2

I come from the Worldbuilding community. I started using Stack Overflow to help learn my first programming language. The problem was, I signed up using my school google account. My account (user name was Dustin Jackson) quit working in that when I tried to log in with Google, it said that this google service is not allowed. I got fed up and created another account (my current one) with my personal Google (should have done that in the first place probable).

Everything has been fine now, and I have worked up a somewhat respectable number of good questions and answers on Worldbuilding (and an okay question or two on Stack Overflow). I have not even logged into my old Stackexchange account in 6 months. Then I read this Worldbuilding meta question and became concerned that someone would find out about my old account and think I was serial voting (I am not). I just want to know if there is any way I can clean up my old garbage and have my original account deleted? I would have asked on Worldbuilding Meta, but it seems like it could be useful to somebody from any Stack Exchange site, so I asked here.

4
  • 1
    Are you voting for your old account? Is your old account voting for you? No? Then why are you worried about serial voting?
    – Oded
    Mar 14, 2016 at 17:00
  • To delete an old account you need to show ownership of said account (access to the email address registered with it, if nothing more). If you can't show that, it will not be deleted.
    – Oded
    Mar 14, 2016 at 17:00
  • @Obed That somebody might think that. Not all users display the... caution I would when flagging. E-mail is jacksondus at stu dot salemhigh dot com... I also read this. What happened to this guy worried me slightly as it seems his purpose was misunderstood (though it was not a multiple account problem).
    – Jax
    Mar 14, 2016 at 17:05
  • 4
    If you don't do that, it doesn't matter what someone might think. There is no rule about having multiple accounts - only against them voting for each other. We have lots of people who have two or more accounts (some for testing purposes) - that's fine. As for "what happened to this guy" - nothing did, not by a moderator or staff - this "exile" is their personal choice and a form of protest by them which had nothing to do with multiple accounts or voting. Again - no idea what you are worried about.
    – Oded
    Mar 14, 2016 at 17:21

1 Answer 1

5

Having multiple accounts isn't a violation of the terms of service. You wouldn't be the first user with an abandoned account in his past. People create accounts that they don't register and then lose the cookies, or create accounts with a single OpenID credential that they lose access to, and thus they lose access to the SE account. It happens. (Helpful tip: you can associate more than one OpenID credential with a registered account. I have two, precisely to guard against this unlikely-but-not-impossible scenario.)

If you aren't using multiple accounts to do things you couldn't do with a single account -- vote for yourself, double-vote on others' posts, accept your own answer with reputation, etc -- then there's nothing to worry about. The case you describe sounds benign.

2
  • I suppose I panicked and thought it would be better to approach the subject on Meta SE (because the question involves SE as a whole and not just Worldbuilding) rather than write a really long comment.
    – Jax
    Mar 14, 2016 at 18:17
  • @DJMethaneMan no worries; the question isn't specific to one site so asking here is fine. Asking either here or on WB meta works; here it gets more eyes. That you happened to get my eyes either way is just a coincidence. :-) Mar 14, 2016 at 22:56

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .