills to implement this? 

    I guess it would be best to have this in the core, however, a pluging would be fine...

    I would be happy to add some money into the pot (nominal, say $5) and if there are enough of us to fund the plugin we can give it to the community once complete... any takers?

  • I'll have a look at what needs to be done, but I am thinking a plugin that when deployed it implements some mods. I don't think it would be necessary to modify user profiles. I think what we need to do is:

    1. Create a form in the user settings area: I am thinking a radio button to de-activate/activate account.

    2. Then, for active accounts, execute the normal code, for inactive accounts:

    a. Replace the user icon with a dead (unlinked) image;

    b. Replace the name with a dead generic name (like: Inactive User).

    c. Write code in the search area to exclude any user with the name (Inactive User) from results;

    d. Treat Inactive User as a non logged in visitor, ie, cannot make comments, send messages or write pages...etc even if the inactive user is logged in.

    e. Write something to prevent the inactive user from updating their profile (which would prevent them from changing that generic name), Basically, inactive users cannot access or update their profiles until they re-activate their accounts.

    There will be other things like email notifications (example: if someone makes a comment on an inactive user's post, the inactive user will not be notified).

    It'll take a little time.

  • Lovegin John

    @Mark & Team,

    I would encourage you to use the scriptshares.com platform to fund for the project and get it done. Its a cool application.

     

    Regards,

    Lovegin

  • @Carlos, sounds good to me, I wish I could help with coding, but I do not know enough PHP etc.  I am happy to beta test though.  It may be worth speaking to Dhrup as he told me yesterday that he and some buddies had coded a plugin to do this for his FBKids website... perhaps he would like to contribute his experience, or perhaps make his plugin available to the community (for a cost maybe?)

    @Lovegin, I like the sound of your website... The idea of contributing donations "up front" by several/many potential users is a great idea.  I am sure that many of us can afford a nominal fee/contribution for a useful/essential plugin (depending on its complexity, quality, usefulness etc) but not fund the whole development cost alone.  This way new and useful functinality could be made available to all, and really give elgg an edge over the many other Open Source CMS frameworks out there.

  • Lovegin John

    @Mark,
    Welcome to use the website to get the plugins done. I think its a good concept.

    @All

    I am not very good at marketing and hence the site is still not very popular. But, I think we can discuss and find some one to partner with me and take over the marketing of http://scriptshares.com.

  • Hi Lovegin, what would it cost to code this plugin?  Do you have an idea?  I have no concept about how easy or difficult it is. It might save Carlos or others their spare time.

    Carlos seems keen to have a go at coding it, and his footer plugin has been very useful, so perhaps we will see how he gets on.

  • Some of the "features" being asked for are rather "far fetched" technically because a lot of Elgg internals know-how is required. We (FbfKids,Dhrup, MalagaJack, MotherHen, et al owners of FbfKids.com, FbfWorld.com, FbfTeens.com, FbfKiddies.com, etc ) - we already have the basic self-ban feature - demo available at our test site --> footfootbook.com -- just register there and self-ban yourself and the system *will *kick you out forever. We are looking at several important  enhancements to the basic version so as to encompass some more powerful actions to make this "self-ban" more fool-proof... $funding is as always.. welcome... unless "someone" *steals our code and gives it away for free or sells it for themselves.