Unused Names

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

If you take a look at the member list, you'll notice that out of just over 2000 members, 642 of them have not posted at all, and quite a few haven't logged on since they registered. Then there are loads more with less than 5 posts. It probably is annoying when you register, to have register form tell you that your name is already in use by someone who never posted. So I propose this: Members that have not logged in for six months (or some other length of time), and have 5 (or some other number) or less posts, should be deleted.

 

The terms might be changed, you could warn them, but I think it would help let new members have a name they wanted, not some odd thing as a last resort.

[Tesseract]

If you take a look at the member list' date=' you'll notice that out of just over 2000 members, 642 of them have not posted at all, and quite a few haven't logged on since they registered. Then there are loads more with less than 5 posts. It probably is annoying when you register, to have register form tell you that your name is already in use by someone who never posted. So I propose this: Members that have not logged in for six months (or some other length of time), and have 5 (or some other number) or less posts, should be deleted.

 

The terms might be changed, you could warn them, but I think it would help let new members have a name they wanted, not some odd thing as a last resort.[/quote']

 

What if they registered then got into a coma or something and then they wake up and they arent registered anymore?

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

How likely is that?

[Tesseract]

How likely is that?

 

Well, maybe not a coma what if they get a seizure or a holiday but then get kidnapped and sent to harsh labour in cuba.

[Dave]

Are they causing any harm by being there? Not really. Then why is it necessary to remove accounts that may, in the future, be used?

[Tesseract]

Are they causing any harm by being there? Not really. Then why is it necessary to remove accounts that may, in the future, be used?

If a person wants to make a username thats alreday in use they should just email one of the mods or admins and they can just delete that specific user acount you dont need to wipe all of them.

[Dave]

I think that there's always a possibility that the account will be used in the future at some point. You have to also consider that quite a few of these people will probably never post things but read the forums anyway.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

You can read it without being a member.

[Dave]

They still made the effort to register the account in the first place.

 

And I still don't see the point of it all anyway.

[Primarygun]

Are they in a race of doing that?

[jordan]

And I still don't see the point of it all anyway.

So we can laugh at physicsforums and say "HaHa. You might have 9,000 members but all ours post and remain active."

[Dave]

That would be rather silly, because it's blatently not true.

[Tesseract]

Are they in a race of doing that?

 

ummm, no.

[AtomicMX]

I agree with Cap'n Refsmmat, and he is talking about people with 5 or less posts...

won't be a lost at all, and if he (the person) want to post in the future, then he might create another account...

 

but well.. as in bussiness, the boss commands.

[jordan]

That would be rather silly, because it's blatently not true.

Exactly. The only reason I could come up with to do this doesn't even make sense. I don't think it needs to be done.

[atinymonkey]

It might be an idea to send out reminder emails to people who have not posted. It may remind them they joined the forum, and get them posting. Who knows.

[Tesseract]

It might be an idea to send out reminder emails to people who have not posted. It may remind them they joined the forum, and get them posting. Who knows.

 

I agree a mass wipage is stupid.They can at least be warned.

[admiral_ju00]

Think about it in terms of numbers. When someone looks at this forum and sees that it has 3,000 members, and they will most likely be interested in registering(not knowing the actual number of the total active users). But if someone finds a forum with say 50 people(assuming that all are active) then that might deter them from going there.

 

It's always (or at least usually) better to go where the crowds are bigger