Leaving should be as easy as arriving.
You can delete your Theories of Anything account yourself, at any time, without asking anyone and without explaining why. This page shows you how, and tells you exactly what goes and what stays.
Two routes
Delete it yourself, from your account page
This is immediate and needs no one's approval.
- Sign in.
- Go to your account page.
- Open Account actions and choose Delete account.
- Confirm.
Ask us by email
Write to theoriesofanything@gmail.com with the subject Account deletion request and tell us the username.
An honest limit you should know about. We never collect email addresses, so we have no way to check that an email came from the account's owner. That is good for your privacy and awkward here: it means we cannot delete an account purely on the say-so of an unverified email, or anyone could delete anyone's.
If you still have your password, Route 1 is the answer. If you have a recovery code, use it to sign in and then use Route 1. If you have neither, write to us anyway and we will do what we can, but understand that the account may simply be unreachable — by you and by us alike. See the privacy policy for why it is built this way.
What deletion actually removes
| Data | What happens |
|---|---|
| Your account record (username, password hash, profile, trust counters) | Deleted. |
| Your recovery codes | Deleted. |
| Your thoughts, replies, theories, topics, chat and debate messages | Deleted or permanently detached from you, so that nothing remains attributable to your account. |
| Your echoes and connections | Deleted. |
| Reports you filed | Detached from you. The moderation outcome remains; your identity as reporter does not. |
| Hashed IP records attached to your posts | Removed with the posts. Raw IP addresses were never stored in the first place. |
What stays, and why
- Aggregate page counters. Our analytics never held an identifier for you, so there is nothing about you inside them to remove. They are daily numbers per page, with no personal data in them at all.
- Moderation and audit records. If a moderation decision was made about your account, a record of the decision is retained so that it can be reviewed later. This is an accountability requirement, and it works in your favour as often as not.
- Quotations of your posts inside other people's replies. If someone quoted you before you left, their reply is theirs. This is true of every forum; we would rather say so than let you find out.
- Backups. Deleted content may survive in routine backups for a limited period before those backups roll over.
- Google Analytics. Handled separately and by Google, not by us. The privacy policy explains the browser-level controls.
How long it takes
Route 1 is immediate. Route 2 depends on how quickly we read the message; this is a small independent project, so allow a few days, and up to 30 days as an outside limit.
Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. There is no grace period and no restore. If you are unsure, consider deleting individual posts instead, which you can do without deleting the account.
Related
- Privacy policy — everything we collect, and what we deliberately do not.
- Contact — for anything this page does not answer.