[TechGuy]

This was discussed a while ago, but I wanted to bring it back up before I took any action.

There are almost 14000 users who meet the following criteria:
1. Registered before 2001-12-01.
2. Last posted before 2001-12-01 or not at all.
3. Has posted once or not at all.


Shall we do some house-cleaning? I'll send them an email first asking them to post if they want to keep active. Does that criteria sound ok, or too strict?

[brianF]

suppose it wouldn't hurt,

Just be carefull, last time I was at a site that did that they deleted me as well. Funny thing, I was a mod there
Won't comment on the sanity of the admin

[TechGuy]

Hehe... yeah, that was pretty scary. Scared *a lot* of people, actually. Hopefully it'll go to plan this time.... or maybe you'll get the hint.

[topper]

that reminds me of another site I had an email acct.with------they said they weren't going to have the site anymore and who we could go to if we wanted to switch and they would "move" our info to the other site b4 the deadline closing----thank goodness they warned a month or more, because my computer was down almost that long and when I came back up, I had just enough time to transfer my info-------I hope this helps your decision----donna b. ----topper

[rhettman5]

It would free up some user names as well as server space, ppl could always re-register and still have access to all the info.

How would that work in archive and search though ?

Ppl may get a bit confused with usernames there...Rhett

btw, any way to make the user list alphabetical (in search) ??

I know.. ...nag nag nag !...

[LadyLisa]

I think it's a great idea, I think for the ones that registered a while ago and never posted or maybe posted once months ago are just taking up space especially if there is 14000 of them..... thats a lot of member names to scroll through.

rhettman, the list is alphabetical if you click on members>list alphabetically.

Anyway, I think by sending an email first is being very fair and for those that don't reply, well..... it's their loss

[rhettman5]

This :
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

click on the letter to see all names starting with that letter

make sense ? ...Rhett

[hewee]

Go for it Mike.

Send the emails out and tell them you are clean house and if you don't login within the next 1 to 3 months your user name will be deleted.

Now who to sent them to ?
May start with no post or longin in the pass year.
Only you know all the info on everone so.

May have the added info telling people that come here and put in there user name and password but can't get in because they are deleted and you get the message that you typed in the wrong user name or password or you have not been here in over a year so you were deleted so you need to Register again.

Added that to here too for all new member to see.
http://forums.techguy.org/register.php?s=&action=signup

[jjb]

You may get 14000 replies to this post after the emails are sent-LOL
Go for it,maybe make it policy to do housecleaning every 3 or 6 monthes

[Bunky]

Mike, many people may be using your forum for answers to questions already asked. Maybe they have nothing to say...

If you need to reduce the user list maybe cut off farther back than two months, maybe 2000-12-01

Just a thought.

[TechGuy]

Clearly, we'll email them well in advance -- part of the idea here to to remind people of the site who haven't been here in ages.

Well, what if we make a new rule: you must post at least once a year.

I have 12,000 people who (1) registered before 2001-01-20 *and* (2) last posted before 2001-01-20

[LadyLisa]

Well I think the reminder is a good move, would be funny though if they did all show up at once

As for the ones that registered a long time ago but don't/won't post because they just read the threads then they can always do that without being a member.

lots of them may be "One Time Hitters"... that they needed help at one time and just posted to get thier answer and that's all.....

The other problem may be the "Junk Email Address" in that the User just put in a Email Address that they send their "Spam" to so they would never check it.

And believe me... I learned my lesson!! Not from this site but I register at other sites... and BOOM!!! JUNK MAIL GALORE!!! man.. they keep coming and coming.... I couldn't believe it!!

[deuce]

Mike, you already heard this from me, but I think it's a great idea. (I can get my user name back ) I think the second criteria you posted looked great. Anyone who posted once in a year a whole year or more ago and only posted one post or none at all isn't planning to come back... (I think) Some people may like to have an account for when they get their like 18-month breakdown... but surely they must have email, so if it is important to them to stay on they can respond to the email by posting something somewhere.

[oscar51]

Mike, I think your proposed house-cleaning is a good idea, especially if the 'non-user' user names are taking up a significant amount of site resources. However, I would go at it incrementally: start with about a thousand of the earliest registrations of users who have not posted since, say, 1998 and see what happens. My guess is that you will get a lot of 'no such email address' returns.

From looking at some of the oldest registrations, I think quite a few users thought they had to register to read the BB. Who knows....