Delete a user account

These steps delete or anonymize an account for someone who has only commented, following the account deletion guidelines. You run them as SQL against the database.

Steps¶

1. Back up the database.

2. Find the user and note their id_int:

   SELECT id, id_int, username, email FROM users WHERE last_name = '<last name>';

3. Check what they’ve contributed:

   SELECT * FROM comments WHERE user_id_int = <id_int>;
   SELECT * FROM contributors WHERE user_id_int = <id_int>;
   SELECT * FROM publications WHERE owner_id_int = <id_int>;
   SELECT * FROM org_user_map WHERE user_id_int = <id_int>;

4. If all of these are empty, delete the user. Sessions, logins, notifications, and follows are deleted with it.

   DELETE FROM users WHERE id_int = <id_int>;

5. Otherwise, anonymize the user and remove their logins. Use a timestamp so the username and email stay unique.

   UPDATE users SET
     username = 'del202604222355',
     email = 'deleted+202604222355@thestacks.org',
     name = 'DELETED', first_name = 'DELETED', last_name = 'DELETED',
     orcid = NULL, profile = NULL, image = NULL,
     state = 'DELETED'
   WHERE id_int = <id_int>;
   
   DELETE FROM sessions WHERE user_id = '<id>';
   DELETE FROM accounts WHERE user_id = '<id>';