From the beginning of 2009 until mid 2010 I had no Internet connection whatsoever becaused I moved home and there were technical difficulties. However, my Yahoo accounts were not deleted, nor where the AOL, ICQ, Jabber and other IM/e-mail accounts and there are many places I haven't visited in a very long time but my accounts are still alive there. It wasn't that I abandoned them - it was just a technical impossibility.
You do not provide notification e-mails for replies or new posts for registered members. We've had that discussion already, won't revive it. But since I often forget in a disturbing manner (possibly Alzheimer's, dunno), it's possible I may simply forget about this place, unwillingly. Or I may fall from the roof and lay in a coma in a hospital bed for a year. Well, guess you don't consider your site so important to me and obviously I'm not important to you at all.
But let me ask you: how much physical space does a user account take? Is it that much to justify deletion? What happens with usernames after the deletion of their accounts - will they be reusable? If so, don't you think it would be highly dangerous? Old members might trust each-other (not only from here) so when a long-lost "member" comes back with the same nickname and publishes some malware, people may fall for it, before you get the chance to check the attachments and so on. But even false statements may be made by someone impersonating an old member.
Of course, you may blacklist the deleted members' nicknames so they would not be available again. That list may take some space. If you add to it their old posts it may grow quite a lot, maybe more that their actual accounts would take. Would that be beneficial to anybody?
So the actual question is: what is the REAL purpose of this action?
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Fool's design
- Posts: 315
- Joined: 2013-02-14 10:11
@Drugwash,
All of your points are valid, including those earlier about email notifications. Even though we do not have full agreement with you about them "in practice", we (all of the unnamed founders) do have full agreement with you in theory.
This issue is not about database space, that space is insignificant for us. It is about creating a vibrant and active community. When IRC was alive, one of the biggest networks (DALnet) had a 30 days expiration date on the nicknames. If you failed to show up, you lost your nickname. No warnings, no nothing. The brutal good ol' days.
Now, we don't like that kind of short period of time. 30 days is way too low but our internal discussions do lean towards a deletion of an inactive account (once we have settled on what an inactive account means), without losing any posts that is.
There are many reasons why a member suddenly stops visiting, from as you pointed out forgetting us or technical reasons or illness or other variety of things, but at the end of the day, this community must move forward. We cannot "carry the weak" on our shoulders because then we would slowly but surely become like places such as MSFN.org. Thousands of members, yet, only a handful few are visiting them and/or posting content. Dead weight is something we will avoid at all costs. Even if it would be at the cost of losing a member here or there, who due to various personal reasons, would get his account to be marked as an "inactive member". We rather have 4 active members than 40000 old accounts collecting digital dust.
We do not provide email hosting, not even messaging function is active in here. Members cannot delete or edit old posts to change the past. For that very reason, we have kept anonymous posting open and fully functional to prevent people from creating dead accounts just to say a word or two.
Bottom line is that being a member in our community must mean something. Well, that is what we are aiming at. Of course, what we aim for doesn't mean we will succeed at hitting that target. Keeping dusty old accounts would certainly not be fair to the active members who worked hard at keeping their active status.
Despite all of the above, please bear in mind that we have not yet decided on how to handle inactive members and what does an inactive member mean, so the issue is still open for debate.
All of your points are valid, including those earlier about email notifications. Even though we do not have full agreement with you about them "in practice", we (all of the unnamed founders) do have full agreement with you in theory.
This issue is not about database space, that space is insignificant for us. It is about creating a vibrant and active community. When IRC was alive, one of the biggest networks (DALnet) had a 30 days expiration date on the nicknames. If you failed to show up, you lost your nickname. No warnings, no nothing. The brutal good ol' days.
Now, we don't like that kind of short period of time. 30 days is way too low but our internal discussions do lean towards a deletion of an inactive account (once we have settled on what an inactive account means), without losing any posts that is.There are many reasons why a member suddenly stops visiting, from as you pointed out forgetting us or technical reasons or illness or other variety of things, but at the end of the day, this community must move forward. We cannot "carry the weak" on our shoulders because then we would slowly but surely become like places such as MSFN.org. Thousands of members, yet, only a handful few are visiting them and/or posting content. Dead weight is something we will avoid at all costs. Even if it would be at the cost of losing a member here or there, who due to various personal reasons, would get his account to be marked as an "inactive member". We rather have 4 active members than 40000 old accounts collecting digital dust.
We do not provide email hosting, not even messaging function is active in here. Members cannot delete or edit old posts to change the past. For that very reason, we have kept anonymous posting open and fully functional to prevent people from creating dead accounts just to say a word or two.
Bottom line is that being a member in our community must mean something. Well, that is what we are aiming at. Of course, what we aim for doesn't mean we will succeed at hitting that target. Keeping dusty old accounts would certainly not be fair to the active members who worked hard at keeping their active status.
Despite all of the above, please bear in mind that we have not yet decided on how to handle inactive members and what does an inactive member mean, so the issue is still open for debate.
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If you're going to adopt this, my vote is for not less than 6 months (up to a year as maximum)
Of course, anyone, (with minor inconvenience) can grab a username and make a post, therefore
the policy will impact registered members only (?) (ouch)
[er, 'I, User' did know that Pieter Aertsen's "Peasants by the Hearth" is probably set in a
House of Ill Repute, right?...]
Of course, anyone, (with minor inconvenience) can grab a username and make a post, therefore
the policy will impact registered members only (?) (ouch)
[er, 'I, User' did know that Pieter Aertsen's "Peasants by the Hearth" is probably set in a
House of Ill Repute, right?...]
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Fool's design
- Posts: 315
- Joined: 2013-02-14 10:11
EMPTORXC wrote:If you're going to adopt this, my vote is for not less than 6 months (up to a year as maximum)...
Why that long? Is a member really "active" when not around for up to a year?! That seems like an awfully long time. If you have a friend who has not talked to you for oh, one year, is that really still a friend? That person is just an acquaintance.
EMPTORXC wrote:...anyone, (with minor inconvenience) can grab a username and make a post, therefore
the policy will impact registered members only (?) (ouch)...
Yes, that is the point of this all. Being a member and having an account means something. It means that you care enough to keep that account by at least visiting this place. What would be the point of having an account if someone isn't even visitingt the Web site, especially since anyone can post in here anyway.
We don't want you to feel as if you are visiting a graveyard when a you see the list of other members in here. Having 1000 dead accounts will just make you feel that you just entered a graveyard.
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Scorpius
When you used "my picture" earlier , I realized I don't have an account in here. Since I am paying a big chunk of the server cost, I suppose having my own account is prudent. 
Some say what if a member can't visit this place, loss of Internet or whatever other reason. Well, what if you can't pay your rent? Would they wait for you 12 months or just move on? This place is not a charity. We provide a service to people, not ghosts! Our goal should be to have a brazen and active community. Not providing empty abandoned apartments. That's my two cents.
, I realized I don't have an account in here. Since I am paying a big chunk of the server cost, I suppose having my own account is prudent. Some say what if a member can't visit this place, loss of Internet or whatever other reason. Well, what if you can't pay your rent? Would they wait for you 12 months or just move on? This place is not a charity. We provide a service to people, not ghosts! Our goal should be to have a brazen and active community. Not providing empty abandoned apartments. That's my two cents.
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Drugwash
Thank you all. My profile is ready to be deleted. Admin, please delete my account as soon as poosible, including any and all backups of it. Thank you!
Everybody: from now on, do not trust anyone that comes here using the nickname 'Drugwash' - I will not return here ever again.
Everybody: from now on, do not trust anyone that comes here using the nickname 'Drugwash' - I will not return here ever again.
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Fool's design
- Posts: 315
- Joined: 2013-02-14 10:11
@Drugwash,
Not a porblem. Your account is now deleted. We do not delete any old posts, however.
Not a porblem. Your account is now deleted. We do not delete any old posts, however.
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Scorpius
Well, he just proved my point. He took offence to... what exactly? That we would like to keep an active community? That we don't want to wash your anus hole for you? If you want to visit us once or twice a year, it's fine, go ahead but don't expect us to see you as an "active member".
So once every six months, after 10 years, you would have visited us like 20 times! Wow! Such a valuable asset to this community!
He would have never reacted like that if he really cared about being a part of this place. Unlike other forums that you can't have a say in anything, here we are, openly and candidly discussing this thing and what does he do? He takes off and demands that we delete his profile at once!
Well, to hell with him. He can go fuck himself.
So once every six months, after 10 years, you would have visited us like 20 times! Wow! Such a valuable asset to this community!
He would have never reacted like that if he really cared about being a part of this place. Unlike other forums that you can't have a say in anything, here we are, openly and candidly discussing this thing and what does he do? He takes off and demands that we delete his profile at once!
Well, to hell with him. He can go fuck himself.
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