Deleting Old Members With No Messages

Message 1 of 31 (86138) 02-13-2004 3:21 PM

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

Message 2 of 31 (86142) 02-13-2004 3:59 PM

Reply to: Message 1 by Admin 02-13-2004 3:21 PM

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

Message 3 of 31 (86147) 02-13-2004 4:14 PM

Reply to: Message 1 by Admin 02-13-2004 3:21 PM

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

Message 4 of 31 (86152) 02-13-2004 4:32 PM

Reply to: Message 3 by Sylas 02-13-2004 4:14 PM

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!

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.

Message 5 of 31 (86155) 02-13-2004 4:43 PM

Reply to: Message 4 by Admin 02-13-2004 4:32 PM

A.Moose

Message 6 of 31 (86159) 02-13-2004 5:32 PM

Reply to: Message 4 by Admin 02-13-2004 4:32 PM

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

Message 7 of 31 (86190) 02-13-2004 9:33 PM

--Percy

Message 8 of 31 (86193) 02-13-2004 9:41 PM

--Percy

Message 9 of 31 (86196) 02-13-2004 9:59 PM

Reply to: Message 8 by Percy 02-13-2004 9:41 PM

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

Message 11 of 31 (86215) 02-14-2004 1:28 AM

Reply to: Message 10 by hollygolightly 02-14-2004 1:25 AM

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

Message 12 of 31 (86248) 02-14-2004 8:20 AM

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

Message 13 of 31 (86275) 02-14-2004 12:43 PM

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

Message 14 of 31 (86278) 02-14-2004 12:47 PM

Reply to: Message 5 by Adminnemooseus 02-13-2004 4:43 PM

--Percy

Message 15 of 31 (87837) 02-20-2004 10:53 PM

Reply to: Message 2 by crashfrog 02-13-2004 3:59 PM

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