# Disable user account
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528
**Category:** Feature
**Created:** [September 2, 2014, 7:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528 "2014-09-02T07:48:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@probus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/probus)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 7:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/1 "2014-09-02T07:48:21Z")
What should the admins do when a user wants to disable his account? Meaning, have nothing to do with the forum any more but keep their posts in place.
Suspending the user indefinitely gets weird associations. Deactivating would be better, but this breaks the user page completely and doesn’t give any hint to other users that this one has stopped participating. Also, don’t unactivated accounts get deleted periodically now? What happens if they have posts?
Should there be a way to disable user accounts so that the posts remain, but the account gets clearly marked as disabled? For example their username gets grey like trust level 0 and the profile page gets a notification like when suspended but less aggressively.
Or could the deactivation be bettered to support users with history on the forum?
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 8:00am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/2 "2014-09-02T08:00:34Z")
If they have posts, I’d assume theur account is not unactivated.
If they want to no longer participate, can’t they just no longer participate?
eg. turn off notifications, emails, etc, and never return.
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### Author:  [@probus](https://meta.discourse.org/u/probus)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 8:07am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/3 "2014-09-02T08:07:08Z")
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> If they have posts, I’d assume theur account is not unactivated.
You can deactivate accounts even when they have posts.
> [@Mittineague](#):
>
> If they want to no longer participate, can’t they just no longer participate?eg. turn off notifications, emails, etc, and never return.
Yes, they can. But some like to explicitly quit. And it’s beneficial that when they do, others get to see is as well so you don’t mention, reply or private message them hoping for a reply.
edit. and you don’t have to worry about stolen passwords or anything else regarding the site any more.
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### Author:  [@Mittineague](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Mittineague)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 8:25am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/4 "2014-09-02T08:25:34Z")
I was referring to
> don’t unactivated accounts get deleted periodically now?
Maybe you could create a custom badge like “inactive” and “award” it to them and assign that as their “title”?
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### Author:  [@riking](https://meta.discourse.org/u/riking)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/5 "2014-09-02T15:51:30Z")
I think a long suspension with the reason “User voluntarily left the forum” should work fine.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 25, 2016, 6:48pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/6 "2016-04-25T18:48:46Z")
You have two, maybe three, options here
1. Anonymize account – assumes user is sure they never want to come back and removes their name from the account.
2. Block – user can still log in but cannot post
3. Invalidate email – user can return if they re validate their email.
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### Author:  [@Bluer](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bluer)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2017, 2:36am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/7 "2017-05-16T02:36:04Z")
So there is no way to temporarily ban / prevent access for user? My site is private so this functionality is pretty important.
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### Author:  [@codinghorror](https://meta.discourse.org/u/codinghorror)
#### Post date: [May 16, 2017, 4:28am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/8 "2017-05-16T04:28:26Z")
Yes, use suspensions as previously mentioned.
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### Author:  [@chapoi](https://meta.discourse.org/u/chapoi)
#### Post date: [December 4, 2025, 11:31am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/disable-user-account/19528/9 "2025-12-04T11:31:43Z")