The ex-admin in me is mildly annoyed by some of the followup comments though.
There are two kinds of abandoned accounts: accounts that were used and no longer are being used accounts with no entries, no comments posted, no comments received, and aren't being logged into
the former are safe, at least if they have any entries
the latter may one day be deleted and purged.
Some of the latter are even people who signed up for an account, didn't get around to using it, forgot their password, and changed email addresses. They'd like them to be purged so they can have their own username back. Some are accidental creations then abandoned. Brad has discussed the possibility of someday deleting these types of accounts with a system of warning people to log in if they want to keep the account.
However, currently no such system exists and they are clearly not going to be deleted. But I wish people wouldn't state permanent policy decisions so broadly that it ignores the different types of abandoned accounts.
no subject
There are two kinds of abandoned accounts:
accounts that were used and no longer are being used
accounts with no entries, no comments posted, no comments received, and aren't being logged into
the former are safe, at least if they have any entries
the latter may one day be deleted and purged.
Some of the latter are even people who signed up for an account, didn't get around to using it, forgot their password, and changed email addresses. They'd like them to be purged so they can have their own username back. Some are accidental creations then abandoned. Brad has discussed the possibility of someday deleting these types of accounts with a system of warning people to log in if they want to keep the account.
However, currently no such system exists and they are clearly not going to be deleted. But I wish people wouldn't state permanent policy decisions so broadly that it ignores the different types of abandoned accounts.