Darn. Not how I feel but this is a public G rated blog.
Just discovered I've lost an important account on the interwebs. Had it for 15+ years. Hard to be sure exactly how long as I've lost the account. LEGO related, but I'm not trying publicly cause trouble so I'm not naming here, and it should be obvious in any case. Used for buying and selling, had a store where you listed all your wares and the price you expected, and it had a feedback number... so it's loss is really annoying. Can't be replaced and will require work to even try. So how did it happen?
Well I'm in the sea going part of the military so I travel a bit. I've been in the process of moving and travelling a lot in the last two years so my account was not as active recently. This will be improving a bit in a few months so I went to look into buying some stuff and tried to login.... Nope. Didn't work. Double checked the details. Correct. Tried the recovery option. Nope nothing. Checked the EMail address that I use for the account. Oh. Darn.
I was sent an EMail on the 8th of July that my account was seen as inactive and if I didn't login the account would be closed and deleted. Why? Worldwide data privacy laws. I got another warning on the 31st, warning of closure on the 8th of August. No idea of what time zone this is referring to, but for me right now it's the 12th of August and it seems it's too late. I've created a new account and asked for mercy, but I'm not holding out any hope.
This really sux. I've put a lot of time into that and I was going to get back to it in a few months when I get back home, but now.... One month warning?!?!! Really? I check my mail regularly, but this went to a custom address as when I'm actively selling it's important that EMail is identified fast for processing, but in hindsight it seems this was a mistake.
Where am I going with this? Well it's food for thought I suppose. With all the pressures people have in their life, changing priorities and all, it does seem to me that giving someone one month to respond isn't enough. I wasn't buying or selling LEGO so I had no reason to go to the site. I cared a lot about the account, but that didn't mean I logged in and wistfully browsed for no good reason. I'm busy. Even outside family and work I have a lot of pies that demand my fingers. This site for example. Sinner Computing for example. I'm trying also to post more of my photos to Flickr for example. I'm trying to lose weight and improve my fitness for example.
One month? In this day and age? Deactivation maybe, but deletion? For an account that was arguably professional? For personal privacy issues? Heck, I could get audited in time and I sold some stuff worth hundreds... now I have no paper trail. Wow. Making this post was supposed to be therapeutic but I think I feel worse.
Darn.
