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Comment by wannabeanon | Hacker News Reader

I saw that but I’m looking for an automated approach that doesn’t involve email, which increases the surface area for doxxing. I feel like this is a pretty humble request, HN is the only site I can think of that doesn’t let users delete their own data. The world is a much different place then it was when HN was founded and it seems like this feature would be important to many people.

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"doesn’t let users delete their own data"

I consider my HN comments to be contributions to the HN community. I received some benefit in return for those comments, e.g. responses that improve my thinking.

I may retain copyright over those comments, but by posting them on a public forum I've given that forum licence to publish them.

Irregardless of your license the site need to comply with local regulations. In gdpr especially consent might be retracted at any time regardless of whether the consent was given or not at the time.

This is the full license you give for posting to HN:

“By uploading any User Content you hereby grant and will grant Y Combinator and its affiliated companies a nonexclusive, worldwide, royalty free, fully paid up, transferable, sublicensable, perpetual, irrevocable license to copy, display, upload, perform, distribute, store, modify and otherwise use your User Content for any Y Combinator-related purpose in any form, medium or technology now known or later developed.” [1]

[1] https://www.ycombinator.com/legal/

It almost reads like this forum is designed to be a training set

I just assume that I’m contributing to a variety of machine learning efforts when I post on HN.

That page links to another page for California residents, which includes:

Exercising Your Rights: California residents can exercise the right to request deletion of Personal Information by contacting us at hn@ycombinator.com.

> an automated approach that doesn’t involve email, which increases the surface area for doxxing.

Under what threat model does it meaningfully increase the surface area? If you're worried about HN admins then I think email is the least of your concerns (I'm pretty sure they can see your IP address), and if you're worried about the general public then your email isn't being leaked to them so it shouldn't matter.

HN is put together with lisp-flavored duct tape. It is not reddit or a Discourse forum with robust admin tools.

I had to email dang to change my username (quick response btw!).

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