When folks leave the forum, their history does, too.

I think an exiting member’s contributions would remain if the member simply stopped posting and participating. They vanish only if the member contacts the webmaster and asks to have the account deleted.

Either way, these exits are a real loss for the community.

I think that's what's known in the trade as a "flounce". Quite bad form.

It's probably not done on purpose, that's just how the system is designed. One doesn't want to have many unused accounts that could be used as backdoors to hack into your computer.

It would be nice to have a feature to hibernate an account, in case one wants to return again.

I noted this last year when a frequent contributor was "banned" and all their posts went. I was shocked that all their posts went as well however, they were Re-instated to the forum a few days later and all their posts back. At that point I realized that if there in information you want to save I needed to copy/paste it into a document.

I'm sorry your friend left.

Very, very sad. I really wish that the person concerned had simply ceased posting.

Thought went into the decision- clearly a lot of thought.

However her posts will be 'archived' in a server or other means somewhere- and presumably if she chose at a later date to return they would all be resurrected at the flick of a switch so to speak. The other issue, of course, is that unless you have a personal e-mail for someone who has gone like that they are now uncontactable.

EDITED in light of a now removed post and the webmaster's commentary which has removed a doubt about what happens to an ex-member's posts.

Yes flounce may be unkind in whatever circumstances that transpired. I would assume venerable Webmaster would have alerted the leaver to the fact that their posts would disappear. I'm just going by previous experience I've encountered on other forums, where it was seen as something a bit selfish and overdramatic by other members of the community.

It would be nice to have a feature to hibernate an account, in case one wants to return again.

Most message board forums (that I know of) do not delete the posts when a member closes their account. For example, if you are on Reddit or TA, you will see posts and where the member's name usually is, it just says "Deleted" or something similar.

It's really up to this forum to change that and I wish they would. There is a huge amount of good travel information that is just lost when someone closes their account.

And, @Jules- I apologise for overstepping the mark in my comment on your thread last week. It is no excuse, but my emotions were running extremely high at the time. Some of the commentary (not yours) had heavily upset me, taken in tandem with the webmaster's PSA and the events leading to that.

Enough said. Time to be positive, and move forward with the job in hand of helping others

Most message board forums (that I know of) do not delete the posts when a member closes their account.

Yes. It may have been requested by the leaver. Usually ex-users or banned users posts are retained to maintain thread integrity. I'd assume the person in question's posts still reside in the database behind this forum.

Storage costs money, so the site can't keep everything from everyone forever.

Isn't there still an internet wayback archive/machine thingy?

Isn't there still an internet wayback archive/machine thingy?

https://wayback-api.archive.org/

Wow! I am on no social media...not Facebook, TikTok, etc. This is my only forum, although I do give reviews on Booking.com for places I have stayed. Does that count? I never heard the term "flounce" before, other than in reference to clothing or curtains. You learn something new every day!

(By the way, That was not sarcasm. I really am illiterate re social media.)

Oh Judy, i had to smile at your post. I completely understand. No social media for me either except the forum. No wonder it’s my addiction.

Europe has a "right to be forgotten" law. If someone leaves this forum, and requests all their posts be removed, then the forum has to comply with that request.

Which may be why this is done like this by default.

It is the same with other platforms. Compliance with EU rules is also why for example you can ask Google. Facebook at all to provide you with a copy of everything they know about you. And yes, you can afterwards ask to have it all expunged.

Flounced and Expunged in one week. That would be more than I could take.

if a person has crossed a line and is removed all their posting history on these Forums has always been removed. I don't know of anybody who has been banned having their posts remain. (that's clumsy but you know what I mean)

Who knows the facts of these individuals - leaving or being removed? I surely don't.

Many people have, in the time I have been here, left or stopped posting or passed on, and their posts are all still here.

by the way - I don't know who is being spoken of and I have no inside information.

Nigel,
We are talking about someone called [name redacted at the insistence of Jules]

I saw her change her final post to add a coda to say effectively I have written to the webmaster to leave. Please do not reply to this post, as hopefully it will be gone soon.

My first thought was oh, (expletive deleted, expletive deleted)

My second thought was ,(to write that in the exact words that she used) is this situation resolvable by mediation (very bad word but you know what I mean).
It could and arguably should have been.
The very strong temptation was to PM someone I don't know at all and try to talk.
I do not know if I would have got a response.
At that stage there was 2, maybe 3 hours, until the webmaster came in to work and actioned it.
Time simply wasn't there.
It was like driving down a motorway and seeing an approaching car crash on the opposite side, and being powerless to prevent it.

EDITED

I'd assume the person in question's posts still reside in the database behind this forum.

Gerry, yes. The person Pam was referring to was reinstated about a week later and all of their posts were back online after that.

Europe has a "right to be forgotten" law. If someone leaves this forum, and requests all their posts be removed, then the forum has to comply with that request.

This forum exists under US law, not Europe, so that law would not apply. That said, if someone leaves this forum and deletes their account, all of their threads and posts are deleted as well. I don't think it's because people have a right to be forgotten; more probably, that's how the software works.

I'm not sure what to do here. I do not want to talk about anyone that is on the forum or more concerning, someone that is no longer here. I'm considering deleting the thread.

I am not and was not wanting to talk about any specific person, just that I wasn't sure that people knew the information provided disappears. I have, at times, searched with no luck with info that I knew had been posted.

@ isn31c, please edit your comment and remove the name

Jules m, please don’t delete the thread. It would be nice if the webmaster could respond to let people know what does happen to linked posts if a person voluntary asks to leave the forum or is banned.

Yes. Please don't think my comments were directed at the person Stuart mentioned. I had an idea who we were talking about but didn't want to say.

ETA: That sounds a bit disingenuous. What I mean is I wish that person all the best, but I'm disappointed their contributions have gone too.

I agree that they were a valuable contributor and are missed. I hope forum business wasn't so bad that it caused them undue stress.

It would be nice if the webmaster could respond to let people know what does happen to linked posts if a person voluntary asks to leave the forum or is banned.

@Mona, if a person just "leaves" the forum—in other words, keeps their account but just stops posting, then their threads and replies remain on the forum.

However, if a person's forum account is deleted (either a voluntary deletion or being banned by the Webmaster), any thread they have started, and any reply they have written is deleted as well.

That said, if that person is reinstated or decides to come back with their same account (which would probably require emailing the Webmaster so that they could get the account open again), then all their previous posts and threads would be back on the forum.

I'm thankful for this thread as it is encouraging me to not just bookmark threads but to save specific information I find helpful more than I do. I'm sorry that valuable information is lost when a person has decided to be removed from the forum.

I don’t have a clue what flounce is; everything I see in the dictionaries is about clothing.
Could someone define this? Is it pejorative?
Is it fact or opinion, and if it’s opinion, is this the place for opinions?

"I don’t have a clue what flounce is; everything I see in the dictionaries is about clothing.
Could someone define this? Is it pejorative?"

@Bets, it's like "leaving in a huff" only maybe a bit more feminine? This was something my Southern Mom would say about someone she thought was making an a$$ of herself. In her usage, a guy didn't "flounce" but women did. It's not exactly perjorative. Maybe disdainful, dismissive, scornful and a bit disparaging though, lol.....

Here's the Merriam-Webster definition. And laughing because they define it with "huff" too!

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/flounce

I got to thinking, if I got upset about something on the forum, maybe even a comment directed towards me, I might want to exit the forum and take my comments with me. Not because I'm a mean person, just because I wouldn't want comments related to me in my absence.

Also, people that leave the forum may have hard feelings or may just be too busy with life. I would guess, many would not even realize that their helpful advice would disappear as well.

In this case, I wish that one could post an item that may be is useful but freeze any comments.

I've reported my post to the webmaster and he can decide what to do. Unfortunately, he has been quite busy as of late.

Yes I admitted it was a bit unkind further up the thread. No offence meant to anyone here or really to the person who left. At the end of the day, it's more important that someone left the forum feeling sad, than the info they leave behind.

Hi all,

Jules, you are welcome to delete this thread at your own discretion.

I can't comment on any person specifically. Interactions with anyone - and their requests of me/RSE - are private just as any of you would hope for with regard to my interactions with you. I can say that while removing all posts is something we do for any account that is banned, it is not an automatic thing in other cases. Yes, there is a "right to be forgotten" EU rule that can be invoked in which case that would be automatic if it was requested of us. Other actions depend on the request. We typically prefer to keep posts around for the sake of retaining helpful travel advice for others, and we also respect forum members' wishes (whether they are in the EU, US, or elsewhere).

Webmaster, I don't think people wanted details on any particular person's decision to leave the forum. What I think some were looking for is the process. The concern is for those of us that bookmark threads and perhaps we may want to use some other way to retain the information.

The way I understand it, if a person chooses to discontinue participation, their posts remain as long as they do not ask you to remove them from the forum. Here's the question, when you remove someone, are their posts automatically deleted?

I will send this in message form, as well, in case the Webmaster doesn't revisit this thread.

I can clarify. :) My apologies as I did frame my answer with the comment re details about a member. I do that because some in the past have wanted confirmation either way. It's just to set what I can and can't say on the overall topic.

I did intend for the bold line to stand out to answer your question. So, to clarify, no, posts are not automatically deleted (outside of banning someone). It depends on the request.

I think that that is quite clear.

We can conjecture but we won't know in any particular circumstance.