I highly value the idea of users having control of their own data and yet I cannot seem to find a way to allow a user to delete their own account. Am I missing something?
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Have you used the search here on meta? This is discussed in a number of topics.
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Yep. And I found lots of discussion about how an admin can do it, but not so much about how a normal user can. A link would be helpful if there is indeed something relevant and definitive.
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The short version is that established accounts with a post history have to request deletion, because it can otherwise severely impact a community.
If you were the OP to a long standing topic, and your deletion annihilated the entire topic that would be problematic. Community managers need to assess the impact and take any necessary precautions prior to deletion.
Communities aren’t like email accounts or file sharing services, you have the right to request your account and any PII be removed, but that right doesn’t override those of other users.
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Why not have an option to disable their account but not their posts? I think Facebook has something similar. The poster gets a generic image and their username is “deleted account” or something of the sort.
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@wxl If you have only one or two posts and your account is new, you can self delete.
(credit Jeff)
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That’s one option that community managers can take when they receive your request.
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Yes, hence my reference to established accounts.
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To otherwise remove any identifying/personal data related to the account but keep their posts? How? And can this be presented to the user universally?
Is there somewhere to set these limits on number of posts or length of existence?
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You could Anonymize the account. That is why the option is available so it wipes their data etc but keeps topics and posts un - deleted.
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Got it. But again, not something the user has control over, right? There’s no way for me to expose that as an option for them?
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Correct, that’s an option but sometimes it’s better to remove and account completely. You need to decide on a case by case basis.
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Ok, thanks for the help.
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I think you are indeed missing something. Try signing up as a new user on your own Discourse instance, then visit the profile page. There will be a delete option.
This new user self delete option goes away after a few days, or if the user creates a number of posts (see your site settings for details).
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Thanks for the suggestions. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before, but I think you mean:
Again, thank you all. This was all very instructive 
Those aren’t actually related 
that is for admins deleting people arbitrarily – not sure we have site settings for user self-deletes, might actually be hard coded.
Harumph. Well maybe that could be a nice option to expose?
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