Do you delete inactive accounts

[Tim]

This is a question to all forum admins on every Proboards forum
Do you delete an account that has never posted?

I wanna see what people say.

[Tim]

Aug 6, 2018 10:33:44 GMT -8 Lynx said:

Aug 6, 2018 10:17:29 GMT -8 Tim said:

This is a question to all forum admins on every Proboards forum
Do you delete an account that has never posted?

I wanna see what people say.

Just to note, you've got a thread with this subject that has been locked here: support.proboards.com/thread/652283/delete-inactive-accounts

You have a thread with this subject that had been moved here: support.proboards.com/thread/652287/moved-delete-inactive-accounts - which has a reply here: support.proboards.com/thread/652284

Now you've started a poll inquiring of forum Admins if they do this. You could have probably have saved some time by posting correctly in the first place. Just a thought.

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Aug 6, 2018 10:25:09 GMT -8 Retread said:

Hello Tim

The Support Board isn't meant for threads like this. Try Open for Discussion - Staff of Forums Sharing Ideas instead.

Please be aware of the board you're in - this was posted in General Talk, not the Support Board. However, I do agree that the board you linked would have been a better place for this thread.

My thread wasn’t meant to be a support question

[Syko Nachoman]

I've always been obsessed with removing clutter, for some reason, so I would frequently look up accounts that had registered but hadn't posted for at least 6 months or so and remove them. Why? Because I could. Granted, this was way back in the early 2000s, when I ran forums that actually had people joining them.

[Beckea]

Here is one already posted: support.proboards.com/thread/316301/inactive-accounts-delete

Before posting a good suggestion is to go through pages and see if the topic is already posted. A good chance it is.

[Patrick [ASE]]

Can we just continue with the topic of this thread instead of minimodding?
I moved the support thread thinking it was a support question, my apologies, but your post wasn't clear.

[Bugme]

Yes, I leave them as members. Many of them are just readers and skulk around in the background. They are not problematic and every so often a few of them come out and post. Others haven't come back since we approved them but, they get our newsletters and may someday return. I guess I see no reason to be so anal that I have to clean up dormant accounts.

[Retread]

Aug 7, 2018 3:38:21 GMT -8 Bugme said:

Yes, I leave them as members. Many of them are just readers and skulk around in the background. They are not problematic and every so often a few of them come out and post. Others haven't come back since we approved them but, they get our newsletters and may someday return. I guess I see no reason to be so anal that I have to clean up dormant accounts.

Once upon a time there was a good reason for pruning dormant accounts with no posts. Back then, when the member list was over 1km (kilomembers) it was unsortable. That limitation no longer exists, thus that reason is no longer a factor.

I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment. The vast majority of inactive accounts present no problems and in rare occasions those accounts do become active, in a good way. Occasionally someone will make more than one account, leaving some inactive and using one to jack around with a forum. The thought there is if they get banned they have other accounts available to them which have slightly higher credibility because they have a mature join-date. But if those accounts were made with the same email address and/or same IP address, that strategy falls apart if the ban is by IP and Global ID.

Zero-post accounts with occasional log-ins suggest someone who wishes to see things only members can see, such as attachments. I don't see that a problem.

[HoudiniDerek]

I usually don't. I will delete spammer accounts though unless they work to correct themselves. But deleting just to delete, no. You never know who might come back. I prefer to make it as easy as possible.

[Søren]

No option for sometimes?

Totally inactive as in signed up but never made a post and not log in since I delete.

Mine is a rp forum so accounts that sign up but only half finish the character profiles I also delete usually after a couple of months of not heard from the person or seen them log in

Accounts that have been active and got accepted etc I don't generally delete even if they become inactive

[Scott]

(Moved from GT / for those following this, sorry but this topic is better suited for this board. )

[Šcott]

I've had various accounts (not all forums) that I've registered for whatever reason at the time and then no longer had the immediate need or life took me elsewhere. There's been some instances where the need arises again much later on and I discover I already have an account at whatever site and and am glad to find it still there and accessible.

[wildmaven]

If someone signs up and never posts, their account is deleted. I don't believe in over-inflating a member number with people who never participate.

I run a role playing site. Some members balk at joining an RP that has hundreds of members, so having a falsely inflated member number actually hurts the board.

Once a year I cull out the members who used to post but have since left the board, too.

[Retread]

Aug 7, 2018 13:50:38 GMT -8 wildmaven said:

If someone signs up and never posts, their account is deleted. I don't believe in over-inflating a member number with people who never participate.

I run a role playing site. Some members balk at joining an RP that has hundreds of members, so having a falsely inflated member number actually hurts the board.

Once a year I cull out the members who used to post but have since left the board, too.

I reckon the type of forum is important to these sorts of decisions. In a conversational/educational forum the number of members isn't really a factor unless there are extremely few.

[Kami]

Absolutely, though we have a much higher threshold for what counts as 'active' compared to other RP sites -- as long as a user has logged in once on their primary account (we have Out of Character accounts + an account per character, so we only count the OOC account logins) within 90 days, we consider them active.

This threshold used to be once a month, but a vast majority of us, the staff included, have grown up to be very busy people in comparison to our teenage selves, and we frequently keep tabs on the site even if we don't at that time have time to make an RP post.

[stevecureboi]

Nope.
We have a pretty international membership & not everyone is comfortable using English to post.
But if members want to read & look at images & articles we have in threads then for sure they can. Sometimes they "de-cloak" at some stage & say something, but we'll not pressure them to.