Purging of inactive members

[GooRoo]

There are a number of accounts that have been set up since opening day (December 6^th, 2003) for which the person registering has not returned to post and/or update their Profile. I sent e-mails to each of these people two weeks or so ago, indicating that those accounts that were already over 30 days old would be deleted on April 16^th, 2004 if they haven't returned to post and/or update. So late tomorrow evening (Pacific Daylight Savings Time) the "Total Members" count will be reduced by about a dozen or more. I could leave these accounts open until the Forum itself goes away, but I just don't want to have an inflated number of members ... and somebody who has never posted is (IMNSHO) not truly a member.

This is just so the real members don't get concerned that Gruntz is dead. It's not! Members are not leaving the game; non-participants are just being removed from the rolls. There has been a lull in new Custom Levelz released, but I expect that to change. (I just wasn't pleased with my own efforts on the CL I had been working on, and scrapped it. I have some other ideas about CLz that I will now concentrate on.) Gamer has indicated that he has some "irons in the fire" as well, and there are some new Gruntzerz who are displaying a desire to design some Gruntz puzzlez of their own.

I intend to try to stay on top of the instances of accounts being set up, without actually participating, by sending out 'reminder' e-mails around the first of every month, then purging non-respondents around the ides of each month. Only accounts with a post count of 0 and a Profile that has never been updated will be purged. Furthermore, anyone who has been an active participant in the Monolith Gruntz Forum in the past, or who has released Custom Levelz will never be purged.

Edit: I just noticed that the startup date in this thread was given as 2004, instead of 2003; no one else caught the future dating! (Time warp?)

[GooRoo]

Once again, I am sending out e-mails to people who have registered on "GooRoo's Gruntz Forum" but have never posted any message here.

Many of these accounts not only do not have any posts, but the profiles have also not been updated. For these accounts, I can only presume that the e-mail with the password and link back to this Forum have not been received. (Or it was received, but relegated to a SPAM or 'junk mail' folder, and not seen by the person who registered.)

Some accounts have had their profiles updated, so I know that the password has been received.

I am sending out four versions of an e-mail notification about account status:

• No posts, and profile not updated, over 30 days since registration.
  These accounts will be deleted soon after Fathers' Day (USA observance, June 20, 2004) if there is no response.
• No posts, but profile has been updated, over 30 days since registration.
  Gentle reminder to drop by and post in "Introduce yourself, please".
• No posts, and profile not updated, less than 30 days since registration.
  Gentle reminder to drop by, update profile, and post in "Introduce yourself, please".
• No posts, but profile has been updated, less than 30 days since registration.
  Gentle reminder to drop by and post in "Introduce yourself, please".

It is my intention to refresh the members' list at least once every other month, and preferably once a month.

There are a few accounts that have a handful (or less) of posts, most of the time not related to Gruntz at all; some are blatantly nothing but advertising other Forums. I seek the advice of the true Gruntzerz about what to do about these accounts. Should I

• Ignore them.
• Delete them.
• Send out e-mails with some sort of "You must post in order to keep your account" ... and later delete those that do not respond?

P.S. Any e-mail delivery failure notice is cause for immediate deletion of the registered account.

[GooRoo]

Seventeen days later, and there has not been a single response from any person who was sent an e-mail about their account in danger of deletion. So there is a very good chance that by this time tomorrow (Fathers' Day) the membership count will drop by a dozen or more.

There has also been no comment about what to do with old, low post count members who only posted in the manner of an 'advertisement', and not as someone interested in Gruntz. I take such apathy to mean the selection is "ignore them" ... do nothing at all about them. So I will.

[GooRoo]

It appears that this will be a bi-monthly task, rather than a monthly one. I just cannot get myself to go into the purge process more often. So in the next few days I will be sending out e-mails to those people who have registered to join "GooRoo's Gruntz Forum" but have neither posted, nor updated their profile. As always, this is an attempt to help people with e-mail servers that routinely block automated messages, such as the one that goes out when someone registers. I attempt a personal message, with a meaningful subject line, and an explanation of how to return and become active here. If there is no response in a reasonable amount of time (two to three weeks), I will delete those accounts for people who have evidently never returned here after registering.

[GooRoo]

I finally got around to creating a file with the e-mail addresses of people who have registered for "GooRoo's Gruntz Forum", but have not posted anything. I will be sending out e-mails in three groups today:

• Over 30 days since registering
• Less than 30 days since registering
• Registered, and returned, but have not posted

Those in the 'over 30 days' group will be notified that the accounts will be deleted Friday August 27th, 2004. (seventeen accounts in this group.)

Those in the 'less than 30 days' group will be asked if they have received their password, but without any mention of purging their accounts. (Five accounts in this group.)

The other group will simply be asked to post something in "Introduce yourself, please". (Three accounts in this group.)

Three accounts were duplicates of another, so I have deleted the duplicate accounts for:

• lapra (LaPra retained, and e-mail to be sent)
• ng (angie retained, and e-mail to be sent)
• steveo1 (stevee01 retained, and e-mail to be sent)

It is possible that 17 accounts will be deleted a little over two weeks from today. That still will leave us with over 70 members who have posted during the last eight months (even if noone joins between now and then ).

Edit: I also will purge accounts for which I receive an "unable to deliver" message (as for "stevee01") immediately.

Edit: (August 12, 2004) As of this posting none of the e-mails have been replied to, nor have I seen any new posts in "Introduce yourself, please", so it appears that the membership count will drop below 80 ten days or so from now. I wish there was something that could be done for those people using AO(hel)L and similar 'services' that consider ProBoards automated password system e-mails to be SPAM or junk, and discard them without the user ever being able to view them. It makes it look as if we are at fault, and denying them membership in our Forums.

[Gamer]

I will put a question about this in the FAQ and you may add to it whatever you wish by editting or replying

[Gamer]

I would suggest that accounts that don't have anything Gruntz related but have posted on here can stay. I think people may just introduce themselves and that's fine.

[Bea]

But its far better to have fewer active than a lot of inactive members

[GooRoo]

The accounts I have been purging are ones for which there is no proof that the registrants have ever (been able to) return to the Forum. Several e-mail clients are so "SPAM conscious" that the ProBoards automated password confirmation e-mail is dumped before the user can ever see them. So my process is assuming that the registrant has never received a password, or really doesn't care enough about the game of Gruntz to come back and do the very minimum to participate in this Forum. So far, all 17 are of the 'no show' variety.

Edit: It is 7:10AM for me, and none of the 17 have responded to my e-mails. When I return from playing , a little over 4 hours from now, I will begin deleting those inactive accounts.

[GooRoo]

Well, I have put off this task for almost 4 months, but because I went searching for people who just joined today, if decided it was time to do a full member "examination".

The following people have joined this Forum at least 30 days ago, but have never returned to either post, or (as far as I can tell) update their profiles. So I am sending them an e-mail giving them until shortly after New Year's Day to return and "Introduce themself" (post) to let me know that they are truly interested in being a member here.

1yellaMai,
Burnitopia, deleted ... e-mail error "failure to deliver"
Ette,
GBPKRFAN,
Melloncow2,
PeteyPablo746,
ShadowMaster,
SueP,
Suz,
TheDonutGrunt,
WalkeJ,
alixjunk,
cameron,
classylady,
falconer,
gabriel, deleted ... e-mail error "failure to deliver"
gruntess,
hlambert426, (possibly related to GPF_Lith)
justme123456,
malawigruntz,
proboarder,
sanz,
scloh,
stewboy,
zlppi

The following members have returned to update their profile, but have never posted. They also will be given a similar warning about returning to post (be active) or lose their account.

Valentine97321,
jinty,
normajean,
popsmazz,
shaana

The following members have joined within the last 30 days, but have not returned to post or update their profiles. They will receive an e-mail offering help in setting up their account, and a request that they post in "Introduce yourself, please".

CAROLINE, (this is the same person as "falconer", above ... I believe she is just having e-mail filter problems)
kagjo,
lsimo7,
micke8,
nicciekawego

Actually, every e-mail contains an offer to help setting up an account here (choosing a password, etc.) ... only the old accounts contain any language about account deletion for failure to return and post.

[Gaby]

well... it's about time... and I agree with[glow=yellow,2,300] Bea:[/glow] "its far better to have fewer active than a lot of inactive members"

[GooRoo]

I am purging (or have already purged) the following members with 0 posts:

1yellaMai,
Ette,
GBPKRFAN,
Melloncow2,
PeteyPablo746, Edit: apparently deleted himself
ShadowMaster,
SueP,
Suz,
TheDonutGrunt,
WalkeJ,
alixjunk,
cameron,
classylady,
falconer,
gruntess,
hlambert426,
justme123456,
malawigruntz,
proboarder,
sanz,
scloh,
stewboy,
zlppi

The following members have returned to update their profile, but have never posted.

Valentine97321,
jinty,
normajean,
popsmazz,
shaana

[GooRoo]

I have allowed almost an entire year to go by without doing any purging of inactive memberz. And with the holidayz, and the projectz I am involved in, it will likely be well over a year. I doubt that I will make any attempt at notifying inactivez and purging (one month later) until after my current CL has been released. That will probably happen after January 4^th, 2006 ... so any purging can not take place any earlier than around February 12^th. So we will continue to have an inflated membership count for another six weekz or so.

[GooRoo]

In January, I will once again investigate the Gruntzer accountz that are at least six monthz old, but there is no indication that the person has ever used the account ... and delete them.

An indication of use is as simple as the Gruntzer's profile being updated so that their nation's flag is displayed ... or that at least one message has been posted on the Forum. The latter can be accomplished quite simply by posting in the 'Introduce yourself, please' Board, telling us a little bit about yourself ... and maybe how you came to find this Forum. The former is not as good a choice, because each Gruntzer's account profile needz to be entered, if the post count is 0 ... which takez a lot more time for administratorz to do. So you make it easier on us poor hard-working folkz if you post once (in a while ) so that we know that you are truly interested in this Forum.

Merely having a large number of Gruntzerz is not my indication of success ... active Gruntzerz mean far more to me! So I periodically "weed out" the inactive accountz. So be a flower, instead of a weed.

[SwordGrunt]

I agree that few active Gruntzerz is far better than many inactive Gruntzerz. Personally, I think anyone who ever posts here shouldn't have their account deleted, though, if it's advertising, then go and take 'em out.


The ones who update their profile (or at least drop by here and take a look), for example, a simple Display Name, Location, Signature, even an Avatar, show they do have interest here, although are either too shy to post, or have no ideas of new topics/replies. That's still ok, in my opinion, although they should be invited to post a bit more.


Some Gruntzerz just don't get their activation e-mail/don't see it, thus cannot acess their account. Duplicate accounts truly show that problem. How handy would be an IP Log here! That way you could tell whether someone who didn't login at their account, ever visited again (as a Guest, because of the activaton problems).


By the way, those who don't reply to GooRoo's not automated e-mail (unless AOHELL doesn't like him ) in two weeks or so should be deleted (they have no interest in the forum).

[Bea]

I am always amazed that there are so many still active gruntzers It just shows what a great game it was and still is

[GooRoo]

I will once again investigate the Gruntzer accountz that are at least six monthz old, but there is no indication that the person has ever used the account ... and delete them.

In addition, I will compose and send out a mass e-mail to every Gruntzer (less than six monthz a member) who has not posted, or updated their profile to indicate their residence nation, warning them about future deletion of their account. I have done this before, and seldom received any responsez ... unless it is a "Mailer Daemon" notice of a failure to deliver the message. But if even one person realizez that they have an account here, and decidez they want to keep it by becoming more active, it is worth the effort!

An indication of use is as simple as the Gruntzer's profile being updated so that their nation's flag is displayed ... or that at least one message has been posted on the Forum. The latter can be accomplished quite simply by posting in the 'Introduce yourself, please' Board, telling us a little bit about yourself ... and maybe how you came to find this Forum. The former is not as good a choice, because each Gruntzer's account profile needz to be entered, if the post count is 0 ... which takez a lot more time for administratorz to do. So you make it easier on us poor hard-working folkz if you post once (in a while ) so that we know that you are truly interested in this Forum.

Merely having a large number of Gruntzerz is not my indication of success ... active Gruntzerz mean far more to me! So I periodically "weed out" the inactive accountz. So be a flower, instead of a weed.

[peekaboo]

Umm, Will you not delete mine if I fall ill like I did last year and didn't post for a long time? I love the gruntz forum and always will come back even if it takes awhile. Gaby and Bonnie always check on me via email even when I'm not posting. I just adore those two.

[Gaby]

no dear, your will stay forever... we are purging only inactive memberz, that means they did post none at all...

[GooRoo]

Mar 14, 2009 10:21:42 GMT -8 peekaboo said:

Umm, Will you not delete mine if I fall ill like I did last year and didn't post for a long time? I love the gruntz forum and always will come back even if it takes awhile. Gaby and Bonnie always check on me via email even when I'm not posting. I just adore those two.

The first thing we check when doing any purging is whether the member has ever posted a message ... only 0 postz may be deleted. The second thing is whether the profile has been updated. The third thing is the last visit. If the last visit was over six monthz ago, 0 postz, and profile not updated ... bye-bye.