How do I remove my name from this site?

How do I completely remove my name from this site so it does not come

up in Google? I just wanted to test some options on this site and

before you know it... Just delete my name completely from your

database... Please?

I don't think you can. But perhaps you could get the site administrators to change your "name" to something different from your real name. Used to be, you could do this yourself- I changed mine from my full name to Stephen H- but now, they have to make such a change. Maybe you could become "SC" and then it wouldn't pop up on google.

Didn't you read this when you registered?

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<em>We prefer that you use your real name. This is not required, but if you don't, we very much prefer that you do not use a handle, a made-up name. We find that these reduce the seriousness of the site. If you are concerned about using your full name, either for privacy reasons, or because you don't wish your posts to be found via Google or other search engines, then just use your first name and an initial for your last name, such as "Brian M", perhaps appended with where you are from, such as "Brian M (Boston)". You will not be able to change the name on your account.</em>

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It's right there on the registration page.

We aren't changing names any more unless there is a good reason, and not liking your photo.net account coming up on Google searches on your name isn't a good enough reason.

I think it's only fair that users/members have the option of changing their name if they don't want to come up on search engines!

 

Not everyone reads the TOU when signing up (in fact, most don't) and I think a lot of people don't think about being "googled" when they post on sites like this (indeed many sites block the google spiders in order to protect their member's privacy......)

 

One simple mistake shouldn't subject someone to years of potential abuse (i.e. by stalkers, ex-wives, disgruntled tenants, etc. etc) just because the admin doesn't want to make a very simple name change......

The quote above is right there on the registration page, not burried in the Terms of Use. It actually says <em>"...If you are concerned about using your full name, either for privacy reasons, or because you don't wish your posts to be found via Google or other search engines, then just use your first name and an initial for your last name..."</em>

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Maybe we need another couple of steps during registration which include checking a box that says "I've read, understand and agree to the registration conditions stated above" and maybe even "I've read, understand and agreed to the Terms of Use".

<p> The only problem with initials is a greater risk of multiple users having the same ID.

If people don't want their names to come up on search engines, they need to think of that when they create their accounts and write their posts. We aren't going to alter history because they decide after the fact that they don't want to be associated with something they have written. And I absolutely don't think it is "reasonable" or "fair" for people to expect that we will rewrite the history of the site because they decide later that this history doesn't suit them.

 

As for stalkers etc, if somebody is actually fearful of being stalked, then that might be one of the few reasons why we would change the attribution on previous posts. But it would have to be more than just some kind of generalized paranoia about having one's name come up in Google.

 

Apart from generalized paranoia and obsessive concern about privacy, people often want their names changed because they realize that something in their photo.net posting history is ranking higher on a Google search on their name than their own web site, or something they consider more flattering, and they don't like this. People seem to think that they should be able to control what comes up in Google when someone enters their names. Google presents more or less a stone wall when it comes to requests to remove legitimate indexing information, so the people then go around pressuring web sites to remove posts or change their names so that that those Google results disappear.

 

Another reason people want their names changed is that they come on this site as beginners and ask novice questions in the forums, which are answered by other members. Years later they have become professionals, and they want to pretend to clients that they always knew everything and never asked a beginner question, or that they never answered a question incorrectly. So they want history erased. It never occurs to them that they might come back to the forums and help others the way they were helped themselves and that this would create a posting history (findable by Google) where it would be obvious that they had developed from a newbie into a experienced person who was helpful to others.

 

So, there are a few good reasons why we would change the attribution on prior posts, but there aren't very many.

<blockquote>It never occurs to them that they might come back to the forums and help others the way they were helped themselves and that this would create a posting history (findable by Google) where it would be obvious that they had developed from a newbie into a experienced person who was helpful to others.</blockquote>

Perhaps professionals are too busy to spend time on photo.net, or want to devote their spare time to other activities.

That may be, but when they were novices asking questions on the site, they benefitted from professionals and other more experienced amateurs who weren't too busy, etc, to answer their questions. And now that they aren't novices any more, they feel entitled to have their novice questions erased, rather than spending a little time on the site to balance those novice questions with evidence that they have developed, in the form of helpful answers to novice questions. Somehow it is never the experienced people being helpful who want their names changed.

 

Anyway, you can see why I don't have much sympathy for someone who wants my cooperation to walk away from novice questions now that they are "pros".

Well - a user should be able to CLOSE his account, shouldn't he? The TOU have not mentioned that now I'm a member for life. I don't mind my name coming up in the threads at all. I don't want to change my posting history. But I don't want to be forced to remain a member.

 

BTW, I like this site. It's just for me the dilemma is either to become a subscriber and participate or to just keep having an empty page under my name with my email in it.

 

You know what - never mind. I can live with that. But you really should have an option for users to close their accounts. So even when their posts are still archived people wouldn't be able to go and request their email addresses.

You asked how to remove your name from your site. If you want to mark your account as deleted, you can unsubscribe. This tells people your account is deleted and they won't be able to request your email address, but they can still click on your name and see your posting history.

OK, I see what you mean. It's still very unusual compared to how other forums work.

Once you post on photo.net, you have a posting history; your posts are attributed to you; other people can see this posting history. The fact that you decide to stop posting on the site, or even to stop visiting it entirely, doesn't change the fact that you posted on the site at one time and have a posting history on the site that is viewable on the site. And I don't know which forums you are thinking of, but this is true of most forums that allow you to look at the posting history of the author of a post. In fact, it seems bizarre to me that a posting history would become invisible just because somebody decided to stop posting.

The way I think it should work is that if I decide to not be a member (I am not even a subscriber) my info page should look like this:

 

Serge Cashman. No longer a member of Photo.net.

No further information available.

Posting History: blah-blah......

 

 

That's it. Don't count me out just yet cause I'm considering to subscribe. But still - don't you think it makes sense?

Nope. Like I said, your posting history is your posting history. Someone who sees a post with your name on it is apt to be interested in other things you posted. That doesn't change because you decide to stop posting on the site.

I said I don't mind a posting history. I really don't. Now, how else can I express it? Should I do a pantomime? Just let users select a "I'm not a member and no further info except posting history is available" thing. For .... sake....

You can already do that. Remove your biography and unsubscribe. Then only your posting history is visible and people are told that your account has been deleted.