Should posters with (0) posts and inactive posters be deleted?

[Chris]

You see, I went to see the Memberlist today, and just on 'D' there were 20+ people who have not currently to date posted. I can't imagine all the other inactive posters in the other letters.

Itgives a false impression to Telscum, MW etc on how many members we have as they are inactive and not 'real' members asMyADSL will boast they have 3000+ members while the 'real' active, contributing members are <1500.So the credbility of MyADSL will fall because they giving 'false' information.

My Solution: Accounts that have been inactive for 60+ days should be deleted.

[ic]

I think it is less controversial to just count the number of members that have posted in the last xx days.

Added: i.e. active members == those that have posted in the last xx days.

[Obelix]

No

I for one lurk to see what is going on. I have an account so that i can use the "New Posts" button effectively. I dont post just yet, cause im on dialup still and dont feel i have anything meaningfull to contribute.

Of course my post count wil now increase by 1 ;-)

[kilps]

I recon the delete accounts after 60 days is a good idea - but maby a option to 'suspend' ones account

[Perdition]

Instead of using the last post date, the last login date should be used. Perhaps rpm could trim the database of all those people who haven't logged in in the past year. 60 days is far too short a period to determine inactivity.

[arf9999]

whatever.....

If someone has gone to the trouble of registering, why delete them? They may just be lurkers, but so what?

I'm sure that there is an admin tool that tells whether they've viewed the site in the past xx days, and if not then *maybe* there is a reason to remove them. But even then, why bother? It's not like ICASA, Telkom and co really give a ***** how many members there are.

[ic]

I have no idea what I'm talking about, but here goes- I think there are probably two types of member accounts that might be considered dead wood:
A member account that has 0 posts associated with it, and has not been logged-into for however many months you choose to apply (I suggest at least 6 months).
A member account that has any number of posts (>0) associated with it, but has not been logged-into for however many months you choose to apply. I do not feel that any accounts in this category should be deleted bcos it would probably orphan their associated posts & mess-up the db as well as any archives.Unless there is some compelling reason for deleting unused member accounts (like freeing up db space) they should just be left alone.

Like Perdition says, the determination of which members are inactive can be made against the Last Activity timestamp recorded in each member's profile. The only thing left is to decide on a period of time that constitutes inactivity, and that is best left to RPM & the MyADSL team.

Unless MyADSL creates & checks anonymous tracking cookies (AFAIK not done by MyADSL & I prefer it to stay that way) on each guest's visit, there is little point in trying to quantify the number of unique visitors to MyADSL.

I have no problem with Telkom etc forming their own false impressions of how big the MyADSL bite can be, based on MyADSL's shadow on the wall, as opposed to MyADSL lean mean & biting.

[VQuest]

I don't think we have anything to prove to Telkom or anyone else anymore. We are no longer a small minority, no matter how many members we have.

I simply don't see the point in deleting 0 posters. There are a great number of people who don't want to post, but prefer to lurk (for now), for whatever reason. (Exactly like Obelix said above).

[Buccaneer]

What they said - I for one have been lurking for some time, as I am a complete newbie to ADSL and would rather pick up perals of wisdom than dispense ignorance at this stage.

I would, however, be pretty peeved to make my at least daily visit and find I had been deleted. NOT the way to make friends and influence people.

[ic]

So, can we close this thread now and agree to leave things as they are?

[Perdition]

That's why I said delete people who haven't logged in in over a year (and have a 0 post count for that matter). I think after this length of time it's quite evident the person is not coming back and if they ever do they can always just register again. Those people who have 0 posts but log in regularly will be safe. I just think it would be nice to have a more accurate reflection of the active community. At the end of the day the ultimate decision lies with rpm.

[peered95]

What happens if people go away on holiday, and come back to find their acount deleted?

[ic]

Yes mini_inch, lets talk about your holiday, where did you go, did you have a nice time?

[mikkelz_za]

They'd better not go on holiday then!