Profile delete = forum delete?

[sugarenia]

Just a quick question:

How do you people handle profile deletion in your site?
Do you delete them from the phpbb forum as well?

This causes many problems as posts made from these users are now 'dangling', as well as threads written by them etc...

Is it safe for me to just update them to inactive status in the forum when they wish to be deleted from the site?

[sugarenia]

But what about all the posts or threads that the user created? Gone as well?

My client does not wish to lose forum data, so I'm stuck with entering manually the deleted profiles in the phpbb_users table and just mark them as inactive.

It seems to do the trick, but I don't know how fail-safe can that be.

[Smoge]

Right - you do not want to delete them from phpBB - just mark them as inactive - or you will have the problems you are seeing now with broken threads and stuff.

The aedating phpBB mod has some problems in this area - but it is not too difficult to fix by adjusting the statements in the phpbb mod that handles profile delete - change it to a status change instead.

Smoge

[sugarenia]

For the time, and since my client wishes that, I will just mark them as inactive and not delete them. Let him deal with the privacy issues, I'm just a programmer...

Thanks for your two cents on that.

[Smoge]

How do you people handle profile deletion in your site?

I do not recommend deleting profiles or allowing users to delete their profile. It is best to just suspend them (if you want the user to be able to reactivate it again) or reject them (if you dont without a review), or add in a "banned user" status level, or a "deleted" status level - as this would keep their history intact for your records - and also prevents them from signing up again with the same email address.

Smoge

[sugarenia]

Smoge - the drama in dating sites is endless. Many users require the possibility to delete their profile, to make their 'exit' from the site more dramatic.

I know that any 'delete' function will surely cause problems, but I don't own the site, so I follow orders. *shrug*

[Smoge]

Sure - let them set it to deleted - but don't actually delete it. It will not allow logins and stuff - and whatever else you want it not to show - but you still retain the info for your records.

What if a somone sends a death threat to another user - then before you can investigate it - they delete their profile.

Depending on your back up frequency - you may not have a record of it.

Smoge

[sugarenia]

I'll look this out, thanx, Smoge.