Deleting Inactive Users

[jakobin]

I have experienced from other forums that members come and go, and while there may be a membership of several thousand, only a hundred or so actually post regularly.

is it possible to implement some sort of system that gets rid of those users that post once, and then never return? if you look at the members list, you can see that there are many of these, and they date back to long ago.

this will ensure a most close knit community on the forum, and reward those who post regularly by being part of a smaller community of loyal members.

[jakobin]

there are over 3000 members who have not posted 1 post.... :eek2:

[Logos]

I don't understand how inactive/non posting members affect a `close knit' feeling in the `community'? People either post or they don't post.

To me the only time it's really noticeable that there are members who only post once or not at all is if you go through the members list, but a cursory glance lets you see if they're active post-wise in the forums or not.

There are many members here who don't post in the forums, they just read the forums, are taking or submitting quizzes or reading the online texts etc. :)

[jakobin]

do u really think that there are over 3000 members that just read the forums,and submit quizzes etc? i think not.

in other forums i have been on, having a smaller member list does contribute to having a closer knit community, even if it is not very noticable.

i do think that this should be considered, but if the mods think not, and the admin think not, then there is little i can do.

[Logos]

Well I'm just stating my opinion, though I'm curious about how deleting them will make it more of a `close knit' community?

I think if you look specifically at General Chat you get a pretty good feel for the `community' here, who is active and who is not.

[jakobin]

i agree that you can feel that there is a close knit community in General Chat and yes, i agree with you on most points.

i think this comes down to my urge to have things tidy. it just irritates me that there are over 3000 members on the members list that havent even posted once. im certain that not all of them are here to read the forums. there will be at least 2900 that are there purely because they signed up one day, and then the next they forgot about it.

it is just about keeping the forum tidy. if a spring clean was to be done of the forum, those members would be deleted, and many threads would be destroyed as well.

[subterranean]

Smeagol dear, you should not to worry about keeping the place tidy. Even Chris (admin) doesn't even worry about these unactive members/thread. And if one day, these increasing unactive members affect the site performance, I'm sure Chris will do something about them.

Personally, I don't really see how these mute members annoy you. But that's the funny thing, even when they're silent they annoy you. ;)




i think this comes down to my urge to have things tidy. it just irritates me that there are over 3000 members on the members list that havent even posted once. im certain that not all of them are here to read the forums. there will be at least 2900 that are there purely because they signed up one day, and then the next they forgot about it.

it is just about keeping the forum tidy. if a spring clean was to be done of the forum, those members would be deleted, and many threads would be destroyed as well.

[Psycheinaboat]

Perhaps these members who do not post still come to lurk about and read. Reading is good. :)

[subterranean]

Yes, and when they feel like posting they'd notice that they're not registered anymore and they have to re-register.

[Admin]

It costs nothing to keep an inactive member in the database, and there is always the chance that they will become active at a later date. Deleting them would be counter-intuitive to the long term growth of the forum.

[jakobin]

ok it just annoys me to see afew lone posters, and thousands of non-posters. but yeh, there is little i can do or say so ill agree with you as i have no other choice. (doublethink even...)

[~Maude~]

I'm one of the users that doesn't post often but I check in everyday and read many posts. I think some people like to register so that they may post on topics when they want but they may not feel comfortable posting on a regular basis.

[rachel]

Dear Smeagol,
I feel about STICKY how you feel about those posters. All those tricksie posters. I for my part love going into the members section and looking them all up, well alright I am far from having finished my quest but I do my best. And I pm some of them and encourage them to contribute. They are all so fascinating, the avatars and and names and each is a biography if you will. And just like Mono and me they might leave for a little or long while and yet come back from time to time as a guest and feast on all the wonderful things written but can't contribute for reasons of their own.
Now STICKY on the other hand - I WANT TO STRANGLE THAT DETESTABLE UGLY DISGUSTING WORD. it mucks up our beautiful forum, it makes me want to SCREAM
er um forgive that lapse.
I think you must be a person of order and a bit of a perfectionist- is that true Jacobin?

[Erna]

I'm also not a very regular poster, partly of the effort it takes to write English (getting better, when you have to write you Msc thesis in English), partly because I'm a crew member of another forum, so that also takes time.
I like to drop by, find good book suggestions, but I'm not very experienced in classics, so I won't post about difficult question (being an engineer, not an language student, so only reading for fun and relaxing).
So I agree with most posters here, some people just drop by, find nice book suggestions and some deeper meanings about books, and then go on reading the books mentioned. :)

[Sindhu]

I posted today after nearly 8 months of being away before which I was certainly quite active. But there were lots of personal plus job related stuff going on which didn't leave me any time at all for my usual net postings in this and other forums. But While surfing, I found a request for a transcript which I had and posted a reply to that and since I was here, browsed a bit and came upon this thread. Somtimes, the not posting might be due to reasons beyond one's control, and I'd hate it if I suddenly found I had to reregister all over again!

[RobinHood3000]

Cool--Erna, meet Rubber Ducky!