For privacy reasons. Actually, a lot of privacy conscious people hate how Reddit handles it, because it’s actually extremely difficult to delete all of your data even if you tried (the only display I think 1000 of the most recent items, and any content pushed off that queue is hidden from your user page permanently, even if later content is deleted, so you have to use the search box and search engines to find them, but even then it’s not guaranteed you’ll get everything). You also have to make your choice whether to go through the content deletion process (which typically involves running a third party script while logged into your account) before deleting your account, because that action is irreversible and there is pretty much no way to retroactively delete your data afterward.
IMO, with Lemmy (and Reddit), because you’re pretty much expected to not put in any personal information, if you don’t want to use the account anymore but still want your content on here, you can just not use the account, with the option of permanently deleting everything later.
I say there can be an option, deep nested, for the user to explicitly allow their comments to remain behind on account deletion. I think it is a feature worth implementing. It is what keeps even 10 year old reddit threads useful.
Purging your data is already the default here, so giving users extra choice is superior by all ways.
before deleting your account, because that action is irreversible and there is pretty much no way to retroactively delete your data afterward.
You can give users a time period to change their mind, after which their prefered option will apply to their content, deleting all of it, or keeping the content anonymously.
Except something might come up that causes you to want to permanently delete your stuff years down the line. For example, if you’re getting stalked or doxxed because the content you thought were anonymous still contained enough information to piece together stuff about you. It happens and is a problem.
I’m honestly against user content with no way for the user to delete it in general.
I think it’s fairly easy to see if the information in a few comments were enabling stalking or doxing. But again consider that such a happening would be extremely rare and might never happen.
For privacy reasons. Actually, a lot of privacy conscious people hate how Reddit handles it, because it’s actually extremely difficult to delete all of your data even if you tried (the only display I think 1000 of the most recent items, and any content pushed off that queue is hidden from your user page permanently, even if later content is deleted, so you have to use the search box and search engines to find them, but even then it’s not guaranteed you’ll get everything). You also have to make your choice whether to go through the content deletion process (which typically involves running a third party script while logged into your account) before deleting your account, because that action is irreversible and there is pretty much no way to retroactively delete your data afterward.
IMO, with Lemmy (and Reddit), because you’re pretty much expected to not put in any personal information, if you don’t want to use the account anymore but still want your content on here, you can just not use the account, with the option of permanently deleting everything later.
I say there can be an option, deep nested, for the user to explicitly allow their comments to remain behind on account deletion. I think it is a feature worth implementing. It is what keeps even 10 year old reddit threads useful.
Purging your data is already the default here, so giving users extra choice is superior by all ways.
You can give users a time period to change their mind, after which their prefered option will apply to their content, deleting all of it, or keeping the content anonymously.
Except something might come up that causes you to want to permanently delete your stuff years down the line. For example, if you’re getting stalked or doxxed because the content you thought were anonymous still contained enough information to piece together stuff about you. It happens and is a problem.
I’m honestly against user content with no way for the user to delete it in general.
In case of getting doxxed or stalked, user can contact the admin or moderators and ask for the removal of personally identifiable information.
it’s hard to verify the person’s identity in that case
I think it’s fairly easy to see if the information in a few comments were enabling stalking or doxing. But again consider that such a happening would be extremely rare and might never happen.