Lapsed Accounts/Usernames

[abitgone]

Twitter has a huge problem with username-squatting, something I don't think ADN will have an issue with, thanks to the pay-to-play barrier to entry. However, what will happen to a username when someone stops paying for an account? Should they be treated much in the same way as a domain name?

Presumably, an account would go through the following states:

• Active (and paid up)
• Suspended (not paid up to 3 months)
• Cancelled (after a set period of, say, 3 months)
• Deleted (after a random period of between 1 and 2 months)

Say, for instance, I stop paying for my account after the first year is up. Let's say, for argument's sake, that this happens on January 1st, 2013. I then have 3 months – until April 1st, 2013 – to pay up for another month/year/multi-year period during which my account is kept around in it's entirety.

On April 1st, 2013, my account is officially cancelled. My data should be archived off and made available to me, but my username probably won't be able to be reactivated until the account is made available again.

At some point in the following 1 to 2 months, my old username is made available to the public again.

Thoughts?

[JoshBlake]

Another aspect to this is that even if a user account is cancelled and possibly the username becomes available for registration again, I think all the content should remain online. A key aspect of the modern web is permalinks, and in a highly interconnected social network such as this, deleting a user's entire online presence (even if they no longer pay) would drastically affect the context of other paying users. Think of the threads and conversations they've participated in and tags they've applied to other users posts and so on.

In most web forums I've seen, even if a user is banned, their posts remain online (except perhaps malicious or overly offensive ones that got them banned). To do otherwise would ruin many threads. The same should happen here. Mark the user as no longer active, and provide some way to differentiate between the original owner of the handle and a new owner, if handles are recycled, but don't remove the content.

[abitgone]

To avoid going too far off the topic of this issue, but addressing an excellent point, I'll just say that in order to preserve the content, the permalink structure would need to be altered to be something like //domain/userid/postid instead of the current //domain/username/postid, with //domain/username automatically redirecting to //domain/userid.

Probably worth starting an issue on that topic alone as there's plenty more to say on the subject.

[waliddamouny]

@abitgone if each post had a domain-wide ID then something like http://post.app.net/postid would show the post with the relevant username while showing some disambiguating information to explain that this post belongs to a different user that previously used the same username and show that account's life span to explain that this MrX is not the same as the many others that existed before/after.

@JoshBlake I agree with you on keeping the data online, but what about when users don't want to maintain their data online. Do they lose the ability to delete it if their account was suspended? I myself haven't concluded an opinion on this issue but it was on my mind from when I heard of App.net's subscription based username acquisition. I previously commented on creating free accounts #21 for read-only purposes using email addresses or OpenID which can also be tied to posts of that user. However I still wonder if it is fair game for a user who decided not to delete their info and quit a service to reinstate ownership of the data they once generated and left behind.

[JoshBlake]

@waliddamouny Certainly if a user chooses to GBCW and delete some or all their posting history, either before or after their subscription lapses (after might require a customer support request and identity confirmation), it is their prerogative since it is their data. My point should be that it should not be app.net's policy to ever delete the customer data, even after their subscription lapses.

In my mind, the subscription payment gives me the right to post and for those posts generated during the subscription period to be online in perpetuity. If the subscription lapses I simply do not have the ability to post anymore but I've already paid for the existing posts to be included in the network forever (or until I decide to delete it).

The username reclaiming or take-over might be taken care of if a system is set up to allow non-subscription claiming of ids, either through a free or sponsored tier (see my comments on #44 #44 (comment)) then it may be like Xbox Live where you can claim your identity on a silver/free tier and upgrade to gold or lapse for the additional benefits, but your identity remains yours until you decide to give it up (by changing your username, for example.)

[mattflaschen]

I would definitely prefer usernames stick to the person permanently, even if they lapse and can no longer post. Otherwise (assuming permanent archiving) it becomes hard to disentangle who posted what.

[timhaines]

Twitter works fine with people changing usernames. Everything references the user id number, not the name. The only exception is the content of a post. It could be dealt with later via substitution by clients, but it's not really a big deal.

[JoshBlake]

@timhaines User requested changing usernames retroactively is fine (except that mentions of the username are broken) but we're talking about if someone stops paying their subscription whether someone else can claim their username, kind of like domain sniping.

[timhaines]

@JoshBlake I admit I haven't read the full text of the conversation, but I saw the top post suggested a cancellation period of 3 months before the username is released. I'd support this strategy. It's frustrating seeing usernames on Twitter that have been abandoned for years but are unavailable. It would be worse if the account was already 'deleted' and the username still wasn't available.

[s3watyclipzz10980]

dose anyone have a free Xbox live accounts :)