Member pruning policy
 

I'm trying to keep the member database here on DannyStewart.com as clean and current as possible. To that end, I'm wondering what members think the policy should be about the pruning (or removing) of old member accounts.

In the poll above, please vote for all the options you are in favor of. Thanks!

EDIT: Of course, if you have any questions about the options, please try and ask before you vote.

I think that members who join and don't do anything should be pruned, however, I think that you should not prune members after X amount of days of posting or visiting, as some members come back (i.e. Roland .T. Blackviser)

I think you should ban everyone and just talk to yourself, Danny.

I like your idea, RV. :P

I agree with you Ronn, I want to put in a system where a member who joins but does not post within 48 hours of joining will be automatically deleted. We have a ton of people who just come on here and then never do anything.

No it should be more that 48 hours, I'd say 2 weeks, because some members join but then don't make their first post until a few weeks in, like I did. People who don't Visit within lets say one week should be deleted, and castrated, and hanged, and have acid thrown in their faces, and then poked with a cattle prod every 15 minutes. Thrashed regularly, beaten, give them food, but put some spit in it, maybe a little bit of urine in it, and some drugs so they sleep a lot of the time so you can wake them up with the cattle prod. And then crucify them. Firm but fair wouldn't you say?

I want it to be 48 hours. If they're serious, that will teach them that they need to post, and they can always re-register with the same name and details.

I've edited my post and put some more details in Danny.

LOL. I'll take your recommendations under advisement.

I agree with you, Danny. It shouldn't take someone any more than 48 hours to submit their first post. After all, that's why people join - to post! ;)

I've had literally dozens of members come on, use the site immediately after registering, then disappear. I have to clean them out, so I definitely think giving them 48 hours just to post and say hello is more than reasonable. Glad you agree!

I'm with Ronnie, although the amount of time is debatable. This is the internet, not real life. People sign up, go to post, have to run off and do something, come back, forgot what they were going to post, switch off, and then after a few days of being too busy to post here, they'll remember that they signed up here and come back.

If they come back and then see that they "didn't sign up" they'll likely assume that either they're not wanted here, or they'll think that they didn't sign up and figure that they must have thought that "it wasn't worth it" originally and move on.

You seem to be pretty adamant that you're going for the 48 hours of no activity after signing up before their accounts are to be deleted. If that’s the case, I’m not entirely certain of the point of this poll…

Either way in my opinion, 48 hours is far too short. I’d suggest something closer to a week.

You certainly shouldn’t go for the top two options (delete after [x] days of not posting/visiting). They are huge no-no’s in my opinion. People get sick or have accidents. People go on holiday. People have real life matters to attend to.

To be frank, every forum has members that signed up and didn’t post. It’s certainly never been a concern to me, but that's just me and my "If it ain't broke, don't bloody well bother wasting your time trying to fix it" outlook. :P

That sounds reasonable, Jez. I'll consider making it closer to a week.

I've just noticed this...

Wow. Look at how many people need to be deleted.

Exactly. See what I mean? And this is after I just went through all the members and deleted almost 15 of them!

I think we should delete those who have registered and then not visited after 48 hours, but that if they visit but dont post it should be extended to 2 weeks. As for those who go inactive, n00bs who have been here less than 6 months that don't post for a month should be deleted, and those who've been here more than 6 months, then that should be handled case by case. Those who've been here a year should be kept indefinately.

I abstain from the poll because none of the options fit into my views.

I know i'm not exactly a senior member but I think there should be some sort of warning where if people don't obey the rules they will be warned and after a number of warnings suspende from the sithe or deleted altogether.

Sam, such a warning system for those cases already exists. It's called the infraction system. This is a little different... we're looking at removing members who simply don't post or aren't here.

Ross, your system sounds good, but it's a little complicated, and frankly I'm looking for an automated way of handling it. That's why I want one or two general rules that are put in place that the board can handle deleting on its own.

Sorry as I said i'm quite new.

That's no problem -- don't worry about it.