HN Explorer

Ask HN: Why can't we delete our accounts or remove old posts?

14 points by Mandatum ↗ HN
JustDelete.Me lists the account removal process as impossible and I have found no mention of it on News.YC, and it seems after a certain amount of time the ability to edit or delete old posts is also disabled.

19 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 56.4 ms ] thread
mtmail
You're right: both Guidelines and FAQ still don't mention account deletion. Last I know it's not possible, at least not in the user interface.

Discussed in length in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9089177

Best option is to email admins at hn@ycombinator.com

Thorondor
Jacquesm's Unofficial FAQ (from 2011) also says it's impossible. http://jacquesmattheij.com/the-unofficial-hn-faq#deleteaccou... I think this is the right policy; it encourages people not to post things they'll regret later. As jacquesm points out, you can always just remove all identifying information from your profile and start a new account if you really don't want to be associated with your past links/comments.
Fjolsvith
I've been able to delete comments I've regretted.
benologist
There's a 2 hour window on editing/deleting comments.
ggchappell
Editing and deleting an HN comment can be done within a limited time (an hour?) after the comment is created. After that it does not seem to be possible -- at least for me.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
Karunamon
Allowing deletions on a discussion board is a bad idea. A dissatisfied person should not be able to trash context and history and public conversations going back years in some misguided attempt to reclaim privacy that never existed in the first place.

This sounds harsh but I've been in one too many old forum posts that were rendered incomprehensible due to some selfish person. Think before you post and it'll never be a problem.

gull
> in some misguided attempt to reclaim privacy that never existed in the first place

From the Guidelines: "Don't say things you wouldn't say in a face-to-face conversation."

With a face-to-face conversation you have better privacy after the conversation is over than you do on HN. I would prefer a forum that offers this privacy. I'm ready to join one.

NeutronBoy
I'm against deleting old posts. You only have to look through some threads on Reddit to see how disrupting it can be to delete random posts in a comment thread.

Deleting accounts would be ok, if it leaves the comment trail intact.

brudgers
Try the contact link at the bottom of the page. Reasonable reasons may fall on reasonable ears. Raising a fuss for fuss raising's sake may not, however, get you anywhere.

Good luck.

philtar
Wow the hypocrisy is unbelievable. Any other website would have been chided, chewed and spit out by the community if they didn't let you delete your posts (even if they are just hiding them). But because HN is doing it it's suddenly OK? 4 out 5 comments at the time I wrote this support the inability to delete an account.
jasonkester
No hypocrisy at all. That's the golden rule: Don't put things on the Internet that you do not want to be on the Internet. That way, there won't be anything you've put on the internet that you didn't want to be on the internet.

As true today as it was back in Usenet days (which also had no mechanism for deleting your entire post history).

SamReidHughes
> Any other website would have been chided, chewed and spit out by the community if they didn't let you delete your posts

I don't believe this. I've never seen criticisms of other forums for this. Why do you believe this?

philtar
So if suddenly facebook didn't let you delete your posts that would be ok?
SamReidHughes
> So if suddenly facebook didn't let you delete your posts that would be ok?

This question has, and my answer to this question would have, absolutely nothing to do with my response or your previous post, which are about what Hacker News commenters would say about other websites.

Nor would what they (or I) think about one particular website tell us what they (or I) think about "any other website." And if you were to pick a specific one as an example, a more appropriate choice would be another discussion forum, not a social network.

gull
What I think I want to have deleted after a period of time is the connection between username and comment. I may still want to see the comment, but I don't want it connected with my username.

Like conversations in real life. It's one of the advantages of forgetting who you heard something from.

jseeff
On a slightly related albeit not quite exactly the same type of note: can usernames be changed? I see a very large number of non-name related usernames and am curious as to why that is and if they can be changed to a real name or away from one....?
stephengillie
I am very interested in changing my HN name to align with the rest of my internet identity. But I do not want to lose what few internet points I have accumulated here.