Inactive Accounts - Delete or not to Delete?

[LILITH]

Feb 17, 2008 9:08:44 GMT -8 kelendria said:

I hate being told on forums that I must be active from the get go &that if I don't login within a certain amount of time then I get deleted.
To me that seems like my account wasn't that important & it doesn't bother the admin to begin with.
I've also been on forums where I'm told if I haven't been active (but have posted some time ago as appose to never having posted at all) that my account will also be deleted.
I haven't got time to keep visiting forums just to make sure my account is active (having said that I don't just join every forum for the sake of having an account)
Some people join forums & never post, or haven't been on for a while due to personal reasons, change of emails etc.
So on the flip side it isn't just about admins deleting accounts it's how the member feels about being told they have to be active or else.
A certain amount of time should pass before perhaps even considering deleting inactive members

Eh. I felt that way before I admined a forum. I think as long as a member shows interest in the forum then the account should remain. I hold activity checks once a month. I feel like you should be able to login and post in the activity check thread without much of a fuss. If the issue arose that someone was posting only in the activity check and nowhere else for.. some weird reason, then I would delete the account. Of course, I would PM them and warn them that their account may be deleted soon if they did not attempt to show activity on the forums. 

Bottom line, if you're joining forums chances are you are on the internet more than once a month. Why join a forum if you're not going to be active on it?




Moving on, I actually took a hiatus on my own forum for a while and I am currently revamping it a bit here and there. While I was away the mods took over and never once posted activity checks and I was away for two months. When I came back and saw that we were nearly at 100 member count with only maybe 11 accounts logging in a day I was a little peeved. My other staffers did not understand why I had to have activity checks and even stated they felt the higher number was a good thing. A few members even expressed a dislike for them. I agree with a lot of you guys on here. A high member count isn't a good thing, especially when you barely have a quarter of registered members logging in daily.


And yes. I quoted something from 4 years ago. BD .... Holy crap. No, it was from 5 years ago. It's 2013. ;----;

[AshFR]

Just throwing my 2 cent, I guess you are suppose to delete them or do something, not going into detail we are a branch off of 4 different websites and we have only a few members, that's why we don't delete them even though they're active in run's in sprouts I guess. Sometimes the site tend's to die off, and sometimes it's actually active like it is now due to V.5, the members will surely post some time,there's no need to delete them they come often and then hit the role again.But our forum's a special case so...

Otherwise I say maybe they have to much on they're hand, you can simply tag them with "Inactive" group(hidden or not)[1] and keep going so if they come back they are welcomed in. There is no need to delete them, not because of member count, if member count get's to high I will have to delete the inactive accounts due to personal preferences(Don't like a large forum,will do anything to keep it shorter, and that doesn't disrupt members.) This is a difficult question for me, but just in case they come back we will keep them just put them under maintenance with staff notes[2] or something and you're good to go.
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Note
[1] V.5 "Group" feature.
[2] You can add staff notes to members, they can't read them if they're inactive but you can put it there for reference.

I can expand on this but I'll have to edit my post first.



Oh V.5, my entire tiresome 13 minute post has went down the drain.

[nukestorm]

I don't actually delete accounts, but I feel that the ones that may join and have 0 posts when they joined like 4 months ago should get deleted or have their accounts disabled.

[Snakeair]

Some people may join the forum take a look around and decided that they not interested so they never post a introductions thread and gone for ever. Try putting in your forum general rules that if you join and do not post a certain amount of posts within a certain time frame, there user account will be deleted. (Example, 3 months is long enough time for member to decided if he or she wants to contribute to the community at least once)

I've joined forums before but then decided that I didn't think it would be a place where I would fit in so I never posted and never came back.

[Nori]

In those situations I would hope that the member would delete their own account so then I don't bother them months later about having not done anything. Dun like being a bother D:

[joellesontrigo]

I don't think you should've deleted those inactive accounts. O.o I think it's best to just see if your members come back to your site for about a year at best or just have a going away board in your forum to indicate if that certain user is leaving on short notice or on leave so that you don't accidentally delete an active member that is inactive for a short while and suddenly comes online the next week or day.

[Evan Curry]

I would not delete it. They could be just busy with school or work, and might try to find some active time and would like to come back to your forum another day down the road. They will have that account there for that time, and if theirs get deleted, then it could end up having an unhappy ex-member, so it'd be much easier and less concern to leave the inactive account on your forum.

[* protego admin!]

I like my numbers to reflect accurately, so I definitely am on board with the delete inactive accounts!
There is so many forums with 300 members and 25 who are actually active, makes it seem inactive to me at least.
Whereas a site with 50 members registered and 40 who log in daily seems much more active!

[AshFR]

Feb 2, 2013 22:08:37 GMT -8 AshFR said:

Just throwing my 2 cent, I guess you are suppose to delete them or do something, not going into detail we are a branch off of 4 different websites and we have only a few members, that's why we don't delete them even though they're active in run's in sprouts I guess. Sometimes the site tend's to die off, and sometimes it's actually active like it is now due to V.5, the members will surely post some time,there's no need to delete them they come often and then hit the role again.But our forum's a special case so...

Otherwise I say maybe they have to much on they're hand, you can simply tag them with "Inactive" group(hidden or not)[1] and keep going so if they come back they are welcomed in. There is no need to delete them, not because of member count, if member count get's to high I will have to delete the inactive accounts due to personal preferences(Don't like a large forum,will do anything to keep it shorter, and that doesn't disrupt members.) This is a difficult question for me, but just in case they come back we will keep them just put them under maintenance with staff notes[2] or something and you're good to go.

The bold part makes absolutely no sense what so ever, why would a high member count  disrupt members? How is member count relating to the members at all? You cannot involve your own personal preference on other members, and why is that your personal preferences anyways? 

Edit : Oh because I don't like a large forum, this part doesn't make a lick of sense.

[Former Member]

I have not read all of the replies.
Not counting me,my forum has two members.
I feel an inactive member account should be removed.

[Thomasss]

Well, having those inactive members keeps ur your member count! xD

[AshFR]

Feb 2, 2013 17:09:21 GMT -8 LILITH said:

Feb 17, 2008 9:08:44 GMT -8 kelendria said:

A certain amount of time should pass before perhaps even considering deleting inactive members

That's the point, a certain amount of time has to be passed for them to be called inactive correct?

Feb 10, 2013 12:08:11 GMT -8 nukestorm said:

I don't actually delete accounts, but I feel that the ones that may join and have 0 posts when they joined like 4 months ago should get deleted or have their accounts disabled.

But what if they have 10 post and they joined 4 months ago? You can't use 0 post as the only amount of post needed to be considered inactive.

Feb 10, 2013 21:35:56 GMT -8 Snakeair said:

Some people may join the forum take a look around and decided that they not interested so they never post a introductions thread and gone for ever. Try putting in your forum general rules that if you join and do not post a certain amount of posts within a certain time frame, there user account will be deleted. (Example, 3 months is long enough time for member to decided if he or she wants to contribute to the community at least once)
.

Three months if fine, but you have to remember not to put it to low or high if it's to high then they would post a bunch of post within that time limit and won't post until the limit is reached which is a very long time if it's high, if it's to low then they would feel pressured and may believe you are to strict.

Feb 12, 2013 12:48:58 GMT -8 joellesontrigo said:

I don't think you should've deleted those inactive accounts. O.o I think it's best to just see if your members come back to your site for about a year at best or just have a going away board in your forum to indicate if that certain user is leaving on short notice or on leave so that you don't accidentally delete an active member that is inactive for a short while and suddenly comes online the next week or day.

If they are inactive for about a year, they are to inactive a year should be enough time to decide if they want to be on a forum or not.

Feb 13, 2013 9:07:54 GMT -8 Evan Curry said:

I would not delete it. They could be just busy with school or work, and might try to find some active time and would like to come back to your forum another day down the road. They will have that account there for that time, and if theirs get deleted, then it could end up having an unhappy ex-member, so it'd be much easier and less concern to leave the inactive account on your forum.

That depends on how inactive it is, what if they never find time? As said by Snakeair, I think judging them by at least 3 months should be best. If they don't post AT ALL within 3 months, it's unlikely they'll come back and post unless they where very occupied.

[lea]

we go threw the birthdays every day and any one that has not loged in in over a year are deleated , if you are a non poster and log in to read stuff thats fine but if you dont come on then your not realy a member are you so the account is removed. we remove from 1 0r 2 a day to 4 or 5 but we get new people all the time so the member count stays about the same.

[kfander]

I have not had my current (ProBoards) forum long enough for this to be a consideration but I have operated forums before, and have been contributing members of other forums.

As a forum administrator, I don't delete inactive accounts because I have often had people return after extended periods away from the forum. As a forum user, I frequently drop in on forums that I no longer actively participate in. In that event, if I find that my account has been deleted, I won't generally create a new one but will simply not bother to drop in on that one again. Under the right circumstances, inactive members will sometimes become active again; if not, their occasional visits are often appreciated by long-time members who remember them.

I don't concern myself much with statistics, but I suppose whether or not to delete inactive members might depend on what sort of a forum it is.

[Jessecast]

Though an active member count is nice to have I feel that accounts should not be deleted, unless they have not contributed to the site at all. I feel that a member might have a reason why they leave or have gotten bored of the site, but if they come back I want them to feel welcome and able to continue where they left off without being treated as a new member