First and foremost, we're UNABLE TO RECOVER DELETED ACCOUNTS. The database server purges all the information on accounts which have been removed.
Secondly, you have the option of deactivating your account rather than removing it, so unless you are 100% sure of your decision, it's best to deactivate and think on it.
In relation to stories, we have had 3 members this month delete their accounts for a variety of reasons, and then come back, expecting us to be here with open arms, ready to verify all their stories all over again.
The moderators have too much to do as it is, without having to verify the same stories over and over.
This is unfair to those who are submitting here for the first time, and to those who show our site and moderators respect. It increases the time it takes for us to verify their submissions.
Do you want this site to end up the way of others where you have to wait 10 days for a story to be verified? I know it takes this long, I submitted one of my own stories to a few "competitor" sites last month, and was appalled how long it typically took my submission to appear on site.
In summary, I am not going to verify any stories from members that delete their account and come back again, dumping their story collection on us. It is up to the other Moderators if they take the same tack, so think long and hard before deleting your account.
Nicola
The same applies to deleting stories and then resubmitting them as "new", to try and presumably get more front page exposure (?).
We know which ones have been resubmitted, they are programmatically flagged, plus our Moderators have good memories. It's double handling and our volunteer editors are busy as it is. They will simply be deleted.
Purveyor of Poetry & Porn
So what you're telling me Nicola is that I can't delete my account and then resubmit 101 stories the next day just for fun???
Damn, you really put a damper on my day...
Btw Nicola...everyone has a photographic memory...
Some just don't have film...
My memory is flawless. I can remember how many periods were in the first story I read, I can remember....what were we talking about again?
Seriously, why does someone need to delete a free account? Don't do it unless you are sure you are not coming back.
It's one thing when you're re-submitting a story because an error got though (I've done this more than once and I do try hard to not bog the moderators down with this) and I will say I've been pleased with how quickly my stories are posted, or I'm told I need to fix something (case in point, I had a story that was too long & needed to be split) and once the split was done, I waned to link the two parts, and the first story they were tied to. Happily the mods did this quickly and now my stories have been read. Sure having "front page" notice is nice, but if a story is good, it will get read. I have friends and fans who share good stories with me and in turn, I do the same.
Isn't that why we get to "favorite" stories? I know that if I look at someone's profile page I'm more inclined to look at what they have "favorited" as well as what they write. I may not necessarily read them (depends on the genre) but I will at least consider them.
And I to post on other sites... but it's more because I was there first. Besides, there's nothing wrong with expanding your readership.
If I ever decide to delete my account, which I highly doubt I will, I won't be coming back.
It's doubly irritating when we've spent hours and hours on someone's collection of work, editing as we've verified, and they then submit their original version, complete with all the mistakes we corrected the first time around.
I strongly suggest people download their own stories off lushstories (Account >> My Stories) after they've been approved, and then compare the verified version with their original. You'll then be able to see the edits made, and have (most likely), a better version than the one submitted.
Does that go for "de-activating" the account as well..only to have that same person reactivate later on?
I don't get why they would delete in the first place. Don't you want your stories to be for people to read? It's one thing if you just want some stories gone, but then you'd have to delete those individual stories. So, does this mean, these people deleted on a whim, and then regretted it? Well, if so, they should put a feature on here, that is just like facebook. Let it take two full weeks before it's permanently deleted.
Update from our Technical Department: "We don't keep incremental backups of the database, simply because of the size and costs associated with it. All we have is a daily snapshot, so once this is rolled over there is no way to recover."
So, if you decide to delete your account, that's it.
I would like to offer my heartfelt apologies to the moderators and story verifiers at Lush. You do a thankless job (or at least not enough thanks) for the job you do. I am one of the people that this thread applies to, as I had my computer hacked at one time and the hacker, deleted my Lush account. I came back, re-paid for a Gold Membership and asked (begged) to have my stories re-posted. Nicola and others here were very gracious in letting me do that.
All was fine, until about 3 months ago, when my membership here was brought to bear at my place of employment. A person, in my position in the company, that was found to have an account here was deemed an serious offense and I was given a choice. Loving my job and what I get to do there, forced me to make the decision to end my association with Lush. I was going to deactivate my account, should I ever leave the company where I was employed and so that Lushies could still read my stories, if they so desired. My attorney advised me to delete the account, which I did. This of course, wiped my slate clean for the second time. Jump ahead 6 months and a end of year conversation with my manager who happens to be an officer of the company, brought a discussion of my involvement of Lush. After her investigating Lush and finding that it was a site devoted to creativity, if even in the erotica field, would not harm my employ at the company as long as I kept the company name and any association with said company out of my discussions or stories here.
Consequently, I came back to Lush, paid for a Gold Membership again and tried to re-establish friendships with those that I was friends with before. I understood that many Lushies do not take kindly to people leaving and coming back, although real life does sometimes interfere with what we would like to happen. I recently submitted one of my original stories to the site, because several Lushies wanted to be able to read it again. It was recently rejected for all the reasons posted in previous posts in this thread. I don't have to enjoy the decision, especially since I have tried to do my best at supporting this site by buying a Gold Membership every time I have come here, but rules are rules and I understand the motivation.
Thank you for all of the hard work you put in to keep this site viable, legit, and entertaining. I am sorry that I will not be posting stories to the site in the future and will be giving serious consideration to my further involvement in the site, as I was writing stories to continue story lines in stories previously posted and won't have that continuation on the site any longer.
Continued success to Lush, its keepers and denizens.
Reese
Step out into the real world, some time, and perhaps you would understand. I have never cared who might see me on this site, because I could always question what they were doing here as well. However, there are companies out there who value their reputations to the point that it might tarnish that reputation for someone in such position to be found on a site such as Lush. That said, we were able to work things out and I returned to Lush. It would be nice to be met with empathy towards what happens in the real world, as opposed to those denizens of Lush that seem to only exist in Fantasyland.
I couldn't agree more, why should people have to keep going over the same stuff again and again? I wouldn't want to do it at work and I know no one else would either
