Weeding Out Inactive Users?

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good idea Sylus

You might want to consider the inactive users as it users last seen here. Not when they last posted. Because with any forum community, you will get your far share of lurkers (accounts that watch, but rarely post).

The other thing to consider is what to do we do with Banned Users Name as they are another type of inactive user.
Like the last thing we need is the miss conception of a new user taking using a same user name of some one be previously banned.
Eg. Lets say we get some one else signing on with the name Powerslave or Roo.
Like this will cause a lot of confusion with other users there.
Not to mension the banned users just waiting it out and claiming back their old user name.

And finally, now that we have these inactive users getting deleted. What happens to their posts. And what happens to them when some one else decided to create an account with that same user name.

This would be easy for the number of no post wonders that sign up here. But once one these users makes a even one post, then that is where a problems can start.

Sorry to bring these points up, but I work this account and point of sales software and just deleting some thing out of a datebase can not be as simple as it sounds. As it normally leaves a hole.

but those are the limiting factors...

but I think the forums does have something built in like this... just have to activate it

also with Stickies applying to the necroposts (like in Computer Hardware Zone), I think they should be the exception to the autolock rule)
 
My original idea isn't to delete from last post date but from last time they logged in, accounts have a feature that tells when they last signed on so even lurkers wouldn't have a problem.
Yeah. because lurkers tend to get offended when they get email from a forum for inactivity.

I got quite a few RL freinds that are lurkers, or that they will only post when they feel that it's important for them to do so. And they hate it when their account get's deleted for "inactivity"

Now for the next question of oh long before it's considered inactive?
Personally I would be going for 12 months to 2 years of no post and no activity.
 
i often only lurk
pure viewers should be treated just the same as people who have 1k post counts.

I know I don't like any form of elitism...so whatever is done, I hope that is kept in mind.

Power to the people! not to a bunch of lonely jerks who want to feel superior, hehe. (not saying anyone is lonely in particular)
 
Even lurkers show activity, but only if they are logged in.

I'm interested to hear DMo's take on this.
 
Haven't been here in a while...

I agree this would be a good idea, there is a username I would like but it is taken by an inactive , no post user.
The post's made should remain, for SE's. Again this all depends if VBull supports it, and when everything else get's fixed :)

~ Tkey
 
This was one of those threads that I somehow missed....anyway...

Weeding out inactive users is something that is done periodically, but hasn't been done in a while due to the upgrading and other work on the forums.

...is there a way to delete users who have been inactive for more than a year?
Yes, there is a way to do that. There is not a way to know if someone has a legitimate reason for not accessing the forums. Even if someone is on a ship at sea, in college, or whatever, they can at least access the forum within a year, or even 6 months.

First step would user is absent for X amount of days, account now dormant and requires the person to come onto TF and revalidate that account.

Second step would be a lockdown with a warning of impending deletion after X amount of days.

Third step would be an email alert of deletion in 72 hours or less followed by immediate deletion after that time is up.
Though I kinda' like the step process that you're talking about, it has too many steps. The process would be to send out a newsletter to all members talking about the forums. In that newsletter would be an announcement that all those people that have not logged into Tech-Forums in "x" amount of time would soon have their accounts deleted. After another month, then the accounts would be deleted.

Great idea. I have thought about something similar. One forum I go to has a six month wait... after that the account is deleted automatically.
I think that 6 months is too short of a time period. It will probably be more like a year.

Along the same lines, I wonder if there is a way to automatically lock a thread after so long, say six months? That would eliminate a lot of necroposting, and after six months the tech would have moved along enough to justify a new thread.
We used to have a hack that did that. It wasn't supported with the new upgrade and I'll be looking for a plug in that does the same thing. I'm fairly sure there is one available now and I'll be adding that (it needs to be put on my to-do list again....add that to the to-do list Trotter!)

You might want to consider the inactive users as it users last seen here. Not when they last posted. Because with any forum community, you will get your far share of lurkers (accounts that watch, but rarely post).
Exactly right, Harper. It won't be base on last post, but based on last activity.

The other thing to consider is what to do we do with Banned Users Name as they are another type of inactive user.
Like the last thing we need is the miss conception of a new user taking using a same user name of some one be previously banned.
True. Banned users will never be deleted for the simple fact that they were banned and we don't want them back. Good point.

And finally, now that we have these inactive users getting deleted. What happens to their posts. And what happens to them when some one else decided to create an account with that same user name.
The posts of deleted accounts are marked as guests and do NOT retain the username of the poster. Generally speaking, all these posts would be in old threads that will get locked. However, some may be in continuing threads, like the potentially longest thread in history which is another story.

Sorry to bring these points up, but I work this account and point of sales software and just deleting some thing out of a datebase can not be as simple as it sounds. As it normally leaves a hole.
Glad you brought this up because it gave us items to think about and answer.

Zero posts with no online activity wouldn't be a loss.
Deleting an account with no posts will have little bearing on the database. It will only need a re-count for several things, like existing members, activity, etc. Those are the easy ones to take care of and when I run upon one that has zero posts and zero activity for over a year, I just automatically delete it.

Yeah. because lurkers tend to get offended when they get email from a forum for inactivity.
That's the reason that I said there were too many steps above. Even though we might consider someone a lurker (which I am on a security forum because I mainly read there), we don't want to insist that people always have to post. It is nice that members post and we know they're active, but it's not a requirement of using this forum. And sending out an email to lurkers, well, I get those and it's kinda' like people aren't wanted unless they post. For a forum to be a valid resource of information, that information needs to be available to everyone. Also, we will send out newsletters periodically (it's been a long time since we have) and this will be the time to remind them to access the forum. There are also those that have elected to NOT receive emails or PMs from the forum and those will just have to find out in the announcements forum or when their account is deleted.

Now for the next question of oh long before it's considered inactive? Personally I would be going for 12 months to 2 years of no post and no activity.
I'm in agreement that 12 months will probably be the minimum.

Good discussion.

Dave :D
 
I was thinking 1 year would be perfect.

As for not knowing if they have a legitimate reason, well that's true but ones who do could PM a mod, super mod etc and they could fwd to the person who could add them to a certain list making them exempt.

I was hoping this would be an automated thing and that it'd look at either the last time a user logged in or the last time their IP connected to the server. After a year of no logging in or IP detection they'd be deleted. Of course problems with IP detection would be wide, a user could move or get a new ISP and be lurking on it.

I never thought anyone should be deleted for not posting, but for not logging in, just not showing up for a year or more pretty much screams abandonment.

If this is possible:

9 months absence puts a user in a list of who's marked for deletion and sends out an email regarding the matter. After that the wait time for said deletion is 3 months and after that consider the user null and void. 3 months is more than enough time for a person to respond to an email. Logging in would remove them from the 'to be deleted' list.

Exempt Status would be a manual thing preferably issued by an admin or super-mod, wouldn't be anything special but it'd keep people who CAN'T be on the forums from coming home to a deleted user account.
 
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