Remove/Delete profile

removing webmasterworld profile

[imofloripa]

Hello, I can't find an option to delete my webmaster world profile. Is it possibile to completely remove and delete a profile?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Why not just stick around? ;)

[imofloripa]

sorry, I am brazilian, I dont understand "stick around". What do you mean?

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

It means don't leave. :)

[lucy24]

"You can leave any time you like, but you can never check out." This phenomenon is not unique to WebmasterWorld.

You can't make your profile go away completely. But you can edit it to get rid of almost all information. I don't think you can do anything about the list of recent threads, since that's auto-generated.

[imofloripa]

I see... well, I should be able to delete my profile in my opinion, in ANY website, but ok. thanks for reply. No problem then.

[jinxed]

I would suggest this should be on the list of features if this place gets a revamp at some point.

[imofloripa]

I strongly agree.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

[webmasterworld.com...]

[edited by: lawman at 5:39 pm (utc) on Oct 28, 2013]
[edit reason] Thread Moved [/edit]

[ken_b]

I wonder if deleting profiles is wise for the site operators?

Perhaps a "Hide Profile" button would work just as well for the members by removing the profile from public view?

.

[imofloripa]

Hi ken:b, I agree, the point is that the profile is indexed in google SERP, with all messages the user posted, with code from the site etc... so there should be AT LEAST an option to choose not to be indexed by google! I am really surprised that a website like this does not offer such an option to hide or delete.....

[lucy24]

Ouch. Have you actually seen profiles in searches or is this just conjecture? The profile page itself doesn't have a noindex meta, but this is one situation where a robot block will do fine. Without a crawl, all you can say is that the profile exists.

:: detour to check ::

The requested URL /robots.txt was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Hee. OK, so WebmasterWorld doesn't have a robots.txt for my particular UA and/or IP ... but surely a 404 document isn't too much to ask :)

[Samizdata]

Have you actually seen profiles in searches

Try searching on your own username.

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[martinibuster]

In pretty much ALL forum communities there is no way to delete your profile. It would hurt those forums because it discourages people from coming together as a community because it creates an incentive to leave. It also encourages a culture of taking. Who would remain at a community where anonymous folks get their questions answered and then disappear? That's not a community.

Forum community admins who are concerned about growing their forum into a community will create rules that bring the members together. Anything that works counter to that goal can be considered a negative.

Not just at this forum, but at almost any forum, don't expect to see a "delete profile" feature. As I explained above, such a feature would work against the goal of a forum, which is to foster community. ;)

[Samizdata]

Deleting a profile on a public forum is obviously problematic - the posts are threaded, each one requires attribution, and you cannot reasonably expect to have all your posts removed.

WebmasterWorld members generally use nicknames, giving real names is an optional extra, email addresses can be kept private, other personal profile information can be deleted, IP addresses are not displayed - privacy is easy to manage and not really an issue.

An option to make the profiles "members only" might be reasonable, but any webmaster should be pleased to have a crawlable link to their homepage - a privilege that is not earned until a certain number of posts have been made - from a site like WebmasterWorld.

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[lucy24]

Try searching on your own username.

###! I honestly had no idea profiles were indexed. Seems wrong somehow. But I have to assume the links themselves are nofollowed; I'm pretty sure I've never seen it lurking at the bottom of the wmt list.

:: further exploration ::

My goodness, what a lot of me there are. I had no idea. Wonder how many separate humans use the same handle?

[Samizdata]

I have to assume the links themselves are nofollowed

You don't have to assume anything when you can View Source.

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[imofloripa]

anyway, I think user profiles shouldnt be INDEXED by google..

[lucy24]

You don't have to assume anything when you can View Source.

D'oh!

:: detour to look up target="_top" leading predictably to WebmasterWorld thread [webmasterworld.com] dating from 2003 ::

Yikes. These forums don't use frames, do they?

[Samizdata]

I think user profiles shouldnt be INDEXED by google

Assuming you mean "indexed by search engines", tell us why you think that.

This is from WebmasterWorld founder Brett Tabke in 2001:

After much discussion, I have put in place a system where meta tag robots noindex tags are present on members profiles with less than 100 posts. After that, we remove the no index tag, because it does help the linking sites link popularity. If a member is willing to contribute that much, we will go to those ends to support them.

Source: [webmasterworld.com...]

There have obviously been changes since then, but it demonstrates the intent.

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[lucy24]

Heh, that's funny, so indexing isn't an oversight but an intentional act of kindness. I just had one of my belated "D'oh!" moments as I realized that the reason WebmasterWorld doesn't show up at the tail end of my wmt links list is that ... drumroll ... my profile points to a no-indexed page. So in order to reap the rewards of a WebmasterWorld link I'd have to point to a different page, which would be less entertaining for the nosy reader.

Naah.

Did WebmasterWorld really carry heavy link weight way back in 2001? Wow.

[phranque]

my profile points to a no-indexed page. So in order to reap the rewards of a WebmasterWorld link I'd have to point to a different page

PR actually flows through links on a noindexed page unless you specify noindex,nofollow.

[lucy24]

But that specific, individual page won't shop up in gwt. That's where the overdue "D'oh!" came in :)

[zeus]

On my new site which will launch 20 nov, it will have the option for every user to have a no index for google only and if a user dont want to be a member anymore, he can choose to delete EVERYTHING he has done on the site or leave it. I focus on User freedom.

[Samizdata]

On my new site… if a user dont want to be a member anymore, he can choose to delete EVERYTHING

Is it a forum with threaded topics?

If you applied this approach to WebmasterWorld and the members could delete all their posts (you have 3375 at present) would it remain a viable website?

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[jinxed]

If a user decides to leave, remove their details except for the username and still display the username in threads. Simple.

[engine]

jinxed has got it. :)

In a "social media world", some people like to drop their details everywhere. That's fine. If you don't want to, that's fine, too.

[zeus]

Samizdata : its a social network, so there will be comments, forum.. If a user decides to remove his details of cause it will hurt the site, BUT we focus on User freedom, not profit, I think that will be the future, that the users can be more secure about there data and that will maybe benefit in the end with happier/"i trust the company" users.

[Samizdata]

If a user decides to remove his details

WebmasterWorld users can remove their details anytime.

Perhaps I misunderstood your point about a user deleting "EVERYTHING he has done on the site" - which on a forum such as this would mean deleting all his posts and making many threads (some of which he may have started) completely incomprehensible.

I remain unsure of what the OP is concerned about, unless he signed up with his real name as a username - though WebmasterWorld has separate boxes for both - and now wants to be ungoogleable.

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[imofloripa]

I did not want to delete everything, I just want to delete my profile or hide it or have a nofollow tag on it in order not to be indexed by search engines.. I dont care if my posts remais here..