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Can I delete my Skype account?

support.skype.com

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Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#71
post #29

As far as I know this is about the same process for HN? http://www.accountkiller.com/en/delete-hacker-news-account

Nearly all forums do this or some form of this. Your account and personal information may be deleted, but all of your comments, submissions, conversations, threads or whatever you call the collected bulk of user generated content will remain. The reason for this is that a forum is a collaborative effort, a collective work, and the contributions of other people's content might only make sense in the context of yours.…

Why are you conflating deleting threads with deleting accounts? Its a simple matter to retain comments and delete a user. Remember we have these things called "computers"?

You just delete the account and rename the reference in the comment stream (account deleted).

I swear sometimes the puffery on here belies the imagination.

Also referring to this or any forum as a "collective work" is a nice term of art, used by people who write TOS to claim "they" own "your" information. So its really an authoritarian top down data vacuum, not a collective work.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#72
post #41
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that posts shouldn't be deleted. But should the user be able to anonymize his posts when he deletes his account? Such that the username 'JohnDoe' is replaced with 'DeletedUser20140405.42'. IMO that doesn't destroy the readability of the conversation.

That's where we're going with Microcosm. Deleting a user will nuke the account itself, and assign all content owned by that account to an anonymous/deleted account. The context is preserved and no-one else's data is affected, but we've removed all Googleable trace of the original account (the username and profile). The only remaining issue is whether a person made posts containing personal information (defined as bei…

> PS: To the downvoters, I'd love to understand what part is objectionable.

I didn't downvote you before, but just did it now.I automatically downvote all comments complaining about downvotes unless the discussion topic is about downvoting and upvoting. I just think that it dilutes discussion.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#73
post #29

As far as I know this is about the same process for HN? http://www.accountkiller.com/en/delete-hacker-news-account

Nearly all forums do this or some form of this. Your account and personal information may be deleted, but all of your comments, submissions, conversations, threads or whatever you call the collected bulk of user generated content will remain. The reason for this is that a forum is a collaborative effort, a collective work, and the contributions of other people's content might only make sense in the context of yours.…

The tension between owning your own words and building a discussion collaboratively has been debated a long time. The first time I saw this was in 1997 about events on The WELL in 1992:

http://archive.wired.com/wired/archive/5.05/ff_well_pr.html

Search for "mass scribble".

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#74
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe users should always be in control of their data (and since it's been produced by them, it their data). Also, if their software breaks after deleting an account the problem is entirely on their part.

> I believe users should always be in control of their data Total control? Does the person who made this submission have the right to delete it even though by doing so they delete your data? Do other users have the right to delete your data? Total control for you means denying someone else the right to delete this conversation. Do other users have the right to redefine your data by changing the context surrounding it…

a) You have copyright on your work. That means you own and retain the right to distribute it or not, and importantly this includes a notion of moral rights.

b) A forum is not a collective work; it is a privately owned publishing vehicle which may be selectively edited or change hands at any point.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#76
post #7

I recently deleted my Linkedin account. But their junk emails continue to dirty my email even now. Next in the line is Skype, and then probably Facebook. Thankfully, I never shared my genuine data with Facebook or opened an a/c on Instagram or Whatsapp ever so I'm good at a certain level when it comes to Facebook. In my opinion Twitter is the only option that is sane at the moment.

I've never even had a Linkedin account and they dirty my email with requests and reminders.

I tried many times to uncheck all the checkboxes to convince LinkedIn not to send me email, but they ignore them or create new ones, so now I just mark them as spam.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#77

I don't know, is this a problem? In some sense, it seems more honest to me than having a delete button that simply sets a "deleted" flag on you in a database.

It's a problem for me because people have created four Skype accounts with my email address so far and there's no way to delete them.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#79
post #8

Skype as software has a lot of issues. Before they were bought by Microsoft the software worked quite well; on my Mac I'm still running an ancient version. Why ? - it got replaced by a version that takes up half your screen, I think they were trying to make a single version for desktop and iPad. After a public outcry they reduced the size somewhat. The latest version has about 3 extra options about the amount of data…

after the acquisition I started having problem on Mac that would freeze everything when failing on skype. I thought it was probably a coincidence but it's seems to continue to get worse. I belive they fixed whatever bug was causing my freezing issues after over a year. by that time a basically gave up on skype.

Re: Can I delete my Skype account?

#80
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I believe users should always be in control of their data Total control? Does the person who made this submission have the right to delete it even though by doing so they delete your data? Do other users have the right to delete your data? Total control for you means denying someone else the right to delete this conversation. Do other users have the right to redefine your data by changing the context surrounding it…

a) You have copyright on your work. That means you own and retain the right to distribute it or not, and importantly this includes a notion of moral rights. b) A forum is not a collective work; it is a privately owned publishing vehicle which may be selectively edited or change hands at any point.

c) You sign terms of service granting rights to the publishing vehicle.
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