Deleting user accounts

We've had two user requests for this feature. I replied to the latest request asking the user to elaborate on what they'd expect the feature to do. Their response:

"Like on reddit (and I think like on Github too, but not sure), that my account is gone, but my votes and comments are still there, although the username shows [deleted]. In groups the name or account should also just be removed.
In other words: Every occurence of my username should be removed, but the content I created publicly (commets and votes) which need to be there for context and record should be preserved."

Personally I think this is an excellent suggestion.

I don't think the username should necessarily be removed (perhaps that option should be available though). Think of the case of Loomio being used by a governance committee with members who are voted onto the committee at yearly AGMs. An ex-member may delete their account, but the committee could still want to be able to review old discussions and know who said what.

This seems like a situation for settings. The group decides their protocol about what will be removed after a person withdraws. I suspect there will be as many right solutions as groups

Getting a little more complicated, but the user name could be viewable by admin only, [deleted] to every body else.
votes couldn't really be deleted with out changing the results of all the proposals they have been engaged in, although their statements could be removed.

There's been more requests for this feature coming in, I think we should make it a priority.

+1!

Hey, I'm keen to work on this now. I think we can go with a first implementation which would be as follows :

• add delete my account link in user settings
• link to a page that explains that all the references to their name will disappear, though their contributions to the community will stay there. This page also has a confirmation link
• That's it for the first implementation

Then we could add several options to this confirmation page so that the user has more control over what they want to leave there on Loomio and what they want to take with them.

@nicolaswormser for groups using Loomio in an official sort of way — as a replacement for meetings with minutes, where Loomio becomes the record of decisions and conversations for that group, it doesn't seem appropriate for the names to disappear on user deletion. In the offline meetings world, if a member quits a committee, that would be noted in meeting minutes, but their past contributions wouldn't be altered in any way.

Good point Matt. It almost seems like a possible way to go here is to make the user aware of this in the terms and conditions before they start participating. That way when they leave they know what to expect.

What I was thinking of is that there would be options on the confirmation page to decide whether people want their name removed (hidden) or not. We could even allow group facilitators to change the default for this. But that doesn't change the most common scenario I describe before I think.

I'm not too keen on putting this only in the Terms and Conditions, I think it should be very explicit at the moment of the deletion even for the people who don't read the T&C (95% of users or so).

When you delete someone from yammer it gives you options like "delete person and their messages" "delete and keep their messages" "suspend user (can reactivate later)" etc. I think similar options for us is the way to go. Leave the choice to admins.

I'm wondering if something like this would work: if you delete your account, the default is for your comments to remain (with your username+[deactivated] or something), but there's an option for the username to be removed from all comments, which needs to be approved by group admin. Alternatively, the default could be that the username is removed from comments in the group, but is still visible to group admins.

It's a tricky thing, this balance between individual and group ownership of data

Yeah, the question is does the user own their comment or does the group own their comment? Or both? Indeed, it's a tricky one...

@benjaminknight the funny thing is that the user could manually go in and delete all their comments anyway if they wanted to. So requiring admins to approve seems a bit strange when the user can just go in and delete the comment anyway.

Very good point @jonlemmon! It is a bit weird.

The other thing to consider is that users can change their username before they leave (i.e. change your name to 'anonymous' then delete your account) - so do we need a feature to encourage people to do it?

The problem with Matt's suggestion that groups use Loomio like minutes, is that currently there is no static archive of past activity:

• e.g. if a user changes their name now, the change propagates back through history.
• or if you add a new user to a group, they will be registered as having not participated in past decisions, etc.

I think the features are still a way off before Loomio discussions can be treated as a legal record of activity, so it seems premature to be thinking about this feature in that way.

What if we just start with the simplest option, and then see how users respond to it, which will guide us to a more permanent solution. I'd suggest the simplest option in this instance is to simply deactivate the account, without removing any data at all.

Had a conversation with Rich, Rob, Aaron and myself. We determined that the best interim solution for now is:

1. User clicks "De-activate account" on the account settings page
2. Loomio informs user that: They will no longer receive emails. They won't be able to log in. It will say "de-activated" next to their name on any comments/votes/etc.

And in the case of a user who wants to obscure their identity, they can change their username and photo before they de-activate their account.

I'd been keen to try this out as a first iteration. Not the perfect system, but a step forward in the right direction.

@alannakrause how does the proposed solution disrupt groups? All the proposed solution does is make it so the user doesn't get emailed anymore and disables their ability to log in.

Because if I'm an admin and I'm relying on Loomio to be a record of what my group has decided and who said what, but I don't have any facility to download/archive discussions, a member could decide to change their name and delete all their comments and then go inactive.

Actually now that I think about it, they can do all that anyway as it is. This just gives them the ability to go inactive. I'll change my vote. I

Good first step though I'm convinced some users won't feel comfortable using loomio unless they have the ability to remove all of their contributions.
I also understand the need for comprehensive archives, but maybe that would be something only admins can do and one could remove all its comment from the discussions, but they would still be kept in the archives…

But then the user has to be aware of this.

From analytics point of view, we should keep members records.
We can have user records - his name using anonymization and his activity like how many comments, new discussions and likes, etc. But we need not have to store what he discussed in past.

Bump... had another request for this feature today

For the record, I asked the user what they would expect a 'delete account' feature to do and the response was

"I would expect that all my comments and votes remained because even though I am leaving Loomio, there should be a history of how I have affected the decisions of a group or groups. My name would just be replaced with [Deleted account]."

Has a delete / deactivate account option been implemented?

I can't see the option anywhere having just set up a new account to test elements of another feature request.

Thanks!

It's in the backlog here @phillcoxon