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Forums / Deleting an account on WordPress.com

Deleting an account on WordPress.com

  • Unknown's avatar
    homepageabc · Member · Apr 13, 2016 at 9:23 pm
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    It seems to not be possible to delete an account. I just created one for a documentation and found out (if you received a similar mail just before, sorry. I wanted to correct something and then either pressed browser back or send and all was gone).
    I feel very strongly that this kind of ‘vendor look in’ is against the spirit of the GPL and the ‘spirit of freedom’ in general. Of course as a SaaS you’re not subject of the GPL. Nevertheless I’m shocked of this behaviour.
    Is it also not possible anymore to create an account only on wordpress.com without having a website? For example to being able to use JetPack on a selfhosted WordPress do I need to onboard to a subdomain? It was onec possible to create an account only. Is this option gone?
    That would be very, very bad in my opinion and really lower my excitement for WordPress.

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member · Apr 13, 2016 at 10:19 pm
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    Hello there,

    All blogs are independent websites. What you do on one has NO impact on others, regardless of whether or not there are multiple blogs registered under the same username account.

    To delete a WordPress.COM hosted blog you must be logged in as Admin under the exact same username account that registered the blog to navigate to Dashboard > Tools > Delete Site. The guide is here http://en.support.wordpress.com/delete-site/

    Deleted blog URLs are not recycled, regardless of who registered and deleted them and no exceptions are made except for the one stated here http://en.support.wordpress.com/recycling-blog-names/

    Alternatively, to change blog visibility to Private go to > Settings > Reading scroll to Blog Visibility and choose option 3. See the guide here http://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings

    Accounts cannot be deleted so we cannot be impersonated by anyone registering and using the same username in the future. Also note that Automattic Inc. owns wordpress.COM and also many other products and services listed here https://automattic.com/ that do require a wordpress.COM account. Therefore, account deactivation is provided and account deletion is not provided.

    Registering an account here required
    (1) your consent to the Terms of Service http://wordpress.com/tos/ and all policies made under it found in the support docs like this one http://en.support.wordpress.com/deleting-accounts/,
    and
    (2) an email address.

    Any personal information you posted anywhere was posted voluntarily. Both the email address and personal information can be removed or replaced at any time.

    You may want to read this support doc:
    Private User Data https://en.support.wordpress.com/private-user-data/ and other information disclosed in the privacy policy https://automattic.com/privacy/

    Here’s how to deactivate your account:
    Although username accounts are not deleted, so you cannot be impersonated and have your reputation affected by anyone registering the same username in the future, there are steps you can take that amount to removing all personal information and result in leaving only a throwaway email address behind. http://en.support.wordpress.com/deleting-accounts/

    1. You can go to My Account->Edit Profile and remove all data except the account name and an email address. Create a throwaway email address and change the account email to that throwaway address. This only leaves the username behind.

    2. To unsubscribe from email sent to you from WordPress.com, go here and click on “Block all subscription emails from WordPress.com”:
    https://wordpress.com/settings/notifications/

    3. To ensure the account is locked up tightly, visit this site, generate a password of 15-20 characters, and change the account password to it:
    http://www.thebitmill.com/tools/password.html

    4. To hide your Gravatar profile, login and on the bottom right hand corner of your Gravatar profile page you will find a “hide” button visible only to you that you can click. http://en.gravatar.com/support/profile-privacy

    IMPORTANT NOTE: Deleting blogs and/or blog content or making the site private does not remove indexed content from the SERPs (search engine page results) and we cannot help with that. Google and Bing only clear their caches of deleted indexed content that produces a 404 (page not found) every 3 – 6 months. To completely remove an entire page from Google search results after it produces a 404 (page not found):
    https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6332384?hl=en&ref_topic=1724262&vid=0-635749429504660340-12158368555624983465&rd=1

  • Unknown's avatar
    timethief · Member · Apr 13, 2016 at 10:22 pm
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    For example to being able to use JetPack on a selfhosted WordPress do I need to onboard to a subdomain? It was onec possible to create an account only. Is this option gone?

    The answer is no and you appear yo be very confused. Everyone who uses Jetpack has to have a wordpress.COM account.

    We provide support only for wordpress.COM hosted sites. Our support docs do not apply to
    (1) local installs of wordpress.ORG software on your own server or
    (2) wordpress.ORG software installs on paid hosting, and we do not provide support for them at wordpress.COM.

    Also, note that we do not provide Jetpack support for sites linked to wordpress.COM accounts with the Jetpack plugin http://jetpack.me. Jetpack is a plugin used by WordPress.ORG bloggers to achieve parity with what we already have built into WordPress.COM blogs. A wordpress.COM account is required to run the Jetpack plugin, but we do not provide Jetpack support on these wordpress.COM support forums. Please direct Jetpack issues to where they can get Jetpack support.

    re: Jetpack support
    Some Jetpack solutions are here http://jetpack.me/support/
    Others are in the Jetpack support forum at WordPress.org
    http://wordpress.org/support/plugin/jetpack
    However, if help cannot be found at either one then they can file a Jetpack support ticket here > http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/?jetpack=needs-service

    WordPress.COM and WordPress.ORG are completely separate and have different username accounts, logins, features, run different versions of some themes with the same names, and have separate support documentation and separate support forums. Read the differences here http://en.support.wordpress.com/com-vs-org/

    As you could be referring to a site that is not hosted here, if you don’t have a username account at WordPress.ORG account, then click http://wordpress.org/support/ and register one on the top right-hand corner of the page that opens, https://wordpress.org/support/register.php so you can post to the support forums there.
    Resetting your WordPress.ORG password http://codex.wordpress.org/Resetting_Your_Password
    WordPress.org support docs are at https://codex.wordpress.org/Main_Page
    See also https://apps.wordpress.org/support/

  • The topic ‘Deleting an account on WordPress.com’ is closed to new replies.

Tags

  • deactivate account
  • delete account
  • delete site
  • JetPack support

About this topic

  • In: Support
  • 2 participants
  • 2 replies
  • Last activity 10 years
  • Latest reply from homepageabc

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