On Hogwarts.io we do not generally delete accounts, we deactivate them. We do this because players do sometimes wish to go back to their former account and this leaves us with the ability to recover their account for them. We do not delete posts by users when a player leaves the community, this is to prevent gaping holes in roleplay threads a deactivated user participated in.

The exception to this is if I am notified by a user's parent or guardian that a user has created this account without their permission and the parent or guardian is requesting deletion. In that case, we do delete the account but we also ban the IP (Internet Protocol) which is basically a number identifying of a computer or another device on the Internet. It is similar to a mailing address, which identifies where postal mail comes from and where it should be delivered. IP addresses uniquely identify the source and destination of data transmitted with the Internet Protocol. [Source] We do this to prevent that user from circumventing their parent's or guardian's wishes and no longer being a part of the community.

As for what and why someone can request a deactivation:

1. Because they have grown tired of their character. This is the result of creating a character and roleplaying them out and deciding either their story is done or you have lost your muse for that character. Please do not take your character creation lightly because we will only offer this service after 6 months time on the site. This is not intended to be an option for players to circumvent the means by which wands are acquired (they wanted a cooler wand) or the fact that they were sorted into 'the wrong House.'

As for why someone can request a hard deletion:

1. If the user is a minor and their parent or guardian requests that their child be deleted from the site. This is accompanied by an IP ban.
2. There is no minimum time limit on how long a player has to of been on the site before we will honor this. The staff may take a few days to respond depending on how busy administrative tasks are.
3. Parents and guardians, please be aware that there is no way for us to undo a hard deletion and we will not know what your child's IP addresses were to unblock them from the community. The account will be lost and we would not be unblocking the IP in the future. This would be a permanent removal from the community.

There is a third option known as soft deletion for users that are completely certain that they are no longer going to be a part of this community. This is where the account is deleted but the posts remain on site. This also accompanies an IP ban because it is impossible for us to know what relationship you had with other users and the staff and a deleted user returning as an unknown can be used as a tool of community harassment. This IP ban and deletion cannot be undone, unlike a deactivation. 

As for why someone can request a soft deletion:

1. Any reason. There is no minimum time that a player needs to be a part of this community. It may take a few days for the staff to respond to a soft deletion request but please remember this will accompany an IP ban. Banned users cannot find a new IP and make a new account, account deletions mean that they are not coming back.
2. We do not have a means to undo a soft deletion. The account will be forever lost. We will not list the IP ban because we have no means of undoing the IP ban because we will not know what IPs were yours and again due to the potential that this can be used as a tool of harassment and you chose (not your parent or guardian) to have your account deleted, this will be a permanent change.

Limitation:
A deletion of the account is simply a deletion of the account. You existed. Other people know you and knew you, they may mention you from memory or mention you in posts. If is your responsibility to ask them to alter their posts or to never mention you again. This is a part of the I deleted or edited anything on my previous account - that you reached out to those you need edits from.

How is this Done?

You simply fill out the following, simple form and submit this form in this thread:

The Form

Present Character Name:
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes/No
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: Yes/No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes/No
I am requesting a soft deletion: Yes/No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes/No
What is the name of your NEW account, if yes. (If you do not provide a name, upon return we expect you to provide us with your former account's name for our records)
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes/No (If the answer is No, please complete this before proceeding)
I have notified any sports or groups I am a part of that I am deactivating this account: Yes/No (If the answer is No, please complete this before proceeding)
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion:

Please note, if you are a parent or guardian requesting a hard deletion for your minor or a player requesting a soft deletion for your character, the user will not be able to access this site any longer. For more details regarding this please read below. A hard or a soft deletion cannot be undone.

Additional Restriction: Only the parent or guardian of a minor user or the user themselves can request any of the above. A sibling or a friend cannot make this request for you.

Once approved, you will be notified via owl and/or discord. This application will be stored in this thread to serve as a paper trail. Deactivated users will then be allowed to make a new account and begin the validation process. Your previous account will be deactivated within 72 hours or after it has been noted that you have been contacted regarding your account change, whichever is sooner.

Deactivated users can return to their previous character that was deactivated. The process is the same as it is for requesting a deactivation except you state you are looking to return to your previous character and it has been 6 months since your last change. They will need to be Re-Indexed.

Please Note: depending on when the deactivation took place, your previous character might have been held back a year, if that is the case, please state in your Re-Index.

Please note: Making a new account does not mean that your former actions will not follow you. This is not a tool to be present among friends and enemies with an imbalance of knowledge where only one of the two knows who the other is. We will not be a party to duplicitous actions, getting back at exes, former friends or stalking behaviors.

Confidentiality: There is no circumstance in which 'starting over' should require that your presence is unknown. If you are being harassed by members of this community, state your boundaries and if that fails then report them to the staff team and/or file a do not contact (DNC).

The purposeful creation of a new account without deactivating your old account will be treated as a multiaccount and this is a Bannable offense. As stated already, we will not facilitate interactions where one person knows who the other is and acts as if they are new, it is a violation of trust. When you leave/disappear, people will mourn you and worry about you. It is a cruel choice to make and not an option to make here.

For those that deactivate with no intention of returning, please remember you can just leave the community. You are not required to come back here and deactivate your account. It is best practice to notify your former RP partners of your intention to never return so that they are not waiting on you, can close any open threads that they have with you and get closure for their characters. It is also best practice to not ghost any responsibilities that you had such as captain, mentor, prefect, professor, newspaper, etc. Community members are relying on you and it takes a very simple "hi, I am leaving the community" said to your Head of House to get the ball rolling on seeking a replacement and managing your previous responsibilities. If you do return to the site, we do ask that you announce in your new character creation who you were so that we can update your form. This serves as a record of who users once were for the sake of transparency. Much like you would expect to know who you were talking to and you would find it creepy, unsavory or uncanny for someone to secretly know you, other members would feel the same way. Players have the right to make an informed decision regarding who they wish to (or not to) spend time with.



Prefect Deactivation Considerations

Prefects who are actively in the role of Prefect but wish to deactivate their present account will be given the option to make a new account in the same house if they wish to continue their moderator role. So if a user is a Gryffindor and they wish to deactivate their present character, during their deactivation process they can request to maintain their staff position and be force sorted into the same house.

Prefects may not request to be force sorted into a house they were not already sorted in even if there is an opening in this house. So if a user is a Gryffindor and they wish to deactivate their present character and make a new character that is a Slytherin, they will not be able to request a force sort to ensure that they got this house.

A Prefect cannot be a member of a different house than they are a Prefect for.

A Prefect must announce their intention to stay and the request for a force sort before they deactivate.

When a user deactivates, they do not maintain their seat on a sports team (such as a first string Seeker) regardless of staff position, moderation status or captaincy.



Sport Captain Deactivation Considerations

Sport Captains who are actively in the role of Sport Captain but wish to deactivate their present account will be given the option to make a new account in the same house if they wish to continue their moderator role. So if a user is a Gryffindor and they wish to deactivate their present character, during their deactivation process they can request to maintain their captain position and be force sorted into the same house.

Sports Captains may not request to be force sorted into a house they were not already sorted in even if there is an opening in this house. So if a user is a Gryffindor and they wish to deactivate their present character and make a new character that is a Slytherin, they will not be able to request a force sort to ensure that they got this house.

A Sports Captain cannot be a member of a different house than they are a Sports Captain for.

A Sports Captain must announce their intention to stay and the request for a force sort before they deactivate.

When a user deactivates, they do not maintain their seat on a sports team (such as a first string Seeker) regardless of staff position, moderation status or captaincy.

A deactivated account is an account you can no longer access the community with without an administrator reactivating the account. This is useful for a user making a new account because it will not show up as a double-account. This is how players make new accounts on this site without messing with the continuity of their old forum posts. Everything about their former account will still exist, including the posts made by that character. A deactivation is not a deletion.

A deletion is where everything about an account is removed. The only time we will ever fully delete an account is when a parent of a minor (under the age of 16) asks us to delete their child's account. This is accompanied by an IP ban that has no identifiers attached to it to prevent that user from returning to the community. 

HiO does not store personal protected information such as real life names, health information, sexual orientation, political standings, etc. The only information that this site stores is the email provided by the user (which you can change at any time for your privacy), the posts that you make and the IPs that you have posted from. Please note that even vision of IPs is very limited by the staff, we cannot see the IP you posted an individual post from but we can see shop transactions as moderators and the registering IP as administrators.

• IPs are stored for the purpose of preventing multi-accounting and to keep problematic users separate from the community. 
• Emails serve as a means of identifying a user that has forgotten their username or password, but they are not used to register a user so a real email is not necessary and can be edited as such but this would limit your ability to recover your account if you lose access.
• Posts do not contain protected personal information unless a player posts something personal about themselves (which is not recommended), players have the right and ability to edit their own posts and delete the personal information they post.
• We have a rule against using selfies as your avatar. If the staff becomes aware of the use of a selfie as an avatar, they would remove it. Players also have the ability to remove their own avatars or change them.

Users that feel that they need to have their account deleted, the IP stored being really the only thing that is stored by the site that players do not have casual access to, can have a soft account deletion. A Soft account deletion is where the HiO Prefect, Professor and Head of House staff can no longer access IP information associated with your account (such as registering IP and shop transaction IPs), your posts cannot be searched by user name, and the email (if you have not already changed it to something else) that you registered with is no longer accessible by the Prefect, Professor and Head of House staff. The posts remain intact and can be read in the threads that they were posted in, they will have the former account name that you previously used (unless we change the former account name because that was somehow personal information such as your real life name or used to identify you). 

The retention of a user's posts is necessary for the story-driven content of the community in regards to other members of the site. If a post contains personal protected information, players retain the ability to edit their own posts (before a soft deletion) for the purpose of their privacy and are encouraged to delete personal information that they shared about themselves (although it is a better practice to never post that information at all). If your posts contain personal information it would be your responsibility to remove that information from your posts before requesting a soft deletion as you have the ability to edit your own posts. Please note, with a soft deletion because we are purging IPs, emails and other identifying information regarding you, your deeds and your relationships with other members of the community. Because we cannot tie new accounts to your previous one, as your new identity would make you an unknown to the staff and could be used as a means to harass other users we will be IP banning your account (without ties to who you were) for the purpose of protecting the community at large.

Posts made by other players and their content will be maintained. When we deactivate or delete an account. The posts made by others will continue to exist. If you need to have names edited or removed from other user posts, that is something that you need to work out between yourself and these other users before you make a request for a deletion or deactivation.

This is just a random test by Solomon Lear. This is being used to demonstrate what a soft deleted account looks like.

Present Character Name: Zara Wilkins
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes
I am requesting a soft deletion: No
I will need the name on my former account changed: No [Also what is the new name for your FORMER account]
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes [What is the name of your NEW account, if yes: Juniper Avery]
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion:

I have grown bored of this character and would like to create a new one there are a few minor edits I would like to make to the personality but it is too late to do those as this character already has a personality.

I would like to make a new account to add some more details in if that's okay.

Note: owled and done, Elaine.

Present Character Name: Audrey Bells
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: no
I am requesting a deactivation: no
I am requesting a soft deletion: Yes
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: no
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion: roleplaying is not really my thing, I thought it'd have something new.

Thank you.

Mod Note: Owled

Mod Note: Done - Marcus

Present Character Name: Glen Pope
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes
I am requesting a soft deletion: No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes
What is the name of your NEW account, if yes. Glenys Urquhart
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion: I started with Glen in June 2018, so his first year was basically non-existant, and then I was too busy to regularly rp, and I never really managed to quite get back into rp-ing with him properly as it feels like he's missing too much, and that only got worse as time went on.
So I'd like to try to start over with a new character, and one that will be able to have the full first year experience at that.

Mod Note: Done - Hjørdis.

Present Character Name: Calypso Jackson
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes
I am requesting a soft deletion: No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes
(Nico Cirillo)
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider being private and personal information about myself: Yes
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion: I didn't have much time to ever use this account, and now that I do, I've realized that Calypso's story isn't one I want to try and build.

Mod Note: Owled

Mod Note: Done - Marcus

Present Character Name: Martyna Romero
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes
I am requesting a soft deletion: No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Not right now, but in the future probably. I don't currently have a character in mind.
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion: Not much time to roleplay now or in the near future, so I've been on-and-off with this account, and as a result haven't felt the character develop as I would have liked.

Mod Note: Owled and Done - Marcus

Present Character Name: Avery Gallows
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes/No
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: Yes/No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes/No
I am requesting a soft deletion: Yes/No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes/No
What is the name of your NEW account, if yes. Blaine Fontaine
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes/No (If the answer is No, please complete this before proceeding)
Why am I requesting this deactivation/deletion: Maybe I have commitment issues, but I cannot seem to create a character that holds my attention or interest. Trying one last time before letting go, so hopefully 4th time's the charm.

Mod Note: Owled, Done - Marcus

Present Character Name: Griseldis Edelhardt
Have I Been a Member for More than 6 months: Yes
Am I a parent or guardian requesting hard deletion: No
I am requesting a deactivation: Yes
I am requesting a soft deletion: No
I intend to make a new account after deactivation: Yes
What is the name of your NEW account, if yes: Ashleigh Hazelwood
I have edited or deleted anything on my previous account that I consider to be private and personal information about myself: Yes
Why am I requesting this deactivation: Gris's story became very messy at this point, and I have no motivation to continue RPing as her. So I would like to start with a new character with a new story and have new experience with Ashleigh. And hopefully it can give me a chance to have a much better character development for this new character.

Mod note: deactivated, Elaine.