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A mod can delete a user, or destroy their account if the user has less than 500 reputation points.

The community user has 1 reputation point and is a user. So, what happens if I try to delete or destroy the community user of our site? Are there safeguards for this since deleting the community user can break the entire site?

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2 Answers 2

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No, it's not possible. I can fill in a form specifying the reason for deletion, but upon submitting I get a 500 Internal Server Error page:

Oops! Something Bad Happened!

We apologize for any inconvenience, but an unexpected error occurred while you were browsing our site.

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  • 2
    Specifying reason: Hasta la vista, baby?
    – rene
    Jul 8, 2018 at 10:29
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    Nope, "for science".
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jul 8, 2018 at 10:44
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    TFW a mod actually attempts to delete them to test....
    – Dev
    Jul 8, 2018 at 11:01
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    I wasn't expecting that.
    – Robert Columbia
    Jul 8, 2018 at 11:33
  • 4
    Hope you braced yourself for the revenge in case your test would have been successful... ;-)
    – Shadow Wizard Is Sad And Angry
    Jul 8, 2018 at 12:11
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    I wonder what happens when you try to delete your own account? Just kidding. I wouldn't try that one. ;)
    – Jason Bassford
    Jul 8, 2018 at 13:35
  • @JasonBassford that's not possible, you have to contact the Community Team for certain actions on your own account.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jul 8, 2018 at 13:53
  • Have you tried the above? Since you mentioned "can", I'm not sure if it's theory.
    – Johansson
    Jul 8, 2018 at 15:18
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    Yes I tried; this what I get after clicking the Submit button.
    – Glorfindel Mod
    Jul 8, 2018 at 15:19
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    @Glorfindel I hope you are not joking, going to test it now :P
    – Johansson
    Jul 8, 2018 at 16:20
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    It had been funny if it would be successful. ;-)
    – peterh
    May 1, 2019 at 18:01
  • @peterh Then everyone would see 500 a lot more...
    – Anonymous
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:12
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While Glorfindel's answer is about deleting the Community user, trying to destroy it gives a different error message:

Moderator action failed

User -1 cannot be destroyed because they are a moderator or an employee.
Users who are moderators or employees can only be destroyed by a developer or community team member.
The Stack Exchange community team has been notified.

(screenshot)

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  • 9
    The Stack Exchange community team has been notified. Cue a "wtf are you doing" message from a CM in your site's mod chat :-)
    – Rand al'Thor
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:04
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    "The Stack Exchange community team has been notified." I get a strong sudo vibe from this.
    – Mast
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:04
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    Now let's see what happens if you try to suspend or de-mod it...
    – Anonymous
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:13
  • @Anonymous the official meta post about that says “The process will be initiated by a formal request from one or more moderators on a site, sent privately via an email to commu[email protected].” So community might just say “I’d rather not get de-modded today” :P
    – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:26
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    @EkadhSingh But what if, theoretically, they accepted it?
    – Anonymous
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:45
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    @Anonymous now that would be interesting. Somebody should try it.
    – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:55
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    @EkadhSingh Yeah... and better add a note on the status page saying "may be down or completely messed up, sorry in advance if everyone's account is deleted".
    – Anonymous
    Apr 29, 2021 at 16:56
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    I am curious, what would happen if an employee would try to delete it.
    – peterh
    Apr 29, 2021 at 18:40
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    @Anonymous ask a question asking “what would happen if you de-mod community” and some moderator will probably try it out... (also explain why it isnt a duplicate of this question)
    – Ekadh Singh - Reinstate Monica
    Apr 30, 2021 at 17:13
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    @EkadhSingh Can't, question banned.
    – Anonymous
    Apr 30, 2021 at 17:25

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