The Choice To Come Or Go

I just discovered the musical talents of Matt Marfoglia. I got so excited about his music I chose to "demand" he come to Australia through a website called Eventful.

Now to "demand" he come to Australia, I had to join the website, which I did. You can track your demand, create and share groups etc, and get updates and all sorts of offers.

The moment I joined I was flooded with emails offering all sorts of events around the world, and I wasn't too happy about that for that was not the reason I joined. I then decided, I had done my duty in "demanding" the musical artist come to Australia, and from thereon, I was happy to leave this site, and cancel my account.

Well I looked everywhere on the site where I could cancel the account, and this led me to the FAQ, and this is what I found...

How do I cancel/delete my account?

Unfortunately, we don't have the functionality in place to delete or cancel accounts. You can unsubscribe from any emails you're receiving, however.

Currently, the best solution to this problem is to do the following yourself:

1. Log in to Eventful.com and click on your username (upper right corner). This brings you to your profile page.
2. Click on every event, performer, venue, group and calendar which you have created, joined, favorited, friended, or commented on.
3. Delete comments, withdraw demands, events, performers, calendars, leave groups, and unfriend users.
4. Go to your user's preferences and change your email address to something unrecognizable
5. Delete any saved locations inside your preferences as well.
6. Remove any description or interests from your public profile section in the user's preferences.

This lengthy process effectively removes any activity you've done throughout our system. There is still a small chance you may show up in certain situations, and your profile will still be accessable and visible.

If you would like, you can then re-join under a different username. 

I was appalled. They don't have this functionality in place yet? And they present "the best solution to this problem is to do the following yourself"?

I totally disagree with this system.

The best solution is that they create the functionality to cancel and/or delete the account in its entirety.

So I did what I had to do to make this site disappear from ever annoying me again. I was so angry that my choice to leave was taken from me. The homepage on the website does not hint at this non canceling system they have prior to joining. So I'm warning others. If you want to join, it seems a fine site, but be prepared – there's no real way to delete your profile once it's up there.

I believe any community you wish to join whether in the real world or online, should have an opt-out facility and the right at any time to decide it's not for you so you can leave. Otherwise to me it reeks of a cult.