Removal of non-active members

[Enzed]

Is there a problem with unused accounts? ie Ones that haven't logged in for a while.

Do they require money or effort spent maintaining them?

If so then it may be worth sending the member an email indicating this and asking if they wish for their membership to be removed.

If not then it would seem there's not a lot of point doing it.

I agree with Terrance - what's the point in removing accounts if it doesn't take money or effort to maintain them?

[Terence Charles]

This seems to be a recurring theme PGB.

It crops up about every twelve months or so. Is there something we don't know that irritates you about this?

[AJ Konlucko]

This seems to be a recurring theme PGB.

It crops up about every twelve months or so. Is there something we don't know that irritates you about this?

Very much so... i hate seeing xxxx members but only a few are active. If you can't sign in and post even once a year why be a member...

[Terence Charles]

I guess there can be so many reasons for not logging in...

Change of family circumstances, writers block, frustration with the current conversations, so many more!

Probably best for you just not to look at the numbers..

I can't see that a reduction in the numbers of the AWF membership would be a great selling tool for the recruitment of new members.

I guess every member gets something different from the forum. Who knows, maybe they'll all come back sometime when it suits them.

[Enzed]

This forum is a great tool for researching issues of value to writers or potential writers.

The information stored here is extremely valuable. I often go back to old posts and re-read them for their valuable content.

I can see no valid reason to destroy all that work that members have contributed over time. Some of those posts go back years even if their contributors are no longer logging in for whatever reason. That does not make their contributions less valuable to others.

[AJ Konlucko]

Clearly I am on a totally different page to the rest of you with this. Maybe I should just leave you all to be and do whatever you want?

[Terence Charles]

Maybe you should!

I agree with Enzed.

I seems petulant to remove old members if there isn't a pressing or real need to do so. I would have thought a message saying their presence on the Forum is missed to encourage them back again would be a much better move.

If a move has to made at all!

[AJ Konlucko]

I am talking about members who have been a member for OVER a year, have NEVER posted and have not been on the forum in OVER a year. Not people who have been active in the past and are not now.

End of the day it seems nobody else gets it so I will stop banging my head against the wall and let you allcjust do what you want...

[PaulE]

Hi Paul,

From an IT admin perspective, I do understand where you're coming from. However, I do think our membership numbers help with appearance of the forum on search engines. I'd be concerned that a sudden drop in numbers would have an adverse affect on our search ranking. Unfortunately, I'm not an SEO expert, so don't know for sure.

Another possibility is that people may have forgotten that they have accounts. I've certainly joined a few things and then forgotten about it for one reason or another. Terence made a suggestion about contacting members, which could serve as a reminder to them that they have an account, and may tempt them to log back in.

Is there a feature that would allow us to email all members? Maybe we could start up a newsletter highlighting interesting topics on the forum, and start sending that out on a regular basis (say monthly).

[Terence Charles]

That seems a much more pro-active concept PaulE than just obliterating members accounts on a whim.

However I did ask if there was a downside, in man hours or costs for having inactive member and this was never answered and I can't see how it would really involve very much of either.

PGB himself was absent for quiet a while when he decided to return to his main hobby with radios and didn't involve himself with writing for a while.

I would have advised against cancelling his account at this time for precisely the same reasons that I'm advising against cancelling others now.

My advice PGB is -

'do stop banging your head against the wall and let the members do what they want!

'