Ok I'm new here and I certainly do not understand one concept.

Deactivating your account.

It makes your account deactivated so you can never touch it and show your previous stats which is nice.

But the name stays with the system.

For Example : The name josh

I would love to have that name

But it's deactivated.

If it was just deleted from the system, I would love it.

Could cause some problems. Take your name for instance.

Say you deactivated your account, and two months later someone made an account called murder. Some people would think it was you again, and not this new person. It could also cause problems on friend/ignore lists.

Still, I think if there is a long gap (over 6 months), it could be a good idea.

I don't mind waiting 6 months or a length of time.

There should be a gap.

Then common wanted names would be available.

They removed a lot of the old inactive accounts a while ago to free up names like that....no idea if they plan to make it a regular thing.....im sure I remember reading if you didn't log in for a certain amount of time, your account could be deactivated, but don't quote me on that!

I think that would just cause confusion for people who have previously known the player using that account name, obviously as it is no longer in use it should technically be available to use but i just think that the confusion & hastle would be there.

Also not sure on what the rules on things like this are, because if the owner of that account previously won lots of tournaments, ran lots of racks, got lots of golden breaks & posted lots of times on forums, would that not mess the system up? I mean when u look at a forum post and a "deactivated/banned user" has posted, if that account was re-used; would them posts show up as the original name again or would they stay the same etc?
There must be a reason behind this not being allowed, so if anyone know's, join in

Edited at 23:10 Wed 11/03/09 (GMT)

I understand.

But they should removed the very old inactive accounts from the server.

To free up more common wanted names for new users.

Yeah i got an email about that a while back and nearly crapped myself so i logged in asap! lol

On a personal level if I left for a couple of years and I came back to find madmiketyson was taken by someone else and my stats were gone, I'd be annoyed to say the least!

At the same time I can see what you are saying, some of these names are taken by someone who played one game a year ago and never came back.....

If there was some common sense used, Id be in favour of regular deletions

Brad I don't mean like the legends of the game.

I mean like the people who created the account and logged in a few times then just left.

I said dont quote me on that

Legends of the game! But yeah sure thats reasonable, like with alot of things, people sign up and don't use them, so that should be ok to rewrite unused accounts like you say.

Edited at 23:42 Wed 11/03/09 (GMT)

Sorry mike..

After 12 months a deactivated name is freed up for use.

This is to prevent "identity theft" as mentioned above, and to deter frequent deleting/recreating the same account for stats purposes. (you can reset, but that is logged against the account, so people know you are not a "fake newbie")

For completeness - if anyone does not use an account for a period of 12 months, the reminder is sent and the account is removed to free up that name again.

Ok

Thanks for clearing that information spinner

Greatly Appreciated

I just had a look at my old accounts- mmt and ihatelag.

Noticed that mmt had not had a log in for almost 6 months so made a quick log in on it after realising ihatelag had been deleted (I think I had not logged in on that 1 for about 7/8 months......gutted!

Edit: Reading spinner's post above, I guess it had been a whole year since I logged in on that 1......lesson for you all to log in annually as a minimum

I think the more appropriate lesson for you to remember adam is actually that no member is allowed to have more than one account under any circumstances - as confirmed by nick and admin on another thread

Spinner approved the competition I set that account up for

Im fairly certain that the one account rule is only enforced when you use them to cheat or spam the forums, quite right too!

Just because a rule isnt actively monitored for enforcement purposes at all times doesnt mean it doesnt exist - thats what self policing is

Its like tax assessment - you know what the rules are and the onus is on you to comply (unfortunately lol)!! (or in anything else you might get up to in your private life )

I have no idea what the tax assessment rules are mate

I have always been rubbish at self policing

Go accept your trade