JustDelete.Me

August 24, 2013 8:51 PM

JustDelete.Me -- A directory of direct links to delete your account from web services.

"Many companies use dark pattern techniques to make it difficult to find how to delete your account. JustDelete.me aims to be a directory of urls to enable you to easily delete your account from web services."

posted by Chocolate Pickle (19 comments total)

What is a dark pattern?

Thanks, looks useful.
posted by pmurray63 at 8:54 PM on August 24, 2013 [18 favorites]

So, perhaps asking the obvious question here, but, is there a way to permanently delete your metafilter acount, and not just disable it?
posted by yeoz at 9:08 PM on August 24, 2013

Yeah, just submit a comment that says

'; DELETE FROM users WHERE id=15247; --

posted by Phssthpok at 9:26 PM on August 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

So, an Account Killer clone.
posted by Weltschmerz at 10:26 PM on August 24, 2013 [3 favorites]

Up down up down left right left right A B
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:35 PM on August 24, 2013

Blasphemy.

Everybody knows it's ↑ ↑ ↓ ↓ ← → ← → B A
posted by hobo gitano de queretaro at 10:39 PM on August 24, 2013 [4 favorites]

No, it's just a jump to the left and a step to the right. Put your hands on your hips and bring your knees in tight. But it's the pelvic thrust that really drives you insane. Let's do the time-warp again.
posted by oneswellfoop at 11:59 PM on August 24, 2013 [7 favorites]

Every time you sign up for one of these services they steal a piece of your soul.
posted by Pudhoho at 12:08 AM on August 25, 2013

Most of the sites listed as Hard seem to involve writing a support ticket of some kind. I think that's overstating the problem a little. It sure is handy having all of the details in one place, though.
posted by Solomon at 3:02 AM on August 25, 2013

So we can finally delete our Quora accounts? Time to recover that password.
posted by xqwzts at 4:28 AM on August 25, 2013

Me to myself: "Oh, somewhere that can tell me how to make sure all of my personal info is deleted off of facebooks servers before officially disabling my account!" Checks link. "Facebook easy? What the...?" Follows further links. "Oh. Yeah, no."
posted by eviemath at 4:30 AM on August 25, 2013

Honest to God, I love the design of that page,
posted by SLC Mom at 7:18 AM on August 25, 2013

So, perhaps asking the obvious question here, but, is there a way to permanently delete your metafilter acount, and not just disable it?

Nope, though occasionally someone has an "I need to close my account for reason x and there's a couple comments y and z that I'd really, really like to not be there any more for reason w" and that's the sort of thing we're always okay talking about.

Mefi's more of a shared community space, and less a service or a personal blogging/social platform, than a lot of sites where account management comes into play, so we prioritize continuity of the discussions-as-archives more than a lot of places might. In that context, wiping your account isn't just re-homing or de-homing some private content, it's taking a bunch of chunks out of the shared history of the site, which is a much more conspicuous and disruptive sort of thing than just walking away.

Anyway, there's been a couple Metatalk posts about related issues over the years if anybody wants a more detailed explanation.
posted by cortex at 8:02 AM on August 25, 2013 [2 favorites]

But what about those stubborn grass stains?
posted by petebest at 8:45 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I do tech support for a well-meaning nonprofit website with a moderately hard-to-find delete-me link. (Poor design choices in the past, not a dark pattern). I spend a lot of time answering emails from people filled with rage that they can't delete their accounts more easily. They're convinced we're deliberately keeping them from removing their accounts, when the reality is it just requires three clicks from them instead of two.

Can't speak for other websites though... They're probably genuinely evil.
posted by Erroneous at 10:46 AM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think it's very strange that Craigslist, which is a very grassroots, homegrown, nonprofit, of-the-people, not-corporate, not-evil organization, doesn't have any way to delete your account or its history.
posted by MoxieProxy at 12:59 PM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

I think it's very strange that Craigslist, which is a very grassroots, homegrown, nonprofit, of-the-people, not-corporate, not-evil organization

I still wonder if the accounts, and the weird push to create them was at all driven by the fact that eBay owns a 25% stake in them.

What with eBay also owning paypal(majorly, if not outright) and just letting them slide in to evermore evil.
posted by emptythought at 3:37 PM on August 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

craigslist has accounts? When did this happen?

Also, I've searched both JustDelete.me and AccountKiller for a way to kill my Amazon Associates account (leaving my Amazon account itself in place) and neither knows anything about that.
posted by DU at 4:55 AM on August 29, 2013

I do tech support for a well-meaning nonprofit website with a moderately hard-to-find delete-me link. (Poor design choices in the past, not a dark pattern).

Have you brought this up with the boss? What was the response?

Now imagine finding an issue where people were having trouble finding the donation button and bringing that up with the boss. What would the response be?
posted by DU at 4:57 AM on August 29, 2013