Q&A for How to Close Your wikiHow Account

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Question

How do they know my email?

Community Answer

When you submit your email in the form, they will see it.

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Question

Why are so many accounts being closed?

Bhoimus

Community Answer

Staff or admins don't usually "mass-close" accounts. It's probably users wanting to close their accounts for a variety of reasons.

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Question

Do accounts ever get closed automatically?

Community Answer

If Administrators/Staff encounter "bad" accounts, they usually block them rather than close them. Accounts don't get closed automatically.

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Question

What if someone else closes my account?

Bhoimus

Community Answer

This is an unlikely situation, as to close someone's account the person would have to know the email address associated with it. If they get that correct somehow, staff will generally ask for consent directly from the user before closing their account.

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Question

How do I delete my edit history?

Bhoimus

Community Answer

If you close your wikiHow account, your username will be changed to something generic, and all your edits will be associated with that name only. You can't "delete" your edit history, but it will become completely anonymous.

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Question

How do I cancel my wikiHow Pro Membership subscription?

Bhoimus

Community Answer

You may email support @wikihow.pro for cancelling your subscription instead of filling out the form.

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Question

What do you do if someone made a vandalizing edit which revealed someone's private information?

Bhoimus

Community Answer

Immediately rollback/undo the edit. To prevent someone from seeing the information through the edit history, ask an admin directly or post on wikiHow:Administrator-Notice-Board so that the revision can be hidden. If you feel comfortable, you may also warn the vandal, but it is usually best to not "feed the troll". (Also, an admin can do that for you.)

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Question

Does your profile photo get deleted when you close your account?

Community Answer

No. You have to delete the photo yourself, or ask a staff member to do it for you.

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Question

If I delete my account, can I use my email address again?

Community Answer

Yes.

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Question

Why would someone want to delete their account?

Ruby

Top Answerer

They might not want to contribute to wikiHow anymore. Deleting your account is a permanent decision, unlike retiring. There are other reasons for deleting an account. For example, a user might have been using a test account that they don't need anymore, or they might have been underage and not signed the COPPA form, in which case their account gets deleted in three days to protect their privacy.

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Question

Can staff members close accounts without warning?

Community Answer

They do if the account is evil. Admins, Staff members, and a script account called StaffAction can close evil accounts.

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Question

What happens when an account is closed?

Community Answer

The account can't be logged into anymore and the talk page will be empty. The original username will be changed to something nondescript like "WikiHowUser" with the date and time of closure, but all the contributions (comments, edits, articles created) will stay attached to that name. If the user answered any questions in the Q&A section, the answerer's name will be blank and the photo will be a generic icon.

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Question

When an account is deleted, will the original username be available again?

Community Answer

Yes. Deleting your account will free up your email address as well.

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Question

I want to change my username, but I don't see an option for that.

Community Answer

It's in the link in step 1 of this article. Click it and you will have two options: change your username or delete your account.

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Question

Can you mass-delete random accounts that don't belong to you, because anyone can type a username in the form?

Realtbnrfrags

Community Answer

You cannot mass-delete random accounts, because a wikiHow staff member will message the account owner to confirm that the user requested the account deletion.

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Question

If an established editor puts their name (or someone else does so) in the form, will staff contact the user before deleting?

Ski

Community Answer

Yes, staff will contact the user before deleting and the user has to confirm that they do want to close their account.

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Question

Let's say I am going to not be on wikiHow for a few weeks but I'm going to keep editing after that, do I have to go on a wikiBreak or can I just not log in?

Community Answer

You can do either! If you want, you can let people know that you're taking a wikiBreak before you do it, but you don't have to.

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Question

Can I add Retire to my user page to show I'm taking a break and then come back later?

Guinea Piggles

Community Answer

Taking a break from wikiHow then coming back later is called taking a wikiBreak. Add {{wikiBreak}} to your user page to let everyone know that you're taking one.

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