Deleting Old Members With No Messages

Hi, all!

I'm thinking of deleting all members who registered a year or more ago, and who have posted no messages. Any objections?

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Administrator

Go for it. If they never posted a message then I suspect they'll have forgotten that they registered in the first place, and then they'll wonder what's going on when they try to register again.

You're pretty much doing them a favor, I think.

Admin writes: Hi, all! I'm thinking of deleting all members who registered a year or more ago, and who have posted no messages. Any objections?

Please also delete the user name "Sylas", which I registered just a few days ago, but have never used. You may email the owner to confirm. I will then add that name to the alias list of this account, and start to use that as my primary name in the group.

I did email admin about this a few days ago, but no reaction as yet.

I am in the process of establishing the pseudonym "Sylas" in a number of on-line contexts; as talk.origins readers will know already.

My registration here currently has the aliases "cjhs", "cjhs aka Sylas" and "Sylas aka cjhs". I have never used the alias "cjhs aka Sylas"; that can also be deleted if you like.

Thanks -- Sylas

I did email admin about this a few days ago, but no reaction as yet.

Admin is working up his energy to tackle all the spam that accompanies the legitimate email. Judging by the topics of the spam, Admin is lonely, desperate, underendowed, and deeply in debt. Not bad for someone who has only administrative existence!

My registration here currently has the aliases "cjhs", "cjhs aka Sylas" and "Sylas aka cjhs". I have never used the alias "cjhs aka Sylas"; that can also be deleted if you like.

Members may define as many aliases as they like, and they may move back and forth between them, too. This can all be done from the profile page, as you've already discovered. I haven't defined a way to delete an alias, and probably wouldn't permit it anyway if messages had already been sent under it, because it would orphan those messages.

If you hover your mouse cursor over your name, in most places it will list your aliases.

But "Sylas" is a separate account, so thanks for letting me know - that account is already gone.

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--	Percy
	EvC Forum Administrator

Perhaps we could make arrangements at this site, for e-mailers to include a "Key Word" (ie. "debate") in the subject line. Messages with that key word could be guided to a priority folder.

A.Moose

Admin writes: But "Sylas" is a separate account, so thanks for letting me know - that account is already gone.

Thanks muchly. I have now reset the primary name of this account to be Sylas, and it will remain so for the indefinite future.

Thanks! -- Sylas

I'm going to start deletions of old never-active members now.

--Percy

The first 50 proved a little tedious, I'll add an "ease of use" administrative feature for myself tomorrow and finish up then.

--Percy

quote:

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I'll add an "ease of use" administrative feature...

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Not recycling any of the "signatures" enhancement code, I hope.

Moose

making sure I'm still here and not deleted. I admit I don't post often, but I try to read a lot when I have the time. We had a computer systems upgrade at work that didn't go smooth and I've been putting in overtime for a long time now, after 12 to 16 hours a day on a computer for my job, well, I haven't been around much lately.
Melissa

good holly hang around.

This is a way to find 'lurkers' isn't it??? lol

Hi, all!

Just to be clear, later today I'll be finishing up deleting members who registered a year or more ago, and who have *never* posted a single message. Anyone who has posted at least one message will never be deleted, because members are linked in the database to the messages they've posted, and deleting the member orphans the messages.

--Percy

Hi, all!

I've just completed the deletion of all members who registered a year or more ago, but never posted any messages.

There are 420 members who registered in the past year but have never posted a message. Periodically, as they pass the 1 year horizon, I will delete them, too.

--Percy

Be warned that the "Search for Registered Users" function under the "User Info & Permissions" navigation link now has "Check All Delete Boxes" and "Clear All Delete Boxes" links on the search results page. I also added "Registration Date" to the search function.

--Percy

But the quote is from the Frog:

quote:

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Go for it. If they never posted a message then I suspect they'll have forgotten that they registered in the first place, and then they'll wonder what's going on when they try to register again.

You're pretty much doing them a favor, I think.

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Per the Frog's reasons, perhaps it would be a good thing, to delete all zero message members, over, say, "1 month old".

After all, lurking doesn't require registration.

Adminnemooseus