Ask HN: Is it possible to delete HN comments or profile?

9 points·austenallred··4 comments

I'm not thrilled with the idea of not having any power over something connected so directly to my name being undelete-able forever. Not that I've written anything I'm ashamed about, but as a principle.

What are the options for deleting old comments or an account altogether?

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This site has an API which is used by several unaffiliated projects, some of which will probably have copies of your old comments even if they get deleted from the main site. Probably the best you can do is click the Contact link at the bottom of this page hn@ycombinator.com and ask.

You probably should've thought about that before using your name online--HN is nice in that you don't have to link your persona(s) here with anywhere else.

EDIT:

Somewhat more helpfully...look, it'd be really annoying to see swiss-cheese holes appear in the post history of the site as users decided to delete/undelete/redelete their comments. It would significantly decrease the archival utility of this forum.

There are many Austen's in this world.. If you ever felt like you want to quit, remove all your info from your profile.. HN doesn't even asks for an email address, so it's pretty easy to get disconnected IMO.

I believe that it is often possible to work with YC on the issue. Try emailing using the contact link at the bottom of most HN pages.

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