Being sick and tired of getting newsletters and offers for stuff I don’t care about, I decided to not only clear out my email subscriptions but also go through ALL my accounts for various online sites!
First of all I wrote down every site I could remember or find in my bookmarks/inbox. I decided not to list webshops since you usually get registered by default once you order something and then can’t really unregister.
And you know how many I came up to? 80!! :crazy: I mean… 80? How the hell? I guess it makes some kind of sense considering I listed everything I’ve ever joined during the past 5 or so years online. It’s game sites, message boards, social networks etc. that I’ve registered with just out of curiosity. But it still caught me off guard.
But that wasn’t the real scary part, the real scary part was realising just how many of these I actually use. After deleting everything unnecessary I still had 42 accounts left!
I may not use all of them often, but it’s still stuff I want/need to keep for various reasons. Like a ticket reservation site that I use once a year to buy festival tickets. Or a money transfer site (kinda like a Swedish Paypal) that I’ve only used once in my life, but it’s still a good thing to have if you ever need it.
Or my Threadless account that I keep for all the pretty t-shirts I never can afford to buy and that print design I’ll never ever make :glare:
One very annoying thing I noticed during this was that a lot of sites didn’t allow you to close your accounts. Some sites lets you unregister by simply clicking a button. On some sites you could ask the staff to remove you by sending an email or fill out a form. But a lot of sites stated clearly that “we don’t delete user accounts. Ever”. I know it doesn’t really matter seeing as I could just log out and never log in again. But it kinda irks me that I have several accounts out there just… laying around. With my name and e-mail in them. Like leaving dirty laundry in a corner of the living room.
But still, now I know where I am so to speak. And I even made a document with all my usernames and passwords for future reference. Good girl *pats self on head*
I should do that! I know I’ve googled myself a few times and seen a few accounts from websites I haven’t been to in years and they don’t have a place to remove you! Also I’ve gone through many email accounts so they never have the right one on file and don’t believe it’s me, blah blah blah.
Good job on getting the list down to 42 though :)
Oh, expired email address is a classic. Really annoying, isn’t it? :doh:
I have a master list of all my passwords & sites that I belong to. You only have 80, that is sweet. Currently with my cross stitching I belong to over 150 sites. It is mind-bogging. I have no clue how I keep up, but it explains why I never have free time, lol.
I suggest that you update that list every time you sign up on a new site. That is what I do.
150!? Holy cow :crazy:
Wow, 80 is a lot! I think I registered at far too many sites too, however I only remember those I’m regularly visiting – did you find a list of such sites or was it purely out of your head? I really have to do this too… If you have any good list let me know. :D
I went through my email inbox (I tend to save welcome emails) and all the bookmarks in Firefox and on Delicious. I can only fit like… 5 in my head :P
Wow, 80? It’s a good idea, and probably a big time investment too. Having that list should save headaches in the future. Great idea. I wonder how many I have? …
Shoot, I should do this at some point. I used to have a million online accounts and I really only use a few regularly (I think…?); it’ll be good to get some of that cleared off the interwebs!
Det borde jag också ta och göra, det lär säkert bli många när jag väl räknat ihop dem ;)
Jäkligt tråkigt, som du säger, att man inte kan ta bort sitt konto på vissa sidor :/
I definitely have to do this soon (tally up/recount all of my online accounts, that is), if only to remind myself of those I’ve forgotten! I have a (password-protected, of course) file w/usernames and passwords for many, but I’m sure there are many more I’ve forgotten.
I hate (well, maybe just “really, really dislike”) sites that refuse to allow one to close one’s account. I can’t see any logical reason for a “nope, nuh-uh, we don’t close accounts!” stance, other than to protect their numbers — after all, if the ability to boast “we have X,XXX users!” is important to a site, they likely don’t care if a good chunk of said user accounts are dead/inactive/abandoned. XD
Yeah, I think the numbers is the only reason for keeping all members. That or that the programming behind the site is so poor the whole community will crash if they delete anything…
That’s actually a great idea! :) I put that on my 101 list now too (eventually I’ll get to 101… lol) but wow. 42 still? Does that number include just the 42 that you still use, or include the ones that you couldn’t delete?
42 are the sites I feel I have to keep. The ones I couldn’t delete are just floating around unused and empty.
How could you remember all the accounts/websites/usernames/passwords?
I don’t think I would be able to do that. Does it bother you that you ave accounts somewhere that you don’t not use anymore?
Hahaha, oh my goodness! I don’t even want to think about it. I bet I’m just as bad. It must be so refreshing to get it down and clear some things out.
Wow, I don’t know how you do that. I don’t think I would ever be able to think of all the accounts that I have. If I do find a site that I have an account on I usually delete my account. But you’re right, a lot of websites make it hard for you to remove yourself.