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Originally Posted by The Small One
Is it really important, why somebody wants an account to be deleted?
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Nope, but knowing does allow alternatives to be suggested or problems to be resolved without drastic measures.
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Originally Posted by The Small One
...the account-owner is the creator of all his posts and holds the copyright.
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... and by knowingly posting in public, on a public forum, the user accepts that the forum has the right to reproduce the material for such purposes as are keeping with the forum's purpose, i.e. discussion, etc.
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Originally Posted by The Small One
If he wishes to have the posts removed it should be done. There are even laws that say so in several countries.
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Technically I think it is possible to withdraw the aforementioned implied consent, but if the person does and had contributed a lot it could be quite detrimental to the forum structure. Break the flow of threads or, if not handled right in the case of a thread's first post, completely remove the discussion. And that doesn't even consider the technical problems introduced by the prevalence of excessive whole-post quoting.
In an antagonistic environment (hypothetical situation where the forum operators refused to allow deletion because of the impact), they would probably have to go through a general cease and desist type procedure. Presumably arguing copyright infringement. It could get costly; very much so if the courts get involved. And then the case may fail if the court agrees that the damage to the forum is disproportionate. I don't think there are any statutes or test cases that specifically deal with "forum posts", but then I'm not a lawyer... Even with all that, I think a tightly worded terms of service agreement could cover said hypothetical forum.
We've not written such a policy, stipulating the presumed grant of use in perpetuity, because we prefer to keep things low-key and friendly. We don't stop people editing their own posts or deleting them (when they are not new threads). As yet, very few people have wanted to remove all their posts and those that have hadn't contributed much.
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Originally Posted by The Small One
I'm not sure, is it possible to delete an account without deleting the posts belonging to it?
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Technically it is, because there is no
database enforced referential integrity, within VB's database design. It does cause a mess though, which is why we avoid it. I think our alternative of providing the user with a way of redacting their profile and disabling their account is sufficient for the time being.