Deleting a member from your forum does not delete the content they posted. This article explains what happens to a member and to their posts, and how long their data can remain in backups.

Deleting a member

When you delete a member, their account is only soft deleted: the profile is hidden from the forum, but it can be brought back later. To delete members, see Deleting members, and to restore one, see Restoring a deleted user.

Members can also delete their own account from their profile. For the steps a member follows, see How can a user delete their account?

Deleting a member does not delete their posts

Deleting a member leaves their topics, posts and other contributions in place. Their profile is removed, but their posts stay in the forum. This is deliberate: the conversations other members took part in are not rewritten when one person leaves, and you stay in control of what gets removed.

If you do want that member's content gone as well, delete their topics and posts from the forum or the admin area.

Deleting a post is permanent. Unlike a deleted member, which you can restore, a deleted post is not kept in a recoverable state, so remove posts only when you are sure.

How long a deleted member's data is kept

Deleted content is removed from the active system promptly. Backups of the database are retained for 30 days, so a copy of deleted content can remain in a backup for up to 30 days before it is gone from that backup as well. The live database and its backups are held in a United States data center, and a monthly copy of the backup is also held in Ireland for 30 days. Our mail server logs, which record delivery to each address, are kept for up to 15 days.

For how data is retained more generally, see How long do you keep the data? and GDPR compliance for your forum.