Watering dead plants
====================

I just realized I'm watering dead plants daily.  Is that a habit,
false hope or attempt to ignore neglect?  In this thought experiment
plant is an interesting allegory to something which require your
attention to stay alive.  That can be project, idea, plan or relation.

> Real flowers bloom in the wilderness
> - House of Flying Daggers


Flower
------

So last month I stopped "watering" my dead web accounts by removing
myself from as many unused platforms as I could.  I know, not as
dramatic as you thought.  I found a lot of resistance in portals that
benefit from your presence.  But one special flower surprised me the
most by the complete lack of care on Codeforces [1].  There is an open
blog post from 2019 [2] in which user ask how he can delete his
account.  The creator of Codeforces Mike Mirzayanov promised that he
is working on such feature but to this day it doesn't exist.  Mike
latest reply to "delete account" problem is:

> Just erase all personal data from your user account and don't use it
> anymore.  We don't store personal data long-term.
> - 2024-02-27 Mike Mirzayanov

Sorry Mike, but it doesn't work that way.  Still this is what I did.
I removed all my account information, then provided fake values for
required fields.  Lastly I changed password to something random that
I don't know along with fake email.

On the other hand I was met with very professional handling of the
situation on Booksy [3].  They made sure that all my data is first
deleted from the companies that I contacted through Booksy portal
before deleting my main account.

Anyhow, I will still say that experience on portal where deleting
account is as easy as creating one is the best.


Cactus
------

Some portals are like cactus.  They just don't want to die.  I had
this problem with Microsoft account back when Skype was a thing.  No
matter what I did my account was never actually removed.  Once after
more than a year of having account officially deleted I had to use
Skype.  So I made new account.  Yet my email has not changed since
last time.  To my surprise after first successful login to new account
I was greeted with archive of my old conversations.  Similar story
with Facebook.  I found that the best you can do is to delete data
manually, provide fake information for required fields and only then
use official way of deletion.  It's Codeforces all over again.


Weed
----

I'm in process of removing Google account.  But this one is connected
to so many things and grow rapidly even without my help.  It's because
friends and family help Google store information about you.  They will
have your name, address, email, phone number on Android smartphone.

Similar situation with email conversations.  You could use the most
secure email provider and workflow there is but your conversations are
as secure as your recipient setup.  Most probably Google or Microsoft.

I'm not willing to spend a lot of effort on those account cleanups.
I'll only close my account when time is right and call it a day.  What
I'm trying to achieve is clear situation in my password manager, not
full anonymity on the web.  I'm avoiding making it inconvenient for
others.  For example I'm not forcing anyone to switch to other
platform, messaging app etc.


Tree
----

Through process of account cleanup I rediscovered few old forums that
are actually still alive.  Those are like big old trees that seems to
not change at all even many years later.  Same can be said about old
online game servers.  Mostly empty but patiently waiting for old users
to visit and say hello.

> Many leaves, one tree.
> We're all individuals, but we're still connected.
> - Epic 2013


                      _
                    _(_)_                          wWWWw   _
        @@@@       (_)@(_)   vVVVv     _     @@@@  (___) _(_)_
       @@()@@ wWWWw  (_)\    (___)   _(_)_  @@()@@   Y  (_)@(_)
        @@@@  (___)     `|/    Y    (_)@(_)  @@@@   \|/   (_)\
         /      Y       \|    \|/    /(_)    \|      |/      |
      \ |     \ |/       | / \ | /  \|/       |/    \|      \|/
      \\|//   \\|///  \\\|//\\\|/// \|///  \\\|//  \\|//  \\\|// jgs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Flower garden by Joan G. Stark

[1] https://codeforces.com
[2] https://codeforces.com/blog/entry/69245
[3] https://booksy.com

Written: 2025-11-01