Outpost Universe Forums
Community => Feedback/Suggestions/Problems => Topic started by: leeor_net on June 04, 2005, 03:16:48 AM
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The board says that there are nearly 300 registered users, however, I see only a handfull of people that are actually active.
Is there a way to send a notification e-mail about happenings on the boards/community with a message that says something like:
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Hi! You haven't been around in awhile and we were wondering what's up and how life's been?
We wanted to let you know about recent happenings at OPU blah blah blah
We are clearing our database of inactive users and would like to invite you to become an active member of the community! Please visit this link
www.somelink.com
Hope to see you online soon!
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And then have the link determine who's clicked on the link and who hasn't. After a certain number of days all users who haven't logged in will be cleared from the database.
I was just thinking about that and was hoping that maybe we could get a better idea has to how many people we really have here and see if we can get the bustling community that I've been longing for.
:op2: Leeor Dicker
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Well i think we should probly remove some more old accounts.
And yea, its time for another newsletter.
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How do you determine who is inactive or not? I rarely if ever post but it doesn't make me inactive.
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We determine how active a person is by how recently seen them on IRC. Its not hard to be active just stop by once in a while or stay and idle while your on line or play a game and leave. thats all you really have to do to be seen as active.
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Or even by posting on the forums regularly. Make your existence known.
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Ya those guys are right, again. I hardly ever post on the forums, but I'm in IRC whenever it's humanely possible. Also, Seeing as I'll be getting my new laptop soon, I'll be more active since my lil' sis won't be hoggin my freakin computer (claiming that hers doesen't work, or is too slow.. It's a freakin P4, @ 3.0 GHz, 1 gig of ram, and completely unnecessary stuff that she never uses, but forbids me (on the pain of death) to remove from her room, or even TOUCH for that matter. :)
Whenever I ramble unnecessarily like that, holla @ me.
Pandas
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Whereas deleting 0-posts accounts under certain circumstances seems quite reasonable to me I don't see a point in deleting accounts which have been used but are inactive atm. Its not like these accounts cause any problems, is it? If its only to get a more realistic statistic, make a seperate one.
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Yeah, I don't think we need to delete any accounts that have had posts made on them. It's more or less to get a more realistic count of how many people are actually using the forums.
The old accounts aren't hurting anything, they take up at most a few KB of storage (that's including the profile, PM's for that user, etc).
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I'm not worried about how much space accounts take up or whatnot. It's just that there are nearly 300 users 'registered' with OPU but I really don't see much in terms of posting activity. Of course, seeing as posting isn't necissarily what makes a community active (views to posts are also a sign of activity), it's just nice to know who pops in periodically or who registered to gain access to something and that was it.
I'm sure somewhere with this board there's a way to determine when people last logged on or visited. I'm sure that someone who hasn't shown up in 2 years is someone who either may need a reminder that we're here (they may have forgotten the URL, it happens to me all the time!) or they're no longer interested, which is fine too.
I'm just interested to know about how many active users we have.
:op2: Leeor
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personally... i like the idea that if someone doesn't log on once in 2 years... they should be put on a "Who knows" list. A year after a known log on is inactive... 2 is saying that they don't care or like leeor_net posted
"either may need a reminder that we're here (they may have forgotten the URL, it happens to me all the time!) or they're no longer interested, which is fine too."
After three years... its safe to throw in the towel and remove them... but thats just me
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i would't remove users.....that 'unregistered' usually means they've done somehtign bad...maybe move them into a inactive group?
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Well, whatever works. I guess 0-post users could get the remindermessage or whatnot. Heh, it was just a thought.
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For 0 post users I would send a mail after 1 month, and if they don't respond then give them the boot.
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I agree. Heh... :)
Of course, it's up to you guys. I just had the thought.
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if they had 0 posts or was never active then they should be deleted but only if they were never seen like mabe 2 years at least, but thats a hard choice , it depends
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People sometimes like recognition and don't really care about the forums and are on once a month for mIRC or something, they would put up nonsensical posts to fulfil the 1 post requirement, and to solve that rules whould change into a post a month, people would get annoyied with that and post every month to shut it up, yada yada. Forum activity does not depict activity, if they only like the forum, than you know they are there by the posts. If they only use mIRC, the OPU team will have to check their "MILE" long log books and scroll all the way through or use the !SEEN Nick comand.... The forums may help stimulate activity, but the forum is the input from the fans, not the life force... Im bored and i rant when im bored.... Like i said before 2 years and more should be the "Who Knows?" list 1 year -2 years is inactive 1 months- 1 year is semi active and now till 1 months is active, that seems like a good rating plan
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i hope one month of inactivity dont put me on the black list :blush:
to continue the subject your not alone with that problem but i would say 6 month of inactivity could be a fair amout of time prior of any action
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Well, it was just a suggestion... <_<
Anyway, the powers that be are the ones who make the decisions, I guess. But a lot of good points were brought up. Not everybody likes to work with forums and not everybody likes to work with IRC so it's an interesting balancing act. :D
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Yeah, I wouldn't want to delete any accounts without at least trying to make an attempt to contact the user, to tell them that they're inactive.
However, as for zero post accounts that have been dormant forever, they might as well be deleted, because guests have read access to all the areas of the forum that regular members do. If you come to just read posts, there's no reason to have an account, since no one will really be aware of it's existence. (Well, I guess there *is* the PM system they could be using, but if you spend enough time here to write PMs you'll probably be posting as well).
People who don't bother to post don't really need an account (as far as I can see). What do you guys think?
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I think some accounts are geting the chop ;)
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i agree as well. 0 posts i would give them the chop no warning etc. not worth the time to warn if they arn't active, havn't posted, and are essentaily empty.
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Yea, there is no reason why 0-posts accounts shouldn't be deleted.
accounts with more than 0 posts in comparison should not be deleted so quickly.
Especially useres who have been VERY active once (ie. more than 100 posts or so) should be kept. They might have a good reason to stay away from the forums (ie. no internet etc.) and might come back.
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Inactive users that havent been on in some time reguardless if they have posts or not should be contacted in some way or fashion and remind that we are alive and they can have some fun with us on IRC when there not to bussy. If you dont get a responce (a email, IM, or them showing up on the fourm or IRC) them delete them. 300 people on the forum and about 20 or 30 that show on irc. It would help if more can be transfered over to the IRC part.
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i think ppls that have more than a few posts should not be deleted, period. when i see unregistered it allways makes me think they've done somehting bad, and they havn't, they are just inactive.
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for my part i agree about the 0 post thing but i still wonder why they are setting an account for nothing (thumbsdown)
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I think it won't be such a great idea to delete accounts that have not been used for a long time and/or not been used at all. I didn't realize it until lately, but things have gone quite wildly on forums... Deleting accounts ( I think ) will only result in more "exaggerated" interpretations.
And maybe I forgot to mention this, but I have tried to "recruit" more outpost 2 lovers and/or have tried to make other people discover this game. I have also asked them to register even if they won't post on forum ( hopefully they will). They may also have problems posting :heh: ... a lot of them don't speak English fluently.
That is all and is my point of view. Don't delete accounts, write more newsletters. :)
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no, you dont get it. we mean accts w/ 0 posts. not ppls that have posted; then it looks bad.
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i know zanco you did recrui ;) t me after all but.... you didnt specify that it was in english
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lol,
Sorry about that Lordy_dragon :heh: But you are doing very well ;)
no, you dont get it. we mean accts w/ 0 posts
I did understand that... of course. I just wanted to show it would be really bad if it ever happened, and I wanted to give you more reasons as for not deleting account(s) with 0 post.
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Well on behalf of the semi-active users, at least don't kick users that post after the email. I joined due to my interest in the OP2 projects and will keep coming by. Thanks.
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Hrm... Maybe play some OP2 Axen?
Anyway, I think acts with no logins for a month/months/year should be simply removed.
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i htink if a acct has 0 posts and hasnt posted/beena ctive after a week or so after registration, i would give them the chop. as for ppl with >0 posts, i would *not* delete them, ever.
perhaps move them to a inactive group?
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I don't know, they shouldn't get moved to a group with less userrights just because they didn't use the forums.
BTW, the forums do log in some database fields called "last_visit" and "last_activity" as a UNIX timestamp. The difference between the two I didn't bother to check out; but on most of the accounts I saw, "last_activity" was a later timestamp than "last_visit".
We can use those to gauge a person's activity level if we need (I can't remember if a display for it is part of the forum software, but that can be added).
Edit: last_activity is the last click on the forum (gets recorded for online list); last_visit is set on user login and other things like postings, etc.
the reason you can have them far apart (days) is because of the login cookie.
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nah i mean make a equiv group w/ a diff title
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There are a lot of great ideas being thrown around but I think that a definitive decision needs to be made by the powers that be.
I agree that user accounts that have posts but have been inactive for a certain amount of time (like a year, for instance) could be marked as 'inactive' or however it is deemed appropriate.
User acounts with no logins and no posts is another thing altogether.
Also, very frequently, people will lose interest in something and will just leave and forget about it (seemingly gpgarretboast being an unfortunate casualty of this). So I guess that it's up to whoever maintains the forums. OH well...
I'm having another one of those days. Don't mind me much.
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Well it is not like we are stuck for forum database space, so there is no need to move users groups around or cull threads to an archieve.
maybe an inactive usergroup could be set in place. perhaps there is a script to move the users whos last activity was a month or two ago into an inactive group. and then if they relog on some time move them back into an active group. so members looking at the user list can see whos active or not.
i dont know if this can be done buts its my idea of an automated system.
perhaps an email to the users account saying that they have been transfered to an inactive user group indefinatly until they log in again?
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That probably could be hacked into the forum system some time in the future; seems like it'd be a good idea.
Also, I was thinking of this: have a thing inserted into each user's profile that says their last visit date.
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you guys wouldn't delete my lil account now, would ya?
i'm still around, i just only come intermittantly (mainly cos things aren't too fast on the forum that i'd miss something big this way)
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no eze, we woulnt delete a acct that has posts. wt mezza just said was wt i was trying to say alll along .... just move them into a inactive group...i belive theres a colomn in the db for time stamp. ya could prolly stick that on a crontab on a week or every 3rd day basis run.
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I definatly like Mez's idea. Works all to well and makes things nice and simple... :D
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That would be nice yeah. Its mainly the thing of the user count which is misleading. If we can have a inactive group and have the member count not include them. So there is total member count and member count minus the inactive users.
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Don't forget there's those of us that just simply don't post much or just log onto IRC and idle without paying a bit of attention like most people on it do. The last time I was in IRC I had a question that actually had a simple answer but of the 15 people on only 2 of them responded within 10 minutes of my asking. Now I understand that some may have been in games but from what I've seen 99% of the games have turned into pie chart rushes lasting 5 minutes or less. Anyone else see a problem waiting to happen for a new person comming into IRC or somebody comming in with a bigger problem then what I had? That's my two bits along with a little rant.
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I agree with Flanx.
I've had the same 'issue' there are so many people idling, that only lik e 3/12 people are REALLY there, or paying attention at all.
I understand we have lives, and not everyone has the dual-monitor setup like I do, however...
Gotta see both sides.
Panda.
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*poke* *poke* 3 monitors, baby. idling is kinda unavoidable, ppls will be afk...its fact of nature. oh btw, incase you didnt know, L and OPU|Bot are user managenet bots, and HubbaJJ is a nonfunctional stats bot. i htink its time to go postal on HubbaJJ's ass....
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For the thousandth time, we are not getting rid of HubbaJJ. Case closed. So stop asking to remove it Joe.
If we got rid of it; the stats that it's already accumulated get lost.
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Idling is not avoidable. You can't expect people to watch the irc window all the time. There are other things in life.
And to be on irc and do something else is better than doing something else and not being on irc. At least you'll get an answer then. I don't understand people who can't wait 10-20 minutes after asking a question.
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I agree. When they're on irc, at least they have the opportunity to come back and see what's been going on. Also, existance in a chat room is more temporary than a forum account -- if you're at least idling in there, you've probably been there within the last day or two (unless you have a bnc or something).
I think patience is something that needs to be learned by all.. If you need to ask a question, highlight a person on irc and simply wait for a response instead of spamming something in all caps then quitting after 30 seconds.
Anyway; this thread is about forum inactivity, not IRC inactivity -- let's get back to the topic.
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Well back on the topic of deleting accounts.
Most of the time when we get new memebrs insead of being happy it just anoyies me, because they dont stay with us etc.
I was thinking, should we delete new accounts of people who dont post an introduction? Say after a month.
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Delete users that havn't logged on a month, who say 3 months ago, and yes if their posts are insignificant or no posts at all.
Any user with more than 5 posts should be kept, unless they have spent their time and effort into filling in their details and uploading an avatar to the forum
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Of the 300 or so people that are registered how many really show up and post. But before you s*** can there account send them a email tell them they have a week or 2 to show up and do some thing on the forum or IRC or there account will be canned.