Does Neowin delete member accounts?

[Brandon H Supervisor]

26 minutes ago, shockz said:

(Is a thread from 8 years ago really relevant though? If someone replies, they're closed immediately). 

necro posting isn't taken as seriously as it used to be. we've lightened our stance on that this year. Now as long as the post is relevant to the topic at hand and/or contributes to it then we're fine with it.

We recently discussed this in the mod section so all mods are on the same page and in agreement with it now  

 

No reason to force someone to create a separate (aka duplicate) thread for the same issue and start over efforts  We're already a shrinking community so we don't want to potentially push new users away over such a small thing as posting to an old topic.

[Brandon H Supervisor]

26 minutes ago, adrynalyne said:

Control of the forum account doesn’t automatically mean email too...

unless the person was unwise enough to use the same password

[+BudMan MVC]

Im saying in my scenario a users email has been compromised - so how would you changing the password be able to help with that... They just do a password recovery for the now random password.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Facts to consider:

• We've never required anyone to prove who they are irl when registering an account at Neowin beyond verifying a real email address
  Note: unless we started paying them in some form of employment for duties relating to the site like news reporting or server admin
• The above does not apply to those members which have won prizes in giveaways, who have had to tell us irl contact details, but those details aren't public anyway and not saved in some evil database. 
• Accounts can be spoofed from anywhere in the world and we wouldn't care unless you start breaking our forum rules, and that would only result in restrictions/bans
  Note: we've had plenty of people pretending to be someone/thing they aren't and the community usually ends up figuring it out anyway.
• We've suggested in several topics and our privacy statement/TOS and forum rules about taking care about members posting any info that could be used to trace them irl, they did that themselves, we didn't require it we remove these "accidents" on request, so you see we are again offering a service to our members
  Note: these links are in the footer of every page on Neowin, with exception to the forum guidelines
• Asking to be GPDR'd is hard to verify unless our moderating team knows from their account/posting style/multiple IPs originating from said country that they actually reside there.
  Note: Which creates an amusing "problem" in that -- how can we verify that the account holder is an EU citizen if we don't have their personal details/id? Huh?
• Neowin can "get into trouble" for not acting on GDPR requests, but since all of the above also apply, we don't really have the verifiable info beyond the IP address to prove where the member is from
• @BudMan to answer your question, because we don't know the person irl who originally had access to the email, it is difficult to prove such things, but such complaints have been handled in the past and a secondary email address, like AIM/MSN or whatever that wasn't changed was proven to be the original account holder, so there are ways to recover "hacked" accounts
• IN THE PAST IPB forums used to keep everything like a history of changes to a person's account for staff to see, but because everyone got all upset about it, those features are being removed with every new release, soon I think even display name histories will be removed and everyone can live out their wildest dreams of being a permanent troll on the internet with no repercussions for their behavior, because it "hurts their feelings" awww... everyone can become truly anonymous with a flick of the switch.
• BACK TO EMAIL HACKING @BudMan We already support 2FA so people should use that to protect their accounts on and off the site I recommend it!

[OldGuru]

On 23/04/2008 at 08:36, Steven P. said:

It was suggested in another thread that this be posted for clarity, so here goes.

 

Should a Neowin member choose not to participate on Neowin anymore, there are 2 things you can do..

1. Log out, don't come back.
2. Clear out your profile (personal stuff like email address and IM addresses) and anything else that you deem personal, then follow step 1.

 

If we continually deleted accounts, we would have a small member base, every now and again we send out an email reminding in-active members of their accounts at Neowin, there is a criteria for those mails being sent out:

• You have more than 10 posts.
• You chose to receive emails from the administrator.
• You have entered a correct email address that is valid and active.
• You haven't logged in for 6 months or more.

 

So really it is entirely up to you as a member if you want to be part of Neowin or not.

 

Neowin also never deleted a members contribution to the board, so in saying this please be sure you don't post sensitive information (such as your home address, or anything that can be linked to you personally). In certain cases Neowin will remove personal information on request, but we will not wipe a members post tally, that only serves to screw up untold numbers of topics and posts.

 

Additionally, we will every now and then delete dupe accounts and spammer accounts to make way for those names to be used by [future] genuine members, we have also in the past deleted accounts that have been inactive for a long time and a member has requested to use that inactive name. In the case of someone registering, never having posted and was only active in the same week (up to a year or more ago) means we will also delete it on request, should a member want to use that member name.

 

Last but not least, Neowin does not sell, give out or misuse your email address, ever. In fact, we probably send less "board mails" than any other board, other than the automated subscription to topics you yourself can activate (and disable) at will.

 

May 25 2018 GDPR update

 

The above, apart from the strikethroughs (which indicate this is no longer policy) was last edited in 2008. From Friday, May 25 2018 we updated our forums to include GDPR compliant tools, such as the ability to anonymize a member that has chosen to leave Neowin (or has been banned) this can be done on request and is irreversible. In such cases you will have to prove you owned the account and reside in a GDPR enforced country.

 

Neowin does not sell any of the information you give to us to third parties, and in fact we only require a valid email address in order to complete registration of a member account at Neowin. What amounts to the little personal data required to register an account has not been misused and has been been safe with Neowin since we started, almost 20 years ago.

I would really like to close my account here since I am blocked to comment on any Microsoft related article. What's the f. point of having account here except for no good reason for you to ###### hold on it? So ###### off and close my account.

[+Biscuits Brown MVC]

9 minutes ago, OldGuru said:

I would really like to close my account here since I am blocked to comment on any Microsoft related article. What's the f. point of having account here except for no good reason for you to ###### hold on it? So ###### off and close my account.

So, clear your profile, log out and don't come back. The post you quoted explained everything pretty well.

[Dick Montage]

56 minutes ago, OldGuru said:

I would really like to close my account here since I am blocked to comment on any Microsoft related article. What's the f. point of having account here except for no good reason for you to ###### hold on it? So ###### off and close my account.

Na-na

Na na na-na

Hey hey hey

Goodbye

 

Quite frankly, I'm quite happy you are so butthurt.  Some of the ###### you've posted is utterly abhorrent and you try to project this "old-world, tough guy" image that is just a joke.

[adrynalyne]

1 hour ago, OldGuru said:

I would really like to close my account here since I am blocked to comment on any Microsoft related article. What's the f. point of having account here except for no good reason for you to ###### hold on it? So ###### off and close my account.

❄️

 

The only way you would be blocked is if you  were trolling.  That's on you.

 

Bye, Felicia.

[Mindovermaster Global Moderator]

"Leaving on a Jet Plane" -John Denver

[spaceelf]

Wait really he's blocked?  I feel like that's worth partying about.  Who's got the...you know I don't drink, but I could make an exception 😁

[Steven P. Administrators]

If you need us to remove some Pii see the first post in this topic and then contact any moderator, who will be happy to remove any Pii that you link to.