Is it possible to reassign posts upon account deletion?

Started by Nakidka, August 01, 2018, 04:01:09 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Nakidka

In other words, if a member decides to quit my forum but I still want the posts there while his/her account is removed.

They delete their account but their posts are automatically assigned to a generic account specifically made for that purpose.

Is it possible?

Arantor

They're left in place without an account attached to them - the display name is left and their email is left in the database in case admins want to email them later.

If they decide to come back later, it's also possible to join their old posts to their new account.

But out of the box, reattaching them to an existing account doesn't happen - and for database integrity reasons is a bad idea.

Nakidka

Wow. Impressive. Such a quick response. Thank you very much.

So... if user John_Doe delete their account, their posts will still be associated with John_Doe?

And what if I want to get rid of their email? Must I go to phpMyAdmin for that?

Kindred

Once an account is deleted, the posts are associated to the user's original login name (which may be different from their display name) but there's no link to a profile.

I don't recall if the email address is stored...   it's certainly not visible to anyone.
Слaва
Украинi

Please do not PM, IM or Email me with support questions.  You will get better and faster responses in the support boards.  Thank you.

"Loki is not evil, although he is certainly not a force for good. Loki is... complicated."

Arantor

No, what happens is that all posts are updated with the last display name of the user so it's consistent for all posts. But it's treated under the hood as if a guest has made the post (because guest posting is supported)

The email address is stored in every post. It is also visible to admins/moderators if they attempt to edit a guest post because guest posts require a username and email. Depending on SMF version it may even be possible for non-admins to send that user an email.

Which raises other issues with guest posts and GDPR but that's a whole other story.

Illori

Quote from: Arantor on August 01, 2018, 04:17:08 PM
The email address is stored in every post. It is also visible to admins/moderators if they attempt to edit a guest post because guest posts require a username and email. Depending on SMF version it may even be possible for non-admins to send that user an email.



i just checked here on a deleted account and CANNOT view the email address of the user, no envelope shows. assuming the user was not modified on the back end, that is not working as expected.

Arantor

Did you attempt to edit the guest post? (Specifically, not with quick edit)

Illori

i just tried and the email address is showing blank. i dont think our server team would have modified that... as far as i know the attribute feature requires the email address to exist. i would have to find another deleted user to test.

Arantor

The attribute function requires either the username or email.

Illori

Quote from: Arantor on August 01, 2018, 04:22:50 PM
The attribute function requires either the username or password.

username or email address, not password?

Arantor

Corrected, sorry. Requires either username or email.

Nakidka

Quote from: Arantor on August 01, 2018, 04:17:08 PM

Which raises other issues with guest posts and GDPR but that's a whole other story.

Sorry for the late reply...

Um... that is actually the issue. If someone wants to close their account, it would be nice to simply delete all traces of their PII and shift everything to a "common user" but as you said, I see it's not a good alternative...

aegersz

see the "(Enhancements to) Reattribute user posts" mod as it may help.

it is a MANUAL process but it gives you more flexibility.
The configuration of my Linux VPS (SMF 2.0 with 160+ mods & some assorted manual tweaks) can be found here and notes on my mods can be found here (warning: those links will take you to a drug related forum). My (House) music DJ dedication page is here

Advertisement: