My friends had a trail name a while back (later 2011?), which I now cannot find. We are going hiking together tomorrow, and she is interested to box again. The trail name has been inactive for a while, yet I have also seen some trail names that say that they have not logged in in even longer than that. Is there a reason that a trail name would be gone? Thank you.

First thought, did friend ever sign up on AQ?

First thought, did friend ever sign up on AQ?

Yes. I actually helped them make an account.

My friends had a trail name a while back (later 2011?), which I now cannot find.

Did your friend log any boxes online? Perhaps names without logs get deleted sooner.

Did the person change their trailname at any point? The old one may become unsearchable after a trailname change.

I vaguely remember a discussion thread about someone wanting to take a username that was already taken but had been inactive for a long time.

I do know that if a trailname hasn't logged in for a LONG time and the GT gets a request for that name, he will sometimes grant it. My buddy, Wendy, had wanted just the trailname Wendy forever and it was taken (she had to go by Wendy In The East Bay). After a while, GT offered it to her since the original hadn't logged in forever......

Accounts that haven't been logged into for more than a year but have no more than 1 or 2 finds on them do get deleted pretty regularly. It frees up trailnames for other people who might use them, and I figure if someone does eventually come back, it's pretty easy to record the 1 or 2 finds that had been deleted.

-- Ryan

That would explain why I could never find my old account.
I signed up 11 years ago but then we moved to an area and we had dial up internet. I stopped using AQ and only used LBNA cause it would load faster. Then we moved again and I went back to AQ and could not find me. I've always been disappointed that my anniversary date does not match up.
RC

Here's another one. Can you delete an alias you don't need? I tried before, but I couldn't figure out how. I needed it for a sneaky project and haven't needed it since.

Sigh. No hope for the Trail Name I would love to have. They haven't logged on since 2012, but have 11 plants and 92 finds. Oh well...

Can you delete an alias you don't need?

You can't delete an alias, but you can spin it off into a separate account so you don't have to look at it on your own account anymore. If the alias doesn't have any plants or more than a couple of finds, it'll get deleted automatically. Eventually. =)

-- Ryan

Will aliases get deleted if they don't have any plants or finds? I'm hoping not.

Will aliases get deleted if they don't have any plants or finds? I'm hoping not.

Not if it's attached to an active account. You'd have to spin it off and let it languish to (maybe) get it deleted.

-- Ryan

Thank you. Possibly they did not have a lot of finds. No worries. A new account can be made, but I figured that I would ask before going that route.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions and feedback. :-)

Thanks! I think I will do that.