I want to close my lichess account to create a new one

@QueenRosieMary said in #26:
> You don't have to understand the rules to follow them.

Now that's alarming. Makes me think of all the bad drivers and unhelpful coworkers I've met. It's important to understand the distinction between the letter and the spirit of the law to actually follow the rules, and especially to enforce these rules on others. Which brings us to #7

A Lichess Moderator said in #7:
> Bananas out of context

That whole citation from the ToS comes from the list of examples of Fair Play Violations, also referred to in the ToS as "poor fair play" and "bad sportsmanship". As such, it's not even relevant to the original question. Changing your online persona after 2 years of playing chess is hardly an "excessive" activity, but more importantly, it doesn't concern "sportsmanship", good or bad, in any shape or form.

I guess you could make an argument about "Abuse of the website's infrastructure or resources", but this is rather far-fetched in this case too.

@Chessand2rock said in #1:
> can I close my Lichess account to create a new account?
I restarted my account twice because I wanted to change my user name. From schizosi to SOJB to SimonBirch I can't see any problem with restarting if you wanna change your user name . xxx if I could have changed my user name , that would've been great xxx

@Cedur216
Would you care to elaborate? You have to admit, the thumbs down isn't a meaningful contribution, unless you just want to let me know you don't like me as a person. I don't really mind that, but I'd prefer to be proven wrong in a discussion instead.

@QueenRosieMary said in #26:
>You don't have to understand the rules to follow them.

@LepPierogi said in #31:
> Now that's alarming. Makes me think of all the bad drivers and unhelpful coworkers I've met. It's important to understand the distinction between the letter and the spirit of the law to actually follow the rules, and especially to enforce these rules on others.

Perhaps I phrased this badly, I didn't mean to come across like a dictator who insists we follow the rules blindly (it does read a bit like that sorry)! What I meant was, just because someone doesn't understand the rationale for a particular rule in it's entirety, or just doesn't agree with it, doesn't make it an invalid rule that you can then justify ignoring.

For the record I am both a good driver and co-worker, and understand very well the difference between the spirit and letter of the law. I work in law enforcement in a country where the culture of breaking/bending the rules is ingrained and even celebrated by some members of society, even extending to some members of the profession I help to regulate.

A lot of enforcement is education and encouraging compliance rather than punitive measures, but if people refuse to work with you it can be difficult to help them to help themselves to be compliant.

For the poster who said they thought it was an unenforceable rule, didn't understand it and therefore it didn't need to be followed, this is what I am talking about.

@QueenRosieMary
I certainly didn't mean to attack you personally, sorry if I sounded harsh. It was post #7 that triggered me (combined with the way the Forum section is moderated in general) and you took collateral damage.

I agree with you, though they only talk about multiple accounts. if you close your last account it won't violate it. Plus the name might be good enough to risk a ban (this was meant as a joke I would never violate Lichess's rules)

@griffindabeast said in #23:
> The reason I said this is because the post was about a guy who wanted to delete his account and create a new one because he wanted a different username. If he deletes his account I don’t understand how that would take up server space or be abused.

Important to note is that accounts that are closed on lichess are not deleted. The name is still reserved for scorekeeping purposes (the name is associated with all games played on that account, even after it is closed; it wouldn't make sense to then allow a different user to play under that name).