Closed Accounts

Schism

What is going on with all the closed accounts I'm seeing around here lately? The odd one I know the reason behind but then there's users opening an account and closing it a couple of months later. It doesn't make any sense to me, surely if they're new and don't want to post any more, then just don't post?

It all seems very final. If they were banned or something the subtext is 'Banned' isn't it? Look at this thread in AH for example. There's 5 or so posters there, on the first page, with closed accounts, one only two months old.

Is Boards in decline? Are all these posters after falling out with the Boards overlords and migrating onto greener pastures?

tbh

dunno.

seamus

Ragequits. "Blaargh, nobody's agreeing with me, I quit".

They often come back the next day with a new account. Or some people just decide they're done and be done with it.

In reality it's been happening all the time, it was just never displayed publically before.

Some people have also been chomping at the bit to leave but just didn't have a way to do it. It requires self-control to log out and never come back, but the closing account process means that it's final and you've no way of coming back from it. Some people need that little extra incentive to get them to give it up.

Spear

I think it's just akin to bias confirmation. It'd be a lot more difficult to notice when someone simply stops posting, but seeing "closed account" just makes it obvious.

Plus you're also assuming that they're gone from boards.ie entirely, and not starting afresh which plenty do.

Schism

So is this close account thing easily done?

I'm sure if it was an effort to get it done only those who really want to stop posting would use it, not people who rage quit after a month and want to start fresh with a new pseudonym.

Spear

Schism wrote: »

So is this close account thing easily done?

I'm sure if it was an effort to get it done only those who really want to stop posting would use it, not people who rage quit after a month and want to start fresh with a new pseudonym.

Go to your User-CP, choose the last option, close account, confirm, and that's it. It's very easy to do.

Boards.ie: Neil

easy as in easy to close, not easy to do it by accident. just thought i'd clarify that.

we're also required by the DPC to provide users with the ability to close their accounts.

New flow is:

* user registers account to troll
* user closes account
* user re-registers to troll
* re-registered user gets banned.

Old flow:
* user registers to troll
* user gets banned
* user re-registers to troll again.
* re-registered user gets banned.


Not much we can do about it, we do however keep a hash of closed email accounts that we check on registration to see if they've closed their account before. The DPC was fine with this.

seamus

This is pretty much a textbook example of the ragequit I mentioned earlier:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056647045

Without getting into the specifics of the thread, it's an account 18 months old, but when he realised that nobody was agreeing with him and/or he wasn't getting the replies he wanted, he said he was logging off, never to return. Though I see he didn't close his account, whereas many do.

Schism

Very informative guys thanks, makes sense now