>It is easy enough for somebody to take a backup of their Facebook >account and then click to delete it. > Yes facebook is easier than twitter, they need to tick the right boxes to make sure it is not dormant. Skype is trickier, I don't know if I managed in the end. Etsy plainly told me that they wouldn't.
>Is it better for people to go through their profile more vigorously >though, messing up all the data? For example, changing their date of >birth to something random (if they actually used their real DoB to >begin >with), deleting the groups used to classify friends, deleting photos, >deleting things like their relationship status, maybe even deleting all >their posts and comments one by one? > I tried that, but I ran out of patience. If I was doing big data analysis I'd use it as an indicator that someone was leaving. So I would discard data anyway. even if DoB or other was false from the start I bet there is clever ways to pin it as outlyer. >Should they do it all in one go, or stagger it over 2 - 3 months so >that >it is not so obvious that they were putting in false data before >account >deletion? > Tell close friends that you are leaving and why in private message would be more effective so that people exchange contacts and keep in touch. Posting messages on wall saying the same is not as effective as a) lost in the noise b) probably will be bubble filtered out. Sad thing is I announced I was leaving on wall over months, slowly deleted some posts, even asked to have tags removed. I later left abd only 6 months later did someone actually call. 'did you get off facebook?' and a year later someone else said 'did you block me?' So definately personal contact to loved ones I would recommend. >Are there any existing articles or blogs that are recommended for >people >going through this process? > only technical not social. AFAIK. RMS lecture or text says to reach out personally, I recall. Friends don't let friends use facebook. >Are there any tools that can help people? I did not look for facebook but I did find a python script that would delete twitter posts. I had over 20k and it crashed my computer at the end my account showed no tweets but said I had 5k tweets that I could not see. go figure. I imagine similar hit and miss with facebook. -- -- Andres (he/him/his) Ham United Group Richmond Makerlabs
