Ask HN: Will HN allow account and comment deletions?

It would be appreciated. I've recently been removing all history for my main alias (of which I don't use on HN for this very reason) from the internet.

Re: Ask HN: Will HN allow account and comment deletions?

#7

Post by zaroth » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

agotterer wrote: post #5

Previous HN thread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16661323

I read the whole thing and all I came away with is that basically no one has a fucking clue if it applies, if it does apply technically does it even matter, and if it does matter how it’s supposed to work without fucking up the site.

Yay GDPR!

Re: Ask HN: Will HN allow account and comment deletions?

#8

Post by FrankBooth » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 5:07 PM UTC

legohead wrote: post #6

It would be appreciated. I've recently been removing all history for my main alias (of which I don't use on HN for this very reason) from the internet.

Is there a nice summary of how to do this available? Or, if not, would you mind posting a few pointers?

Re: Ask HN: Will HN allow account and comment deletions?

#9

Post by kgwxd » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 5:16 PM UTC

I've been emailing them about it once a year for 3 years, they keep saying they're working on it. Last month, they supposedly put me on a mailing list to be contacted when the feature is available.

I'd be fine with just being able to change my user name, or leaving my comments with a "[Deleted]" user name in place of my original like reddit.

Re: Ask HN: Will HN allow account and comment deletions?

#10

Post by legohead » Wed, Mar 28, 2018, 5:18 PM UTC

FrankBooth wrote: post #8

legohead wrote: post #6

It would be appreciated. I've recently been removing all history for my main alias (of which I don't use on HN for this very reason) from the internet.

Is there a nice summary of how to do this available? Or, if not, would you mind posting a few pointers?

It's nothing fancy. I'm simply deleting all my comments/posts on reddit and other forums I've participated in, manually. Of course, you can reach out to the admins and ask them to delete your data, but they may not be responsive...

One thing I haven't got to yet, and am not sure how to even approach, is removing my old Usenet posts, which you can find on Google Groups (from 1995!).

I still comment on reddit and such, as I like to help people. I just come back later and remove the comments.