VBulletin doesn't delete forum accounts
I know US laws allow companies to keep user data indefinitely, but I think it's really bad that a well-known Internet brand like vBulletin acts in that way. What do you think?
In particular, what would you expect to happen to posts you created?
What about threads you created which other people have also posted in?
What about other people's posts that have quoted parts of your posts?
+ Disappear if persistence is what you would prefer.
+ To persist if disappearance is what would you prefer.
+ To be tied to personally identifying information if anonymity is what you would prefer.
+ To be anonymous if you would prefer it to be bound to personally identifying information.
vBulletin deserves credit for being a slight improvement over Usenet. There's a reason StackOverflow, Reddit, and even HN don't use it.
The only way to get your account deleted is to contact the site administrator. Sometimes though, they won't accept it because it may break the forum conversation, so the next best thing is to rename your account to something like invisible unicode characters.
also.. I believe the safest way to maintain a 'never email me again' list is to keep just the email address indefinitely.