( search forums )
Inactive Members
Soldat Forums - Misc - Forum News and Support
Kazuki
July 20, 2004, 2:41 am
It's interesting that I only got one search result on this issue, and it was the topic about the forums having 500,000 page view, which was posted more than a year ago, and had nothing to do with inactive members. Anyway, the issue that I'm posting about is...

quote:At the bottom of the All Forums page
4171 of 5708 Members have made 70582 posts in 31 forums


Now tell me seriously, do you guys see 4,000 members posting nowadays? Exactly 1,537 members haven't even posted once! That's more than our active members today! That is a very, very sad fact. Wasn't there some kind of inactivity feature a while back that would kick those who hadn't logged in/visited the forums for over 55 days? I think that's not here anymore. I think you should put it back into play, but in addition, add some kind of form or something similar that people can fill out if they're going on vacation, and the maximum time they can be excused using that form would be 3 months. I say 3 months because no one really goes on vacation for over 2 months. Maybe during summer vacation, but even summer vacation doesn't last for 3 months anymore. I think this is plenty reasonable, and it would give back a ton of space to the forums.

n00bface
July 20, 2004, 2:51 am
people still visit the forums to read, not to post! maybe login inactivity..i don't see what's wrong though..

koil
July 20, 2004, 2:57 am
its a good idea, i agree, but seriously.. whats wrong with having inactive people?
is it taking up space? prolly.
is it taking up TOO MUCH space? i doubt.

if they registerd before, they will register again, thus making it a loop. circle of life. humanity at her peak. long live king salomon (the fish).

Kazuki
July 20, 2004, 3:01 am
Well, if you think about it... 4,000 people taking up space... that's a lot of space. Also, if they have been inactive for so long, what's the chance that they will ever visit again? I'm not saying that we should delete all the inactive members, I'm saying that we should activate the 55-Day rule again, and see how things go with the suggested form. The forums will 'clear up.' Or at least, that's what I think. Seems pretty logical to me.

Edit: To make it more clear, I think that the reason the 55 days on inactivity feature was removed was because it caused common problems, like people going on vacation and having to worry about their account. This is why I'm thinking a Protection of Accounts type feature would do nicely. Think of it as leaving your pet at a pet-sitting service, and you know they're safe, so you don't have to worry about it.

FliesLikeABrick
July 20, 2004, 3:13 am
but these 4000 people have made past posts (For the most part they have) and if someone searches and finds a topic that is useful, and may want to contact that person, then their profiles wont be reachable for contact, and that is all assuming that their posts remain viewable. The whole point of a forum is to discuss current topics, and be able to search back for older information, and be able to contact those older (even if inactive) members.
-Brick

n00bface
July 20, 2004, 3:46 am
FliesLikeABrick said what i was just about to post. agreed wif him.

Kazuki
July 20, 2004, 4:03 am
Eh, yeah, I guess so. I dunno, I just don't see all that much importance in it. Still, you have a good point.

Aquarius
July 20, 2004, 8:35 am
Some vets come back after many months.

Deleted User
July 20, 2004, 11:05 am
And what if you leave. Then your account gets deleted and after you come back few months later... You realise some idiot is pooping around the forums with your nick?

DNA.styx
July 20, 2004, 11:45 am
Anyone who registers, does not post and then does not visit the forum for more than 90 days will have their account deleted (I email then first), over 10,000 members have had that happen to them.

How do I know this? Go to the top of the forum to where it says 'Newest Member', click on their name, then look at the 'id=' bit of the querystring in the url. That shows you the total number of accounts that have been registered since the forum started in Sept '02 is 15,961.

It's worth remembering that for almost a year this forum was in private mode (you had to register an account to even read it) so a lot of of folks registered accounts, fixed their access violation problem, and never came back

Kazuki
July 20, 2004, 12:30 pm
Oh, I see. I thought that the feature was gone, rather than altered. In that case, this is worthless.