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Why is it impossible to delete an HN account?

• codezero 13y ago
  pg has commented on this on HN before, the basic gist is that HN is like a newsgroup, you've submitted your comments in the public and just like Usenet, they are there to stay. Separate to that, if you were to delete your account and its comments, it would leave existing threads confusing and incoherent.
  • brokenparser 13y ago
    Do it like how Reddit does it, simply replace instances of $username with [deleted].
    • codezero 13y ago
      This is one way to do it, but it still creates stark discontinuities in discussion threads.
      • blowski 13y ago
        But you can delete threads, right? I frequently see '[deleted]' with replies to the deleted thread.