MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
It's the hidden from non-admins part that is a problem. If you did any significant editing, the discussions on your talk page could be of interest to other editors even after you leave. It could be tagged as belonging to a left user, it can be protected from trolls, and it might even be blankable, but it cannot be deleted.
In general, I do not agree with this approach. Allowing people to vanish, including deleting their user and user_talk pages, is often the best way to part company with dignity. "Could be of interest" should not be the standard, I think, but rather "Is indispensable to the functioning of the encyclopedia."
There can be exceptions, of course. If a user repeatedly joins and deletes (perhaps sockpuppeting), causing a lot of disruptive demands to delete their userpage, we could just ignore it if that seemed like the best way to deal with it.
But in general, I see no reason to have a general policy of keeping talk pages around that make someone who would like to leave us unhappy.