Member Weed

[Arkbennett 16]

I am suggesting to Emily and Marked that they should do a members weed sometime soon.

 

Just go through all the members and find the ones that have like, 0 posts, no avatar, no public information, and havn't longed on in the past 90 days.. Or so... Or less.

 

I think it's a good idea. ;)

[Leon 55]

Man, between you an Nisage, i have gotten so strange vibes from topic titles (Member Weed, A Ro(u)bber [A nice way to spend an evening])

Anyway, not a bad thought, however. many people join because of the number of members, not just the active ones.

[Arkbennett 16]

I've considered this. But I've decided that we have plenty of fake members, so why not let go of a few?

[Wyzrd 12]

I agree to a degree I would say. Fake members are annoying. But since running my own site I can tell you some people only sign up because they see how many people have signed up. I've had people tell me they won't sign up on my site because I don't have enough people, due to the fact I'm starting from scratch again.

[Kiriashi 117]

Wyzrd does have a point there... Well I came here thinking this was a place for members to sell weed.... xD JK JK

But you know, I have been sending comments and PMs to the people that have recently joined with warm personal welcomes, and after a couple days, they respond and start posting on the forums. I think my technique is working and we should all use comments and PMs to welcome noobies.

 

Just don't delete me as if I am a fake member. I keep this place alive.

[Arkbennett 16]

I just think we need more luscious strong, bi curious independent members to rape "teach" to keep this community alive, and less non-existent members. I'm not saying to get rid of all the fakes, just a portion.

[Kiriashi 117]

Haha, you made me ROFL my pants off.

 

 

Lets just get rid of the OLD in-active people.

[Joey 9]

Wyzrd does have a point there... Well I came here thinking this was a place for members to sell weed.... xD JK JK

.........

I gotta be honest that did come to my mind for a second when I saw the title...lol

I really didn't know what Member Weed meant, though I think I know now...(no, not the above, lol) I dunno, I say leave them on, unless they're fake members or those bots (I've never seen them but whatever). Otherwise people may see the member count and think this place would be somewhat dead or inactive, I dunno.

[Darkness366 0]

such a twist, something that would be making one high and happy being about removing members, that never come on.

 

It is probably a good idea, they are accounts are just there but not being used if no one is logging on. The people could just easily recreate an account if they lose their account and really want one later. But it wouldn't hurt them just to log on and post every once in awhile. As for me, I am kind of new, I come on at least once a day and post when I have something to say. I would also like to mention that Kiriashi PMing me after I became a member did help me start talking since, I normally don't start posting on forums and end up like those ghost members.

 

Anyway, I do think that the old accounts that haven't been logged on in a long time. and basically are never used should be removed.

 

And I am having a nice date with some weed soon. yeah, good old poisoning the lawn weeds.

[Arkbennett 16]

lo0l, well you have fun with that darkness!

And thanks for your input buddy! ;)

[Darkness366 0]

Not a problem at all, I am happy to actually be a member at this site. I might have joined at other sites, but this is really the only one I have posted on forums in. And yeah, doing lawn work is always fun since my house was build on an old swamp and we have a standing water problem in the back, plus I am clumsey. :P

[Wyzrd 12]

Dating weed is bad, though I can't say nothing when I'm living up in the sky.

[Marked 197]

I'm sorry to disagree with every single member who posted in this topic so far... but lets see if I can't show you why I'm against pruning members.

 

I'll have to limit my argument to "fake" members only: member with no posts, avatar, or any sign of activity at all.

 

Firstly they are neutral. The provide neither benefit or harm. So they are useless, why do we need them, why should we have them?

 

Wyzrd's point of the amount of members you have affects the amount of registrations does not apply to this forum in my opinion. Once you get a certain amount of members, registrations as a goal completely disappears. I think it was around the 2000 mark for me. Of the 917 days since the beginning, there have been 7011 registrations, giving us an average of 7.6 registrations a day. Keep in mind that we had 2 months of downtime in 2006, countless random occasions on our various hosts, so the average for this year is higher. I do not think that 7 guests click the registration button everyday because they see 4000 members already registered. If we pruned members, say in half, I think that the same amount of users will register everyday.

 

As I said in the above paragraph, 7000 people have registered to date. We have 4,300 accounts, so we have already pruned in the past.

 

The advantages of the fake members in my view are: I like to see a high member account. Various members on the forum have put a lot of effort into it(the forum), and it's a slight motivation to see a large value there and also gives the sense that all the work did actually achieve something and got recognized. Members like Leon who had this commitment dropped on him and he put in the time. isaacsol who hosts the site included, and then of course Emily and myself. To us they are mere values in our database, but they do help.

 

Motivation is a big one. We're known amongst ourselves for fluctuations in activity, it changes like the weather, and kills motivation. The amount of ideas that run through my head seem to be unlimited, but obviously I am prevented in seeing them through. Since my return there have been a lot which I'm going to announce in the next couple of weeks, and I'm really close to making the final break through in my site project.

 

Another thing is bulk emailing. In our time I think we've sent out four, each time setting records for members visited in one day(today the record was doubled because of a spambot getting PM-happy) and pageviews in one day. The main advantage to that in my view is that we were in a real slump before one or two of those bulk emails, and they are generally a spark of activity. We haven't been required to do that in a long while, thankfully. I am actually against bulk emails however, I think its slightly unethical of a forum to do so. It can seem like a negative form of advertising, and simply spam. That would depend on the bulk email of course. If I were to send an email to every member of the forum for something such as an interesting topic(eg a contest), to me that would be considered spam. Does it apply to every member you're emailing? Will it benefit them? Ethics is important.

 

Lastly, this is a personal thing for me I suppose, I want to keep user IDs as close to the account count as possible. The 4303rd member has a member ID of 7011, the gap is huge. Further down the line I don't want the 3000th member(because of pruning, they're 3000th) to have an ID of 10,000. I would like the gap to be as close as possible.

 

Originally I had a lot more arguments in mind, but the arguments trying to defend members with no posts who haven't visited the forum in more than 3 months are rather limited.

 

I think it's a good idea. ;)

Okay, so why is it a good idea?

[Arkbennett 16]

I can understand your point of view Marked. I just think it's a good idea because I'm an organization freak.

[Kiriashi 117]

Well after reading what Marked said I think I agree with him. Organization isn't a good enough reason.

[Marked 197]

I can understand your point of view Marked. I just think it's a good idea because I'm an organization freak

 

Well after reading what Marked said I think I agree with him. Organization isn't a good enough reason

 

I see where you're coming from. I do have one or two personal preferences like this, I suppose it is a flaw of mine. I do feel alone in this :(