Inactive Accounts - Delete or not to Delete?

[whisker]

I agree with what you say there, Jessecast. We've had people come back after being away for a long time.

[Athene?]

Also like to keep inactive accounts active.
Unless it's for a very, very long period of time the member hasn't logged in.
Sometimes those members who haven't logged in for a very, very long time come back and become active again.
I sent a friendly PM and email to inactive members to encourage them to participate if they haven't done so for a while.
Had some members come back and thanking for me for doing that.

[mamagail48]

I keep inactive accounts. You never know when someone will return. My problem is I ask for only one post to make an active account, but I don't understand why do guests register and then not even make one post. If the board was closed I could understand, they registered to see what ya got, but my board is all opened and can be seen by guests. It really bothers me about that why bother taking the time to register and not dropping one post. Before posting guest could see and even read the main updates of the board, so I still can't understand why. That to me is a waste of time. Don't bother to register. Back in the day when you had a full registration page it seems to me that would take more time than one post. I understand now its not so much but still, I just don't understand why. I do send a pm once a member registers and eventually an email months later, but I never delete them.

[whisker]

Well said, mamagail48! I agree totally with your dilemma. We have exactly the same. Like yours, our forum is open too, and new members can see what they are getting into before they sign up. Some of them say they are delighted to have found our forum and are never seen again! I have come to believe most of their problem is they find it difficult to log in. At least some of them have said that to us - and have never been seen again. I don't think there is anything we can do about that, if people can't log in. If there is some action we could take to rectify that, i would be glad to hear about it.

 Especially now, since the change-over to V5, that is becoming even more of an issue. We keep all of our inactive accounts and send the occasional email to remind them that they are still members and that we haven't heard from them in a while.

I wonder, too, with so many different ways of viewing the internet nowadays, such as Ipods, mobile phones etc, where people have small screens, that they find it difficult to view our forums, especially, where there are lots of photos.

I still think bottom line - is the logging-in issue.

[JenF]

I started deleting accounts if they haven't been on in two years and now in hindsight I wish I hadn't.

[Mandoli]

I like to try to keep members around if I know that they might come back - key word is might - but I ran a board for a while where the number of inactive members outranked the number of active ones by a longshot.

The best way to do inactive deletions, in my opinion, is to shoot out a mass e-mail explaining what's going on, and give a date when you're going to do the cleansing. I usually delete accounts if someone hasn't posted to the forum. Everyone who has a post to their name stays; those who don't will leave shortly.

I can see role play sites doing monthly cleansing for all inactive members. Your general forum doesn't need that kind of thing.

[~Chantelle~]

There's always that fine line. It's hard to tell if someone is perhaps too busy to post or has lost interest in your forum all together. Deleting inactive members is not a bad idea, as it does look better if you have members that actually post. It's one thing to have hundreds of members, but if only a small amount of them post regularly, the exact number of members is irrelevant. If one of your active members has stopped posting for a while, it wouldn't hurt to send them an email or contact them outside the forum just to see if they're still interested in being a member. They could be dealing with some other priorities in their life at the moment and may not have time to post or perhaps they've lost interest. You'll always have the one post wonders as well; they were interested enough in your forum to create an account, but they received a negative first impression (perhaps no fault of the forum owner) of something and left. I know when I had a forum, I regularly sent out mass emails to remind members of upcoming events. I got emails back from one member saying, "Who are you? Why are you emailing me?" I guess they didn't realize what they signed up for. For these inactive one post wonder accounts, if they don't post again in 6 months or so, just delete them. If they were actually interested in the forum, they would have posted more often. If they want to return and be active, they can create a new account as they didn't have anything worth hanging on to on the old one anyway.

[Callista Moonfire]

Definitely delete

- Whenever you have a high member count but little activity then it really makes your forum seem bad, like okay you got these people to join but then what? Is your forum boring so people don't post? That's something I would be thinking, it would make me curious why they have so many people but no one is ever on.
- I go through at least every so many months and get rid of anyone who has 0 post and has been there for a while, or people who just have not been around in months without any word on why they would be leaving.
- Now I don't go just deleting anyone, I don't say hey you've been here 2 weeks and not posted anything at all. I mean I will see where people joined 5 months ago out of the blue and haven't made a single post, or perhaps someone made an alternate character and later on they decide they aren't using them. I will always ask first, but if they don't plan on using them or people can't bring themselves to post after several months then there is no reason to leave a dead account just sitting there.
- Even when I plan on going through the accounts to delete off 0 post, I will send out a mass e-mail just to let people know what is going on, and that if they wish to stay then they need to let me know, anyone who is active clearly wouldn't need to since you wouldn't be deleting them, but if someone had a reason for being away or just weren't sure what to do at first, well this gives them a chance to get back to me cause I'll ask them to pm me, I'll help them if need be and if not then there's no reason not to clean up your site to make it look better

[DrgnBeauty]

For me, it really depends. I only delete accounts if someone requests it, which nobody has so far. We have almost no inactive accounts, so it's not really like it matters anyway.

[Nefa]

I only delete accounts with zero posts who have not gone online in more than a month. There may be a few lurker a who are just taking their time, and I don't want them to feel forced to post or it may drive them away. But many people create accounts and simply forget about them, not making a single post. These accounts I delete, because they were never used, and the member will not lose anything by losing this account.

[blc]

Apr 19, 2014 13:35:34 GMT -8 Nefa said:

I only delete accounts with zero posts who have not gone online in more than a month. There may be a few lurker a who are just taking their time, and I don't want them to feel forced to post or it may drive them away. But many people create accounts and simply forget about them, not making a single post. These accounts I delete, because they were never used, and the member will not lose anything by losing this account.

Do members see a message when the account is disabled/deactivated?

[endo]

Not here to disagree or agree with anyone's opinion. Everyone runs their particular forums their way and it varies on the type of forum you have and how you choose to run it.
Ours is a horror forum and we have a good group of core members, albeit a small group, that are active. We get new members all the time that join and don't post.
Like mamagail48, I don't get that as the forum is open to everyone. If you like what you see, join and post. If you don't, then that's fine too. But why join and never post anything? I don't know. I guess they have their reasons.
But, I don't delete the accounts, and it's not to make the forum look like it has a ton of members...I just feel like they might come by and want to say something and taking that account they created away would deter them from creating another one and saying it.
We're fine as a small group of active members and would certainly welcome new ones, but if someone took the time to actually join my forum, I'll let their account stand even if they never post.

[blc]

Apr 22, 2014 20:40:20 GMT -8 endo said:

Not here to disagree or agree with anyone's opinion. Everyone runs their particular forums their way and it varies on the type of forum you have and how you choose to run it.
Ours is a horror forum and we have a good group of core members, albeit a small group, that are active. We get new members all the time that join and don't post.
Like mamagail48, I don't get that as the forum is open to everyone. If you like what you see, join and post. If you don't, then that's fine too. But why join and never post anything? I don't know. I guess they have their reasons.
But, I don't delete the accounts, and it's not to make the forum look like it has a ton of members...I just feel like they might come by and want to say something and taking that account they created away would deter them from creating another one and saying it.
We're fine as a small group of active members and would certainly welcome new ones, but if someone took the time to actually join my forum, I'll let their account stand even if they never post.

Sometimes I delete and sometimes I keep. It just depends on the circumstances.

[fantasygg]

I do not usually delete accounts unless they start spamming my forum. I did however go back to people who have been on there since the forum opened in 2007 and never posted. Good chance they will not come back or forgot their user name. I still can not believe some people do not know how to request their password, etc lol!

[Former Member]

Delete them.