Lion in Winter

I have no idea if he wants to rejoin or not, but that is a bit harsh.

Some truly objectionable people have hung out on BE for years, expressing some atrocious views in some cases, repeatedly so. They were allowed to remain for years and years. This particular poster, who apparently asked for his own account to be closed, is dealing with issues that most of us don't have to deal with, yet 99.99999% of the time has caused no trouble on the site whatsoever. If ever a person needed second chances, he would be one. BE may be more important to him than some of us realise. I am simply alerting to a situation, not committing the sin of questioning mod action.

Or maybe he's just sitting there reading this and saying "hell no, I'm not going back there". I have no idea. But under the circumstances, if he wants to come back I personally believe he should be allowed to.

SpoogleDrummer

Has that been confirmed or are we just assuming that? Plenty of people have forgotten their old login and re-joined with a new account and been welcomed back. This is the first time I've seen them say someone won't be allowed to re-join for anyone who hasn't been given a permanent ban. Without knowing the details I can't say whether it's harsh or not. That said I don't see how they can possibly know if someone re-joins with a new account assuming they use a different username, email address and possibly VPN.

Lion in Winter

I assumed it because his listing says "account closed", whereas when someone is banned it says "banned". Banned posters' names stay up, however.

Jerseygirl

Of course we can tell. If mods don’t notice…a member will soon alert us

True…whether that is the case today, I don’t know. For all I know the same may apply if someone was banned today. We are not notified of the various changes in software.

SpoogleDrummer

Ian-mstm's account is closed and his name remains intact. It would be interesting to know that if we asked for our account to be deleted if that meant we were banned from ever rejoining the site or if that decision is made on a case by case basis.

Lion in Winter

Unclear.

Ian may have asked for his account to be closed before the current software "upgrade" and so not have been affected.

I do think that a voluntary account closure should not be treated the same way as a permanent ban, however.

Bob

Appearances are one thing. This is not something open to the public, and I'll leave it at that.

Siouxie

There are members who haven't posted since 2012 who are now 'scrubbed' .so I don't think there is any rhyme nor reason to who/what/when people are 'removed'

I agree with your comment that voluntary account closure requests should not be treated in the same way as a banned member..

Bob

His account was closed a long time ago. Software, and privacy rules have since changed, and we no longer distinguish between a closed account, or a deleted account.

Bob

Not posted, is different from date of account closure/deletion.

Siouxie

Couldn't agree more.. which ties in nicely to the title of this thread - Mental Health...

Perhaps some should try reading about Emotion Lability Episodes - and how someone in the midst of one may not react completely rationally when 'triggered' - such as asking for their account to be closed.. and then reconsidering once the episode has passed......
https://www.verywellhealth.com/labile-mood-5095876

SpoogleDrummer

I'm taking this as meaning it wasn't simply a case of him requesting his account to be deleted but we're not going to be told the details whether it be a privacy issue or something else. At the moment we have zero sides of a 2 sided story and it may well remain that way.

Lion in Winter

I can understand that.

I can also understand that the unintended consequences of a ban may be a lot more far-reaching and damaging than anyone here intends. BE is not generally an unkind place, and sometimes there is room for tolerance and understanding that we don't all process information or feelings in the same way.

SultanOfSwing

This is something everybody needs to read, regardless of the situation we're talking about now.

How many times in the past have we accidentally dismissed someone who's been having such an episode?

It is a good thing that mental health is starting to be talked about more but we have such a long way to go.

SpoogleDrummer

Honestly I'm surprised IB hasn't taken the opportunity to create a Mental Health board/community. They'd probably make a fortune with various therapists or services such as BetterHelp advertising.