# Quitting Word Reference



## chuboy3000

How do i unregister from wordreference?  I wish to suspend my membership....how should I end it?


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## lsp

You can simply stop posting. Delete whatever you like in your profile, but you can't actually delete your profile altogether.


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## roxcyn

Lsp is right, you just don't ever come back.  There is no "delete" profile button, sorry


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## suzzzenn

You can also unsubscribe to any threads you are currently getting emails about.


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## zazap

Why isn't there a way to delete your own profile altogether? Curious...


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## geve

zazap said:


> Why isn't there a way to delete your own profile altogether? Curious...


Maybe because you have participated in threads and if you delete your profile your posts will disappear and make the threads wobbly?

Why would you want to delete your profile anyway? You can delete all the information, unsubscribe to all threads, block all e-mail notifications and never come again.


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## zazap

geve said:


> Why would you want to delete your profile anyway? You can delete all the information, unsubscribe to all threads, block all e-mail notifications and never come again.


Well, just to make the list of members more accurate.  I have to admit, I have sinned.  For a while there I had a bug (which was later brilliantly killed by mkellog), and I was investigating its behaviour, so I created a new profile, zazap1.  zazap1 also suffered from the bug and therefore was never able to post.  I still feel guilty about creating this fake thing and that's why I want to get rid of "it".  "It" has no post... Just so you know...
(catholic guilt I hate you)


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## DDT

zazap said:


> Why isn't there a way to delete your own profile altogether? Curious...


A major reason is that the member profile displays his nickname and (most cases) information about mother tongue, spoken languages and so on. Imagine that someone using either the dictonaries or the search feature finds a thread where the object of his request has already been discussed, and that someone who has deleted his profile has posted in that thread. How is it possible, for instance, to determine whether a certain answer has been provided by a mother tongue or by a foreigner trying to give his personal contribution, if the profile has been deleted?
Moreover, according to the principles with which any member agrees when entering WR, I don't see how someone who posted in the past might disappear from WR records - please notice that rule #54 states that "When a message is placed in WordReference or its forums, you are granting an irrevocable license to the site to use it in perpetuity."
A member can decide whether he wants to keep on taking part or not in the life of this community, but should anyone be able to delete his own profile this might create a certain confusion. A member quitting the forums can decide to erase all the information included in his profile. But his nickname won't be deleted so that the forums won't include anonymous posts

DDT


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## geve

zazap said:


> Well, just to make the list of members more accurate. I have to admit, I have sinned. For a while there I had a bug (which was later brilliantly killed by mkellog), and I was investigating its behaviour, so I created a new profile, zazap1. zazap1 also suffered from the bug and therefore was never able to post. I still feel guilty about creating this fake thing and that's why I want to get rid of "it". "It" has no post... Just so you know...
> (catholic guilt I hate you)


Ne culpabilise pas, Zazap, je t'absous.  I think there are many O-post members here, and they seem to do no harm to the forums. I would even venture a guess that you're not the only one here with occasional multiple identities  - just for the purpose of test, of course!!


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## lsp

DDT said:


> How is it possible, for instance, to determine whether a certain answer has been provided by a mother tongue or by a foreigner trying to give his personal contribution, if the profile has been deleted?


By the same token this is rendered equally impossible by the many _active_ members who are creative with this info in their profiles.


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## timpeac

lsp said:


> By the same token this is rendered equally impossible by the many _active_ members who are creative with this info in their profiles.


It is a rule not to misrepresent who you are. If you are aware of someone doing this please contact your favourite moderator.


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## geve

timpeac said:


> It is a rule not to misrepresent who you are. If you are aware of someone doing this please contact your favourite moderator.


But no one is forced to fill the information in the first place, are they?

Some people write as a location "in front of my computer" or "Native of: citizen of the world" or "Europe". They're not lying, but it doesn't say much about their language/cultural background.


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## Jana337

The Native of field is required (you can't complete your registration without filling it in) but we don't mind creativity in other fields like Location.


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## elroy

geve said:


> Some people write as a location "in front of my computer" or "Native of: citizen of the world" or "Europe".


 Just to drive the point home: Those with entries like what I have underlined above are routinely PM'ed and asked to change them to something more informative.


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## Whodunit

elroy said:


> Just to drive the point home: Those with entries like what I have underlined above are routinely PM'ed and asked to change them to something more informative.


 
I totally understand and would support that, but how about writing the information of *Native of* in another language that is not legible to other posters? I remember you, Elroy, having used عربي there. Is that really allowed? It is not much different from _world_, both are not untrue, but they are not very informative to many members.

I know that عربي means _Arabic_, because I'm interested in the language, others might not understand it. And if I didn't understand it, I could write you a PM to ask you about the meaning of those characters. That is basically the same as if I wrote _world_ in the field, since you can always ask the person by PM where exactly he is from.

What I, personally, would not tolerate is an information like _Moon_ or _nowhere_. However, if someone wishes to use it in the location field, no problem.

Please bear in mind that I'm not being offensive with these comments, just a bit nitpicking. 

Seeing that I might drift away from the original point of this thread, I should contribute something to the actual topic: I have never - and this is true - created another account, but I understand why people do that. Couldn't Mike instiute something that deletes members having only one post in a whole year? I'm sure they wouldn't come back again, if they haven't had any post until then, would they?


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## elroy

There is no requirement about which language the information needs to be in.  If you need a translation, just ask in the forum! 

As for your other question about revoking the membership of those who haven't posted in a long time, Mike would have to let you know whether that's feasible and/or desirable.


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## geve

Whodunit said:


> I know that عربي means _Arabic_, because I'm interested in the language, others might not understand it.
> [...]
> Please bear in mind that I'm not being offensive with these comments, just a bit nitpicking.


If I can be nitpicking too, "native of" fields can be misleading in many ways. Dizzy me was misled for some time by a member whose profile read "EEUU" - I thought it was a funny way to write "European Union".  I didn't remember the rule in Spanish to double the initials of plural nouns, and didn't understand he meant "United States" in Spanish. 
I'm not sure any rule would help for slow thinkers like me. 


Whodunit said:


> Seeing that I might drift away from the original point of this thread, I should contribute something to the actual topic: I have never - and this is true - created another account, but I understand why people do that. Couldn't Mike instiute something that deletes members having only one post in a whole year? I'm sure they wouldn't come back again, if they haven't had any post until then, would they?


But the point is... What's the point in deleting profiles anyway? What harm do they do? 
This was discussed in another thread: Non-active members.


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## zazap

geve said:


> But the point is... What's the point in deleting profiles anyway? What harm do they do?
> This was discussed in another thread: Non-active members.


Thanks for the link, I had been looking for that thread but couldn't find it somehow.  
By the way, there are 1351 pages of members with 0 posts...We might run out of names...


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## geve

zazap said:


> By the way, there are 1351 pages of members with 0 posts...We might run out of names...


That much?? Maybe we need a good clean-up indeed!


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## Jana337

Whodunit said:


> I totally understand and would support that, but how about writing the information of *Native of* in another language that is not legible to other posters? I remember you, Elroy, having used عربي there. Is that really allowed? It is not much different from _world_, both are not untrue, but they are not very informative to many members.
> 
> I know that عربي means _Arabic_, because I'm interested in the language, others might not understand it. And if I didn't understand it, I could write you a PM to ask you about the meaning of those characters. That is basically the same as if I wrote _world_ in the field, since you can always ask the person by PM where exactly he is from.


Funny that a person who wrote the same information in his mother tongue as well would "complain".  I did the same and do not plan to change it. If the two of us are allowed to do it, so are Arabs. Limiting it to English (or the Latin alphabet) would betray the ideals of a language forum. 

Usually, it doesn't take much googling to arrive at the solution so why stifle the creative touch?



> If I can be nitpicking too, "native of" fields can be misleading in many ways. Dizzy me was misled for some time by a member whose profile read "EEUU" - I thought it was a funny way to write "European Union".  I didn't remember the rule in Spanish to double the initials of plural nouns, and didn't understand he meant "United States" in Spanish.


If it makes you feel better, I was misled too (by the same member, I suspect ).


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## Punky Zoé

zazap said:


> Thanks for the link, I had been looking for that thread but couldn't find it somehow.
> By the way, there are 1351 pages of members with 0 posts...We might run out of names...





geve said:


> That much?? Maybe we need a good clean-up indeed!



I do agree, at least to avoid some (active) members sending PM's (by mistake) to lethargic members !
BTW is member the right word for such people ?


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## Etcetera

geve said:


> Some people write as a location "in front of my computer" or "Native of: citizen of the world" or "Europe". They're not lying, but it doesn't say much about their language/cultural background.


My location doesn't say much about my background, does it?
However, I've never got a PM from a moderator asking me to change it; and, since we're discussing this matter here, I'd like to ask if it's OK - taking into account that my "Native of" field shows "Russian, Russia (St Petersburg)".


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## Jana337

As we said above, the Location field is optional - leave it empty or type in something clever/facetious/cryptic, your choice.


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## Etcetera

Thank you, Jana.


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## Kelly B

Whodunit said:


> [...]how about writing the information of *Native of* in another language that is not legible to other posters? I remember you, Elroy, having used عربي there. Is that really allowed?[...]



I think it is fine to identify your native language in your native tongue and character set. If I want native-level feedback on a translation or a point of grammar, I can almost certainly recognize the names of the languages involved; if I want feedback on some language other than yours, I know that عربي  isn't the one I'm talking about, even if I cannot specifically identify it.


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## jonquiliser

Yes, that languages are sometimes written in it's own characterset and/or language is only nice, at least I like it. 

And a perhaps relevant note in this respect, not all moderators are so clear with the information of their status as moderators, either..  Some are actually quite creative in concealing their wily true identity, mwahaahaahaa


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## Jana337

So what?  All people with weird user titles are moderators.

This thread is already messy enough; it surely doesn't need another (chatty!) topic.


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