LJ question?

[madeleone]

LJ question here.

I got a notice from LJ about a week or so ago that one of my sock puppet accounts I used for the sshg_exchange a while back has not been used in two years and will be deleted. I don't have I problem with this as I don't use the account anyway but then I started to wonder, it won't affect the comments I made at the exchange using that account will it? I am  assuming they will still be there but just have the user name with a line through it. Does that sound right?

Comments

[toblass.livejournal.com]

I've noticed that when accounts are deleted, their comments disappeared as well.

[madeleone]

well crap. I guess I'll go log in just in case.

[m-mcgonagall-65.livejournal.com]

It's my understanding that comments are deleted if the account is deleted.

[madeleone]

I logged in and back out again under my alias, just in case.

[delphipsmith]

Most likely. I've run across plenty of comments and LJ names embedded in comments that just have a strikethru.

[madeleone]

Well, that's what I thought, but now not sure according to other comments.

Love the icon! (I'm actually hard at work, not fooling around on LJ! I swear!)

[talesofsnape.livejournal.com]

So you say...

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Uh-oh... Then I've lost whole rafts of comments, then. :(

[madeleone]

Hmmm... I'm not so sure now.

I just checked out some of the older exchanges. I went to the 2008 exchange and looked up lulabelle72's fic, I know she left the fandom a long time ago. I looked at her comments to the fic written for her in that exchange and her comments are still there. Her user name has a line through it but if you click on it, it shows the Frank the goat and says this account has been deleted and purged and the name is available. But her comments are still there, so I guess it all should be fine. :)

[dickgloucester.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's good. I'll have to find the time to go and check mine.

[mimimanderly.livejournal.com]

I went back through my archives to posts where I KNEW Lulabelle72 had left comments and saw that they were deleted, so yeah, when they delete the account, EVERYTHING goes.

ETA: I went back to a post I did for her birthday, and her comments are there, but with a strike-through through her name. So I guess they do both, depending on circumstances which are purely arbitrary. That's LJ for ya.

[madeleone]

Good grief! How confusing! So it could go either way.

[shiv5468.livejournal.com]

When someone deletes their own journal you now have a choice whether to delete comments or not. If lj deletes the lj, my guess is that the comments go too as default.

[madeleone]

Ahh... The deleting the journal part makes sense, I guess. So if the account is dormant for two years and no one responds when they send an email that they are going to delete the account, LJ assumes that account is essentially abandoned and can be deleted. I just didn't realize that comments made in other peoples LJs would be deleted too.

[delphipsmith]

I queried LJ Help on this and here is their response:

As it is said here - when the user deletes his account he can choose whether to delete his posts in communities and comments on other blogs or to save them.

[madeleone]

So, It sounds like the best option would be to delete the sock puppet account myself, but opt to have all the comments remain intact in other posts. That way the account wouldn't get deleted by LJ comments and all. :)