Deleting your account

This is the most-asked question in our inbox, so here is the
blunt version, with nothing smoothed over.

Before anything else: export your data. A deletion cannot be
reversed once it finalises, and afterwards there is nothing left
to download. See
Downloading a copy of your data.

If what you actually want is your personal information removed
while keeping the account, you want the other path instead —
Erasing your data.

Two ways in, and they are not the same

• The Danger Zone in your profile has a quick delete. It
  applies the documented default with no questions asked.
• /profile/close-account is the
  only place that offers you a choice instead of applying
  that default. If you care what happens to your published
  stories, go through this page, not the quick button.

The 30-day grace period

Deleting does not take effect immediately. Your request sits for
30 days, and a daily sweep at 04:00 UTC finalises the
ones that are due. Until your sweep runs, the deletion can still
be called off.

Signing back in does NOT cancel it

This is the single most expensive misunderstanding on this page.
Logging in again does nothing to a pending deletion. The
clock keeps running exactly as before.

To stop it you must press the button labelled "Cancel
Deletion". Nothing else counts — not signing in, not reading,
not writing.

No email is sent. At any point.

There is no confirmation email, no reminder before the
grace period ends, and no receipt afterwards. If you are
waiting for a message to arrive, you will wait forever. Note the
date yourself if the deadline matters to you.

What happens to your published stories

Published stories stay online. They are re-attributed to
"Deleted user" rather than being pulled down.

That is deliberate. Readers may be halfway through a story, and
readers who came back for the next chapter of something they
love should not find a hole where it used to be. This is the
default that the quick delete in the Danger Zone applies — which
is exactly why the choice lives on
/profile/close-account.

Author records are anonymised, not wiped

Your author record is anonymised rather than hard-deleted.
The rows that have to stay for the platform to keep functioning —
the ones your published stories and comments hang from — remain,
stripped of what identified you.

Some records also have to be kept for legal or accounting
reasons; that is covered in
Erasing your data and in the
privacy policy.

One honest limitation

If you have chatted with the in-app assistant, transcripts of
those conversations are also held by the voice provider we work
with, and we cannot delete those remotely. We would rather
tell you that plainly than imply a clean sweep we cannot
perform. The providers we work with are listed in the
privacy policy.

Short checklist

1. Download your data.
2. Decide: erasure, or deletion.
3. If your published stories matter to you, use
   /profile/close-account.
4. Expect no email — write the date down.
5. Changed your mind? Press "Cancel Deletion" before the
   30 days are up.