Remove an account

Could someone of the moderators remove the following account?

@robintin

The account belonged to a dear clubmate of mine. Unfortunately he passed away in November last year!

I hope that this is enough to remove the account.

Hello? Anybody there?

If you have the password to the account then you can close it

But you cant do it from another account

Otherwise everyone could close everyones accounts

Also my condolences to your clubmate

May he rest in peace

@venter4971

Where would I get the password for this account? That's why I'm asking a Lichess moderator to close the account. If I had the password I wouldn't have to ask here. It's logical, isn't it?

The problem is that the moderators have no way to verify that what you say is true.

@mkubecek

Maybe this as verification:

www.sflohmar.de/2023/11/21/wir-trauern-um-wolf-dieter-meissner-%e2%80%a076/

Unfortunately, I cannot provide a death certificate.

It would also be nice if at least one moderator would answer.

Try to imagine yourself sitting on the other side. One user claims another user is dead and refers to an article reporting the death of a chess player. The article does not mention the account name and account profile does not seem to mention user's real name or other information it could be deduced from. The only connection seems to be city/town name "Lohmar". If I were a moderator, I don't think I would deem this a sufficient authorization.

Also, does the account really have to be closed? Unless someone manages to guess its password, I don't see why keeping it would be a problem.

@mkubecek

Why would the article mention his Lichess account? The first name Wolf is also in the account profile. That and the article should be enough to close the account.
And it is obvious why the account should be closed. The owner died. The account has been dormant since November and has not been used since. The account also gets followers. Therefore the account should be deleted.

@odoaker2015 said in #8:
> Why would the article mention his Lichess account?
It doesn't have to, of course. The point is that there is no link from either side between the lichess account and the article. Only you refering to both and claiming it's the same person.

> The first name Wolf is also in the account profile.
Rather common first names in Germany, isn't it?

> That and the article should be enough to close the account.
Definitely not.

> And it is obvious why the account should be closed. The owner died.
We still only have your word for that. And even if moderators knew for sure, why would such account have to be closed? Wouldn't disabling login suffice? Why should the account's history and (potentially) all contents created disappear?

> The account has been dormant since November and has not been used since.
There are accounts that have been inactive for years and then the users started using them again.

> The account also gets followers.
One random follower in 8 months since last activity. And even if there were more, why would that be a problem?

For the sake of the argument, let's say all agree that the account is theirs.

Does the inheritors want to close the account? Have they had time to see if there are games or studies they want to preserve etc. If you are a clubmate, then it sort of sounds like you are the wrong person to put forward the request. Maybe you should let the inheritors know about the account instead.

The easiest way is probably to log in, ressetting the password with their email if needed. ( Getting email access is importent in the digital world. So that's the first assumed step. )
Second approach is probably to email Lichess with a copy of the death certificate and somehow show that the account belongs to the decesed. I defently think it's email territory and not a forum post.

Not to be insensetive, but your appraoch to this seems poorly thought out. Not to mention, that a moderator closed account is not the same as a user closed account.

Edit: The unspoken point that Lichess should have a page answearing questions such as this, is however something that can probably recivece general agreement.