Deleting users.

[RavenChild]

I have seen a number of people lately that have only posted 2 times or some other low number and haven't ever been heard from again. some other forums that i was part of, did a cleanup every so often and cleaned the forum of users that had been inactive for a year, had no posts and no activity for some time, or people banned for life. Does this kind of this happen here every so offten or does the number of users just keep increasing?

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[Thany]

I think it only increase : just look at all those 2001 users no longer here

[xris]

Well, as GHDPro has already said, AnimeSuki started on 26th December 2002. The forums have been around before that but not as an anime related site (that's why you can see members back from 2001), so the (real) forums are about a year old now.

There hasn't really been a need to do things like remove inactive users, while they do take up some storage space, it doesn't look like the we are running out of steam. It might happen in the future but who knows. I've been using the site since I discovered BT on 26th Jan 2003 (joined the forums on 29th Jan), a lot of new members have joined since then

BTW, is there a reason for your question?

[RavenChild]

Originally Posted by xris

Well, as GHDPro has already said, AnimeSuki started on 26th December 2002. The forums have been around before that but not as an anime related site (that's why you can see members back from 2001), so the (real) forums are about a year old now.

There hasn't really been a need to do things like remove inactive users, while they do take up some storage space, it doesn't look like the we are running out of steam. It might happen in the future but who knows. I've been using the site since I discovered BT on 26th Jan 2003 (joined the forums on 29th Jan), a lot of new members have joined since then

BTW, is there a reason for your question?

no, i just read two posts started by people that only have one post and haven't been back since. it was just a question about the forums, nothing else.

[Lefteris_D]

Why delete extra users if they dont post? They dont take up any space or anything(besides a few kb in the database). Btw, I'm a "2001" user myself...

[RavenChild]

Originally Posted by Mb81

*Datebase Reasons*

Please no Mass Pruning etc.. that`s only ends in work for me (yeah, i`m lazy, i know..) normaly...

I think, with currently 500 Users on the board; doing nothing is fine *g*.

ohh, i thought that there was more than 500. that changes everything. i'm a network lover so every time i have a chance i clean up my domain at my house. but i'm not a neat freak in real life, just in my virtual hole.

[xris]

Originally Posted by RavenChild

ohh, i thought that there was more than 500.

You are correct, there are more than 500. There are over 7,000 members of this forum. Perhaps what Mb81 meant was that were are usually no more than 500 active members using the forum at any one time (which is irrelevant to the point you were making concerning removing non-active members).

You just have to get used to the mindset that there are oodles of Mb storage on the server so there's little point in doing a spring clean of the deadwood

[GHDpro]

There would be no reason to do this for space reasons -- plenty of
HD space is still left on the server. And as Mb81 already mentioned,
it's not very neat to delete users which still have a few posts,
as those posts will be assigned to "Guest".

What I may do soon is delete all users which have registered, but
not posted anything (0 posts total) since November 2003.
That would get rid of the "2001" users which were not anime fans for example.

At least, I've done this a few times in the past. Previously those "2001"
users which did post at least something in the anime forums of the old
days would not have been deleted, but this time they will.

[GHDpro]

FYI, I've just deleted 2184 (!) forum users who:

- Registered before November 2003 (before the reset)
- Haven't posted anything in that time (0 posts)
- Haven't logged on for 120 days (4 months)

If you do not fall into the categories above obviously
your account will not have been affected at all.

[Gaernin]

I would like to delete my account but can't find anywhere to do it on the User CP. Anyone know how?

[felix]

You can not delete your account. You can remove all information in your account and never come back again, and at best you can get yourself banned in which case your current info will be frozen in. To clarify, a admin might be able to do it but its such a disruptive operation no sane person would do it knowing the implications. In your case you already have two posts so even more reason to not delete your account.

Why do you want to delete the account anyway?

[NightWish]

As Cats says, users cannot delete their own account. Indeed, currently we do not physically delete accounts, we only withdraw the profile from public view (disable the account). This allows the forum structure (existing posts and the like) to remain unchanged.

[Kitsune]

Well, the only point I could think about deleting old inactive accounts is maybe the username could be used by somebody else who liked it and since those accounts do still exist, those usernames will be unavailable for new memebers...

but well, that can be easily solved with the username change thread ^^

(after all my actual username is an example of this xDDD)

[Dr. Casey]

So... what was AnimeSuki before December 2002?

[felix]

Before, it was on this other software with post counts, gender tags etc and at some point before that part of the Emulator Zone forum or something. You can see it by simply going to a web archive site. What does this have to do with the topic though?

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

Well, the only point I could think about deleting old inactive accounts is maybe the username could be used by somebody else who liked it and since those accounts do still exist, those usernames will be unavailable for new memebers...

but well, that can be easily solved with the username change thread ^^

(after all my actual username is an example of this xDDD)

Well, there is another thing... my-SQL queries can be sped up when the record sets contain less (garbage) data. This might actually be more effective in join operations where the username/id is the primary or foreign key.
It certainly isn't an extreme improvement and in contrast to other things has almost neglible impact on the peformance (per query), but it can make a difference if very many users use the board at the same time (peak usage performance).

[Dr. Casey]

Originally Posted by Cats

Before, it was on this other software with post counts, gender tags etc and at some point before that part of the Emulator Zone forum or something. You can see it by simply going to a web archive site. What does this have to do with the topic though?

Just a curious question about what xris mentioned, about AnimeSuki not being an anime site before December 26th 2002. Not to mention that an off-topic question can't hurt too much considering that the guy's question was answered six years ago.

[NightWish]

Originally Posted by The Small One

Is it really important, why somebody wants an account to be deleted?

Nope, but knowing does allow alternatives to be suggested or problems to be resolved without drastic measures.

Originally Posted by The Small One

...the account-owner is the creator of all his posts and holds the copyright.

... and by knowingly posting in public, on a public forum, the user accepts that the forum has the right to reproduce the material for such purposes as are keeping with the forum's purpose, i.e. discussion, etc.

Originally Posted by The Small One

If he wishes to have the posts removed it should be done. There are even laws that say so in several countries.

Technically I think it is possible to withdraw the aforementioned implied consent, but if the person does and had contributed a lot it could be quite detrimental to the forum structure. Break the flow of threads or, if not handled right in the case of a thread's first post, completely remove the discussion. And that doesn't even consider the technical problems introduced by the prevalence of excessive whole-post quoting.

In an antagonistic environment (hypothetical situation where the forum operators refused to allow deletion because of the impact), they would probably have to go through a general cease and desist type procedure. Presumably arguing copyright infringement. It could get costly; very much so if the courts get involved. And then the case may fail if the court agrees that the damage to the forum is disproportionate. I don't think there are any statutes or test cases that specifically deal with "forum posts", but then I'm not a lawyer... Even with all that, I think a tightly worded terms of service agreement could cover said hypothetical forum.

We've not written such a policy, stipulating the presumed grant of use in perpetuity, because we prefer to keep things low-key and friendly. We don't stop people editing their own posts or deleting them (when they are not new threads). As yet, very few people have wanted to remove all their posts and those that have hadn't contributed much.

Originally Posted by The Small One

I'm not sure, is it possible to delete an account without deleting the posts belonging to it?

Technically it is, because there is no database enforced referential integrity, within VB's database design. It does cause a mess though, which is why we avoid it. I think our alternative of providing the user with a way of redacting their profile and disabling their account is sufficient for the time being.

[Vexx]

Rather than *deleting* the account... it'd just be much cleaner to lock it and rename it. The only scenario I can think of that might still be a problem is that if the user was trying to scrub their web presence for legal reasons (or stalking reasons). In that case, the user would simply have to review all their posts and remove any personally identifying material before the lock/rename.

Essentially, this is such an unusual situation - I should think the forum owners could handle it on a case-by-case basis.

[felix]

Don't treat the forum like facebook and you can come and go as you please.