Why?............

 

Why?............

What if there is a user name I want but taken by someone who has only been on once in the pas 5 years?

 

It depends if you want the "members" stat to show the actual number of members vs an artificial inflated number of people who just registered once so they could see something (because they had no choice) and never came back.

In direct marketing, mail order, etc it's very important to cull dead names, ie people who are not real customers but only showed an interest once and were never seen again. It allows more accurate stats, and allows resources better tailored to real customers and not dead ends. I'm not sure how much of that applies here but it bears thinking about.

Also many of the dead names will be people who regsitered again and might be real members but under a different name now, so their old registrations are now dead and invalid.

 

@ THE RB ,what if a long time member reads all your fine print,does that make a

difference. The high road or the high horse.

 

I don't think the admins have any reason to wipe the inactive accounts, other than a really bad OCD fit or a crisis of honesty.

AAC doesn't have any resources to divide onto its members to begin with.

As for the name availability, I don't think that's enough of a reason.

 

If Dave wanted to do internet advertising, the higher membership number would sound more attractive.

The drive-by posters, those 1 and done, are here for answers only. Other who hang further like the format and you can see some develop into "tutors". This is the ideal expectation for this forum.

It certainly wouldn't gain popularity without the "old timers" who graciously contributed their time and finally, the best team of moderators to keep things rolling without too many urinating contests.

Without a doubt, the number 1 electronics forum ranking is well deserved and earned by the membership.

 

I don't think the admins have any reason to wipe the inactive accounts, other than a really bad OCD fit or a crisis of honesty.

AAC doesn't have any resources to divide onto its members to begin with.

As for the name availability, I don't think that's enough of a reason.

Big talk for a man who got Georacer! Think about the poor guy who has to use Metroracecar6532b instead!

 

In his case, I think "Metroracecar6532a" would be open too. No need to whine about it.

 

Thats the point. May be he wants MetroRacer. and not Metroracecar6745b. Makes no difference to me I like my handle. But I can see where some people who are here a lot must be bothered their normal members but their normal handles been taken by some guy who wanted a picture of loosewire swimming in the ocean.

 

Ok. Can you propose a system to detect inactive accounts and evaluate their "worth", so that their usernames can be safely released?

 

Ok. Can you propose a system to detect inactive accounts and evaluate their "worth", so that their usernames can be safely released?

That's why I suggested sending out an email notification after x amount of time asking the user if he or she would be interested in remaining part of the forum or not. When you first create an account, it could be for a "trial period" almost, so that the user can have his/her questions answered. When the time period ends, they'll get an automatic email asking "would you like to extend your membership", or something like that, with a link that they can click and it keeps their account active. Perhaps after the first "trial period" of a week or two, an email could go out every 6-12 months asking if you'd like to stay. That way, it is not the moderators or other members who decide who stays and who leaves, but each member decides for himself/herself.

That's my $0.02

 

Okay, that's a complete proposition.

On the other hand, that doesn't happen anywhere on the internet, as far as I know. And I don't really like it. It enforces a commitment towards its members which I don't find very hospitable.

At any rate, as I said before, it's not my decision to take.

 

That's why I suggested sending out an email notification after x amount of time asking the user if he or she would be interested in remaining part of the forum or not. When you first create an account, it could be for a "trial period" almost, so that the user can have his/her questions answered. When the time period ends, they'll get an automatic email asking "would you like to extend your membership", or something like that, with a link that they can click and it keeps their account active. Perhaps after the first "trial period" of a week or two, an email could go out every 6-12 months asking if you'd like to stay. That way, it is not the moderators or other members who decide who stays and who leaves, but each member decides for himself/herself.

That's my $0.02

That would be considered "spam" from my viewpoint, as the email would go out every 6 months after somebody checks in, so people that check in once every 7 months would get an email every 7 months as well. I know that is a special case, but I've been annoyed by forums that send messages out like that after 1 month.

It would be better, for example, if you decided you wanted the "DerStorm" name, to inquire to see if it is available, and if not, if the prior owner was a single post from 6 years ago, then admin, if he likes you, could manually remove the old account and give you the new name. In cases of more frequently used usernames, those that stick around would end up with what they preferred, as few stay around that long. Just as many will stay with the same username for continuity.

That said, with this being an ad free forum, and a donation free forum, either way is adding a burden to an already busy admin.

 

There is nothing preventing anyone from viewing the membership to see what the numbers are.

I agree the emailing would be considered spam. I also know of a forum that culls the membership if someone hadn't posted in a long time.

You have active members here.
You have casual members here.
You have lurking members here.
You have one and done members here.
You have members that lose interest here.

This is no different than any other forum.

Some of those catagories I described are self-defined. Others, like casual poster and active poster, need definition.

There is a special class of members, that I call, hyperactive. Moderators are not normally hyperactive members by post numbers because of their position which adds to the post count when they are executing their moderator duties.

Hyperactive is a special class. It would take multiple postings daily to earn that classification.

All the information is available to the membership. You have their name, join date, last visit date, and number of posts. You can gleen whatever plan you propose from that information.

The burning quesiton is, when does a member attain a "lost interest" clasiffication. Personally I would think about a year, but the one exception I can think of to that is our very own BeenThere. He did not leave us by choice, but anyone looking at the hard data could conclude he attained the "lost interest" status and moved on. BeenThere is probably moderating in a far better place these days. That is one name I would not put on the chopping block.

 

Just for a quick view of the membership here ...

There are 30 members per page

There are 276 and one half pages of members who posted within the last year

There are 1071 pages of members

Sorting on posts has some historic hyperposters who haven't posted in a year.

There are 1071-672 (plus a 9 members from page 671) pages of posters with one post with last visited dates up to today.

Emailing 12000 notifications is spam and would be consided such by the many robots that monitor email activity.

Good luck to anyone who want's to further the analysis.

 

Don't forget that members with no posts don't show up in the members list.

 

Thanks for those posts, Joe. You raise some valid points, and I never saw it that way before....

 

I would auto-cull anyone who has NEVER posted, and who has not logged on in over a year.

Then auto-cull anyone with a few posts <100 who has not logged on in over two years.

Anyone who has posted more than a 100 posts is someone who actually contributes, not someone who just asked for a help a couple of times and then never came back, so they don't get auto-culled.

It could be done in software with no email notification needed and no work by moderators.

 

While I agree anyone who has more than 100 posts contribute to the forum, there are those with less than 100 posts who lurk and, I'm going out on a limb here, learn from reading and/or experimenting with what they read. 100 posts and haven't been here in two years is indicative of not returning, with the obvious absences due to official orders ... in any military organization in the world. Every user needs to be examined individually, so an auto-cull is not too effective.

I can tell you right now, if you force people to post, they will meet the minimum postings and you will never see them contribute. In fact, they might make the minimum postings and then leave the site only to be culled at a much later date. Be careful with that type of decision. Last night there was one person who had single digit posts and visited the site; and met your criteria for deletion.

It's tough to get people to post as it is and any additional requirements imposed will drive them away. In utopia, everyone would contribute, but, this is not utopia.

Marketing 101 wants you to know your customers. Do we really know the composition of our userbase? I have a fair idea. People who visited three months ago have this breakdown ... 53 percent are likely to never return. 2 percent have 100 posts and 47 percent average over 1 post every 100 days. I don't think forced posting is beneficial to the health of a forum. I know it didn't at another forum I frequent,

For the record, I've been posting on forums for over 15 years and the above is my personal opinon based on emperical data observed over that period on various forums. You will find my name on the wayback machine posting at "fredsplace.org" in point/counterpoint.

 

Ok. Can you propose a system to detect inactive accounts and evaluate their "worth", so that their usernames can be safely released?

3 email warnings to log in within 2 months. 3rd one sent is a final warning. If still no log ins after 3 emails and 2 months of time I think its safe to wipe their membership and just let em create a new one when they need that diagram once a year.