=][= New B&C 101 Tutorials - Deletion of Your Account and Report of Your PII =][=

[Brother Tyler]

Anyone interested in reviewing a report of the personally identifiable information (PII) that the site records can request the report. You can see a tutorial demonstrating the steps to request the report (as well as a list of the various PII data points) here.

[Brother Tyler]

In addition, anyone desiring to have their B&C account deleted can refer to this tutorial.

 

For transparency, for many years it was site policy to not delete accounts. Our reasoning was that members often returned (sometimes years later) and deletion of their account would deprive them of all the content they had previously submitted. The only exceptions to this were spambots and occasional purges of non-participating accounts (i.e., accounts over 5-years old that had submitted zero content, had not chosen an avatar or signature, and had not logged in since registration). As digital privacy awareness increased and laws were developed, we shifted our thinking. In October of 2021, we finally reached a majority among the Administrators concerning adjusting our account deletion policies. We quietly reversed our position, explicitly allowing account deletion in our site Terms of Use, though we didn't make a public announcement, nor did we announce it to the Moderators. In that time, we have deleted over a dozen accounts by request of the members. In hindsight, not announcing the change was a mistake.

 

Important note: With the exception of spambots and non-participating accounts (see description above), we will not delete accounts except by request of the member. Our process (described in the linked tutorial) includes some safety measures to mitigate the risk of false requests (i.e., someone else accessing your account and requesting account deletion without your permission) and to allow members to change their minds within a reasonable span of time.

 

A recent account deletion went wrong, prompting an in-depth exploration of the process and requirements. Previous account deletions had been for accounts with no content (our disciplinary process includes the deletion of all content submitted by spambots, so those accounts were deleted with zero content). The deletion in question was for an account that had substantial content. Following the normal process, that member's account was deleted, along with all content. That created a problem in that all of that member's topics, including replies (content) submitted by other members, were also deleted. This inadvertently affected all other members that had participated in the deleted member's topics, reducing their post counts. As a result of that mistake, we examined our process and made adjustments to [hopefully] prevent such a thing from happening again.

 

One of the catch-phrases of the Warhammer 40,000 hobby is that "The universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed." We like to throw that quote around when discussing hobbyists that are unwilling/unable to abide by the community rules (i.e., toxicity is not welcome within the community). In the case of account deletions, however, members will be missed. Our community is made up of diverse people with myriad viewpoints and experiences from all across the globe. There is always going to be some level of friction in such an environment, and we sincerely hope that members are able to cope with that friction in a constructive manner. It is always unfortunate when members decide to permanently separate from the community via account deletion, but our intent is to fully respect everyone's rights to digital privacy. We will not try to talk anyone out of having their account deleted, nor will we announce the deletion (or request thereof) or maintain any records on deleted members. The only visibility of pending account deletions will be members showing as being in the + RENUNCIATUS + group. The only traces of such members once their accounts are deleted will be the content that remains and the memories other members retain. In all cases, we will make every effort to remove any traces of PII that remain of such members.