Creating a user account is smooth and easy. I am wondering if it is possible to delete an account. In case the answer is affirmative, I am wondering what happens to the votes one has cast, and the posts one has written.
When someone posts, they grant an irrevocable license to share their content. Even the most restrictive of the license choices (CC BY-NC-SA) is sufficient for TopAnswers to continue to publish that work.
A person does have the right to disassociate themselves from their own posts. Doing that here is a two-step DIY:
- remove any profile picture
- remove profile name
Once those steps are complete all posts under that account are effectively anonymous. To make the change permanent, there are some further steps to take:
- unlink any linked accounts (e.g. SE accounts)
- clear TA cookies on all devices
- destroy any login key copies
I am wondering what happens to the votes one has cast…
They will remain — we only plan to remove votes if they are an abuse (voting rings, sock puppets etc). Perhaps someone actively wants to remove all the votes they have cast, and we wouldn’t prevent that either, but we aren’t going to do it for them!
