There must be many reasons people delete their accounts. I did it then missed this place and got a new one a few days later. Here is why. I was mentally ill and unfairly blaming my troubles on someone else (not at PC, someone IRL)!! When someone posts, I frequently go to their profile and read their other posts in order to get to know them. Since I realized that some of my posts were not painting a fair picture of what was going on I wanted to start over. I think that another reason people leave is that their feelings get hurt. Have you noticed that most of the past current events posts have disappeared? I think Doc John may have done this because some people's feelings were getting hurt during heated political discussions. There are people whose accounts have been deleted purely because of politics (I am sad that this has happened and can think of a specific case <won't cite the username because that would be wrong to do here> where what I loved about the person who is gone the most was their nonpolitical advice).

So this is a longwinded way of saying that I it's OK to use someone's username in a reply. I bet a kind reply is appreciated by people who delete their accounts even if it has their username. What we have to guard against most is being judgemental when people have different opinions and views than we do. People come here because they feel bad about things and need to express them and find support. Some of us use it as a place to confess some of the things that we are most ashamed of and, as a result, we might be ashamed of the things we post. It is important to remember that the wonderful administrators will delete some of your posts if you ask them to. This post is all over the place but Skeezyks, you have some of the kindest replies ever to people posting on PC. Thanks for always thinking about how your words effect others.