Now, on the the problem many are having...
If you want to keep FFXI, but NOT PAY your monthly fees, then you must cancle the CONTENT IDs.
You do NOT want to cancel your account. Your account is FREE, and is the account you use to access POL. You do not even need to keep POL loaded on your computer. You can delete the whole thing, so long as you keep your login and password. (login is 4 letters followed by 4 numbers, password is whatever you set up). Then, 6 months from now, you should be able to reload POL and FFXI, add your existing login and password, and go purchase yourself a new $12.95 content id.
If you do cancel your account, then you are canceling the $50 game you purchased. Im not sure that is the best policy for SE to have... And as I have never done, I would think they should at least slap a giant "WARNING: YOU ARE ABOUT TO PERMANENTLY DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT" and accept button. Perhaps they do, I dunno.
People who are upset because they have to go buy a new game have to do so because they accidentally deleted their POL account, and not the content IDs like they were supposed to. They made the mistake, and are now upset that SE is not willing to fix it. I have sympathy for them, and I would hope SE could find a way to work this out...
I don't know how it is for everyone else, but I have always been pretty clear on the difference between the account and the ids. So somewhere, SE made that clear to me. I always knew that POL was free... In fact, that was one of the things SE was marketing it as. I did NOT know that canceling the POL led to deactivation of my registration codes... but I knew that there was never any reason to cancel the account.
Anyways, thats what this public service message is trying to convey. If you just want a temporary leave, make sure you cancel the correct one.
Edit: I have not recently read page 11, so I dont know what it states. There may be something there about 6 months inactivity deletes you POL account... But I dont think so. I believe that a POL account is permanent, so long as you do not actively delete it. Feel free to reply with a correction if it is stated otherwise.