Improvements to the ghost user concept
The ghost user was a big step forward in terms of preserving 'deleted' user's content. I'd like to propose we take this a step further to improve usability and perception. Having a single ghost user has proven to be confusing for users - I've seen customer support requests and questions in IRC about 'what is this ghost user and why is it suddenly showing up?', 'does it use a license?', 'how can I get rid of it?'. The other problem with the ghost user is that the content doesn't display who created that content originally. It's truly a ghost
Instead of having a single ghost user, I propose we add a 'deleted_at' timestamp and/or a simple flag to denote a deleted user. This is a concept that many other webapps use. This enables the UI to still show who the original author/owner was but also shows that they're no longer active. Something like "Drew Blessing (deleted)" or "Drew Blessing (inactive)" or simply greyed out. Then it's completely obvious what this user is and who created the content.
@mydigitalself Thoughts?