Have you been looking for a button in your posts that will delete the post? Or what about a link in settings menu to delete or deactivate your account? Unfortunately, these buttons do not exist on Steemit, and it is, at this point, impossible to delete an account or a post from the Steemit platform.
Creating a New Account
There are those who will say that you should never create a new account, and to keep the one you are stuck with. But for some people, that is not an option. The main reason for an honest account change is that you do not like your user name. Not being able to change your username on a blockchain really sucks, for those of us who have experienced this.Like hard forks are a workaround to blockchain code, a similar philosophy can be used with accounts. A hard fork is done usually to correct a wrong (with explanation why), in full view and transparency of the community, and with consensus of the community. And, lastly, to complete the fork.To fork your account, the philosophy might look like:
- Correct a wrong and explain why - Your account name was chosen in the excitement of starting an account and no longer reflects what you intended to write. You need a new one.
- In full view/transparency - Create a post explaining your account change, with links going back to your original account. (This is important because people will search and find out anyways, easy to do in blockchains).
Deleting Posts
If you are interested in deleting a post, the options are limited. Once again, you cannot have the instant gratification of deleting the post from the blockchain on the backend. But you can edit the website frontend page to not have the original text.A growing trend is to type "Deleted" in the title of the post and replacing the original text of the post body with "Deleted." This removes the original wording from public viewing. Beware if you have unpaid rewards, though, as any downvotes will begin cleaning the post out. Be sure to save your original post text, in the event you want to put it back! The only caveat is that you have only the first 12 hours to edit your post. Once it pays out, it cannot be edited or "deleted"!