3 ms·
Data for a million accounts takes up about as much space as maybe a single long YouTube video. I mean, you can move inactive accounts to a separate table or so
by TillE 3y ago
Data for a million accounts takes up about as much space as maybe a single long YouTube video.
I mean, you can move inactive accounts to a separate table or something if you really want a small performance optimization. Delete them after 20 years. This is a very slow, very long-term problem.
- bombcar 3y agoThe cost to maintain the database is actually a small part of it; a large question is reducing the "surface area" against attacks as best you can. Perhaps for steam this doesn't matter, but forums, etc have issues with old unused accounts being hacked and used for spam, etc.
- lamontcg 3y agoYou could lock the account and require a higher standard of proof of identity to recover it (e.g. you prove who you are and steam runs a credit report on you and validates your prior phone numbers and addresses against authorization and billing information that they have for the account--that would increase the barrier to require identity theft which is unlikely to be used just to take over steam accounts and spam).
- scrollaway 3y agoThis isn’t really an engineering issue. It’s a legal and financial issue.