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under stats, currently it reads: Members: 117,912
I don't think there are that many members posting regularly by any stretch of the imagination...
Is there any rule that deactivates a members account after so many months/years of not posting?
Just curious
westin
No, there is no obligation to post. Being a member gives you more options than just logging in as a guest, so people join for that reason.
I am a member of several forums where I have never posted, just for that reason. :)
Ditto. I am a member of several forums just to lurk or to search their data base when I need to find a solution.
Right on... appreciate the replies...
I realize it's a numbers issue...the more numbers the bigger the prize ;) ...and to some extent it's a lurking issue...
huge member bases may impress advertisers but they are nevertheless skewed data...
membership bases should reflect ' actual usage '...
the way to have ' actual usage ' stats would be to eliminate those members who joined but never posted and do not lurk...
eg. a person joins...has no posts...then profile data tells you the person hasn't been back in 6 months since joining...delete account
this way you maintain some truer measure of ' actual usage '
but...as said...it's a numbers game. ;)
But I've seen a fair number of instances where a user joins, doesn't post for a yr, and then returns. I've seen that even on this forum.
They can always re-join ;)
I realize that with the membership base you have it would be quite the task to eliminate every account not really active...probably as difficult as upgrading and keeping things the way they were...;)
And this being primarily a commercial site numbers are important.
But...in response to the OP's question...yes...stats very seldom reflect ' actual usage '. In most cases a very small percentage ( usually less than 10% of members ) post infrequently-frequently...maybe another 10-15% lurk, again, infrequently-frequently...and as much as 80% are spam accounts, one-time posters, and people that have moved on or forgotten they even joined.
So...if I were to evaluate the numbers the OP stated ( Members: 117,912 ) my estimate in this case would be:
approximately 94,329 are spam accounts, one-time posters, and people that have moved on or forgotten they even joined
maybe 11,791 lurk infrequently-frequently
maybe 7860 post very infrequently
3,780 post occasionally
and 151 post regularly
these figures would, in my opinion, be generous estimates.
They could, but we don't like to make them do that. There's always the chance that they would be put off that their account was deleted, and not bother rejoining. I might feel that way myself. Who are we to say how long a period of dormancy is too long? That's how I think I'd feel.
Chances are...most people who join ...who don't lurk or post...for more than 6 months after joining ...aren't going to...exceptions apply...but would be a rarity. ;)
There is obviously a difference between the value of stats of a commercial site vs a non-commercial site...most commercial sites have artificially high stats because that's what attracts advertisers...
so...I am not in any way recommending the deletion of accounts...because that would be counter-productive in this case.
But...the OP had two primary questions:
1. " I don't think there are that many members posting regularly by any stretch of the imagination "
and
2. " Is there any rule that deactivates a members account after so many months/years of not posting? "
and the short answer is:
1. stats are/can be very deceptive if you don't know how to decipher/evaluate them
2. on a commercial site there is no motivation to delete accounts that are not active
I can say right on all counts except the 1st premise. I've seen too many users return after extended hiatus to make that assumption. Yes, they're in the minority, but it's still too large a figure, regardless of the actual % the represent. The rest is dead on.
What happened to the front page...???
Where is the users online...I like that feature....
I also like to customize what I see on the front page......
MLF
I still have it... maybe you customized the front page a little too much :)Quote:
» Online Users: 175
14 members and 161 guests
westin, deftones12, Guerilla Smurf, hesperus, morganlefay, Negative, rasterdragon, RoadClosed, shakeshuck, thehorse13, ©opy®ight
Most users ever online was 305, 12-11-2006 at 05:49 AM.
You can still customize it some. Any of those boxes you don't wish to see there are collapsible, and they'll remember the position you set if you're cookied.
There is no user box on the front page....
I know about the collapsable boxs...the little arrows give it away :rolleyes:
MLF
that is really odd... the front page looks perfectly normal to me...
OK
UI cleared all settings\cookies etc and restarted IE7...looked great til I logged in...
then it went back to the image attached
MLF
I'm having the same problem...MLF...so it's not just you...I've lost both side bars.
You have JS disabled? Those RSS feeds are parsed with a javascript.
Wait, I know what it is. It's the senior registered usergroup's default permissions. I'll fix it.
Nothing changed here...its all fine till I log in
MLF
That should do it.
Yes...it is all fixed now...
and I thought I did something ;)
Thanks
MLF
Well I was fully prepared to blame you anyway ;)
I know... :rolleyes:
;)
MLF
I'm telegraphing again? I have to work on that :D
Everybody should post here, because AO is so cool...
Ok...it did go off topic...and my fault
But they were talking about the stats page....which just disappeared..
So I posted.....
Lighten up a bit will ya....
Happy Winter Solstice ;)
MLF
There's one forum I belong to that _pings_ me via an email if I havent signed on in 3 or 4 months. Kind of a reminder.
We'd be afraid that would be seen as invasive.
Yeah...to be honest I got a lil freaked out when I got my first reminder email. I was like _So what, what's it to ya? So what if I havent been around lately, been busy._
lol
The other option would be to track total members and then ACTIVE members but like you said above who's to say what the definition of ACTIVE is...within 1 week, 1 month, 2 months, etc.
We can always get that info, who's been on and who hasn't in x amount of days, but again, we have no wish to badger our members. If we have something new to report, we might email em, like we did after the upgrade.
I also suspect that we have a number of members who don't actually login unless they have something to post. They would just appear to be a guest looking at threads?
I've got a hotmail account that I really only use when I don't want to give someone my "real" email address, and for msn (which I basically don't use in any case). Every so often hotmail closes the account and deletes all the emails in my inbox, which is quite handy in a way since it saves me deleting all those FWD emails and crap that go to it :). Ironically that's the account that I'm registered with on AO. hehe
I guess this isn't really relevant, but seems amusing to me.
ac