Inactive Accounts - Delete or not to Delete?

[Diesel 11]

I never delete a user's account. If they delete their own, fine. But I don't think it's right to do so. If I had been away for a good long while, and come back to my favorite forum, and find out that my account's been deleted, I would be in a state! That's why I dislike deleting others' accounts. It's not really me to decide; I'm just the admin. There could be many reasons why they don't go on again — life, illness, and travel come to mind. If they were top posters awhile back, then it makes me more inclined not to delete their accounts. As for new, non-posting members, I feel that they deserve a chance. I do suggest that they post within two weeks to a month, but if not, there could be a very good reason.

[T.C.]

I don't have the time or desire to go through the members list to determine who hasn't been active. If there was a limit on the amount of members, i would, but as it stands No.

[m2marsh]

I'm glad I found this thread. I have never deleted anyone from my forum except for duplicate accounts and people who can't behave. It is a weight loss forum, and maybe the person went off the wagon but then wants to come back. So I really don't see any reason to delete anyone just because they are inactive.

[Diesel 11]

Nov 24, 2015 14:55:17 GMT -8 m2marsh said:

I'm glad I found this thread. I have never deleted anyone from my forum except for duplicate accounts and people who can't behave. It is a weight loss forum, and maybe the person went off the wagon but then wants to come back. So I really don't see any reason to delete anyone just because they are inactive.

Even if they don't behave, I just ban them and delete all their bad posts. I don't see a need for deleting the account, and I might even allow them back one day in the far future.

[m2marsh]

Nov 24, 2015 15:12:24 GMT -8 Diesel 11 said:

Nov 24, 2015 14:55:17 GMT -8 m2marsh said:

I'm glad I found this thread. I have never deleted anyone from my forum except for duplicate accounts and people who can't behave. It is a weight loss forum, and maybe the person went off the wagon but then wants to come back. So I really don't see any reason to delete anyone just because they are inactive.

Even if they don't behave, I just ban them and delete all their bad posts. I don't see a need for deleting the account, and I might even allow them back one day in the far future.

yeah, I just ban them. I don't really delete them. But to be honest, in a forum like mine, if they misbehave they are pretty much done. People, especially women, trying to lose weight are somewhat fragile. It's I'm sure very different than a lot of you guys and your other forums.

[spenceer]

I used to not mind one way or the other, but I joined an RP board recently that had a huge member count and it seemed to be accurate given the number of posts on the board. I realized pretty soon after joining that not only were inactive accounts left in the count, but posts were left, too, so it looked super active but there were maybe four people posting regularly. It was super discouraging. Now I'm super pro-deleting inactive accounts. But actually inactive. Like, if you haven't posted this week that's one thing. If you haven't posted in the past two months that's probably an issue. That being said, I don't like "activity checks" where you have to post by a certain date in a thread to keep your account. It feels impersonal.

[Tix Mascot]

I have been asked why I haven't deleted my "dead weight". The answer is complex. Many people have registered an account to support my forum, but for various reasons haven't posted (yet). In my opinion, it would be an insult to delete their accounts, as many of them are family members and real life friends, who are not really forum people, but would like to be there in name only. Also, there are still so few members that cutting down on the members list now would be like shaving off the chin along with the beard. With more active members, I may reconsider and ditch some old-time non-posters, though.

[Eaglenz]

I see no need to delete old accounts. It's too controlling. I can't judge what might be happening to a person that they can't log in, but it's all up to the account. I don't see myself as having that sort of authority. My authority should only be to make the forum a better place for members, not to perform overall pointless acts that are only supposed to give the illusion of an active community. Having a forum with 10 members and having them all be active at once does not make it better than a forum with 50 members and only 10 of them being active. I just keep the accounts there, they're not bothering anyone.

In all honesty, I believe we can agree that those accounts are the least likely to bother us... Kinda ironic we'd get rid of them.

[Former Member]

I, personally, in an effort to not deceive visitors to the forum, would delete any accounts that haven't been active for more than a year, maybe 2 years. How I see it, I do look at the statistics of a forum, I look at number of members vs. number of threads/posts to try to gauge how active members on the site are. If it seems like there's few posts per member, then the site isn't really active and might not be worth my time to visit if I'm looking for an active forum. Removing members who haven't been active in a good-sized period of time would sort of help to visually boost the apparent activity level, though it may still be an inaccurate assumption either way. But that's just me.

[shamrocklass]

Yeah i usually send them emails if they havent logged in in over two + weeks or more. but yeah i agree-why bother joining if you have no thoughts about coming back to a site?

usually i sent pm's out and emails out and if i dont hear from them in a few weeks or more i delete their accounts. any account over a month or more old i just delete them.

[Pebbles]

no , i do not delete them
it is a shame to see accs with 0 posts sometimes
but often on my forum, people actually come back after couple weeks or even months
so yeah
plus it makes your forum stats look really empty if you delete all inactive accs lol #truth

[Shaliza]

The only accounts that I ever delete on my board are those with zero posts for like 6 months. After sending out emails and not receiving any replies, I figured these members would not be returning since all they did is register and not post even once. So either I or one of my staff will delete these empty accounts. 

[steveliddle]

Last post on the forum seems to have been April 2017, although we still get uk people wanting to join, the rest are banned.

facebook, regimental websites and email seems to have taken the role of the site, but there are reference materials on the forum, so it is staying for now

[bai]

Don't delete IMO.

People forget (and remember) passwords all the time; High member count is more enticing to some people and may push them to register; also it's fun to be able to click on someone's old profile and have a little trip down memory lane!

[Oakley]

I delete inactive accounts. There have been times where members returned after months (or even years) after disappearing, but I prefer removing their accounts. It saddens me when people I end up close to disappear, and I'd rather delete their account than come across it on the Members page and wish they'd return. Easier to move on to people I've grown accustomed to. If it's one thing I've learned while administrating, it's that people can come and go in a snap.

I once had a member on an old forum that I loved writing and chatting with. I was advertising and I noticed they joined another forum of the same genre. Slowly but surely their activity on my forum trickled down until they were completely gone. I actually ended up joining that other forum, but it didn't suit my tastes. I was glad that my friend found a forum to call home, but I missed them a lot.

Deleting accounts is a form of closure for me, I suppose. I guess it's a bit silly considering I leave their threads and posts alone, but I would have to go more out of my way to access those in an archive board than I would seeing their account in the Members tab, which I use often. Should those members return, they're always welcome, but I've found they usually end up busy and inactive again. It's understandable, as work, school, and other outside factors should always come before forums, but it sucks to get excited by the member's return, only for them to leave without a word after a few weeks.

Outside of the emotional aspects, I like deleting accounts because it feels like I'm tidying my forum. The smaller the member count is, the higher the ratio between active users and overall accounts is. A forum with 20 active members out of 30 looks better than a forum with 20 regulars out of 50, as far as I'm concerned.

ETA: I won't quote the post as it's been two years, but a few posts prior to this one someone said that inactive accounts are "the least likely to bother us". Maybe, as they said, someone like me is too controlling about this sort of thing, but inactive accounts absolutely bother me. I use the Members tab to find specific threads through someone's account, among a million other things, and having inactive accounts clogging up the list makes my search unnecessarily difficult.