Only two requests may have reached your inbox, but there are 12 message board 
threads (over 8 BOINC years) at SETI asking how it could be done. That's just 
looking at the thread titles - I haven't read them all to see how serious the 
intention to delete was.



>________________________________
> From: David Anderson <[email protected]>
>To: Bernd Machenschalk <[email protected]>; 
>[email protected] 
>Sent: Thursday, 7 August 2014, 8:18
>Subject: Re: [boinc_dev] Deleting your project account
> 
>
>This functionality is there, but it's commented out (see user.inc).
>I anticipate that it could lead to lots of
>"I accidentally deleted my account, can you restore it?" emails.
>I've received only 1 or 2 requests for deleting SETI@home accounts in 15 years.
>-- David
>
>On 06-Aug-2014 10:58 PM, Bernd Machenschalk wrote:
>> Actually deleting a user account (row in user table) would harm the 
>> consistency of
>> the database, these are referenced everywhere. As BOINC (web) code is not 
>> really
>> good in handling unexpected results of DB queries this would cause visible 
>> problems
>> all over the place.
>>
>> However a standard procedure ("function") for invalidating accounts that is 
>> made
>> known to users as well as project admins would certainly be of value, and 
>> nowadays
>> would actually be required by the laws of an increasing number of countries.
>>
>> I would add a button "delete account" that sets the name to the predefined 
>> string
>> "(account deleted)",.does.something similar with the email address and 
>> modifies the
>> authenticator such that it becomes invalid, but the original value can still 
>> be
>> derived if necessary (e.g. append "_deleted").
>>
>> A project admin then can still restore (access to) the account when he gets 
>> mailed
>> the original authenticator for verification.
>>
>> Best,
>> Bernd
>>
>> On 7. August 2014 06:30:08 MESZ, David Anderson <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
>>
>>     I'm not sure a "delete account" function is needed.
>>     A use can effectively remove his account by setting
>>     the name and email address to random strings.
>>     -- David
>>
>>
>>     On 06-Aug-2014 3:14 PM, Jord van der Elst wrote:
>>
>>         Hi developers,
>>
>>         I've taken a longer look at deleting the account at BOINC projects.
>>         The option is there in the code, but it's at present disabled, as it
>>         isn't fool proof.
>>         Now, I'm not saying I can make it fool proof, but...
>>
>>         What if when I wanted to delete my account, I press the key to do so,
>>         I get the warning pop-up asking me if I really want to do so, I click
>>         Yes.
>>         That at that time, all that really happens is that the account's
>>         authentication key gets removed from the database, that the
>>         authentication key is emailed to me --the deleting user-- and to the
>>         project administrator (special email address?) but that the account 
>>is
>>         still in the database just not accessible by me? The email to the
>>         project administrator will hold the date and time of removal, the
>>         authentication key, my email address, my IP address (?) and my
>>         (nick)name.
>>
>>         Then if I think the next day or week that I want to have my account
>>         back, that I can email the administrator, give him the details on the
>>         account and the authenticator key, and that all he has to do is add 
>>it
>>         back in the database, and presto everything works again? Of course, 
>>by
>>         also (silently) sending this to the project administrator, we make
>>         sure that if someone malicious managed to get his hands on my 
>>account,
>>         and deleted it, that the project administrator is able to put it back
>>         without much trouble.
>>
>>
>>
>>         -- Jord van der Elst.
>>         
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