It can be public knowledge, if you want any infomation feel free to ask.

As of this post there are currently 5330 registered members. Of those 86 have posted on the forum within the last 30 days. So that makes the figure 1.6%.

But if you then check who has been active as in last seen while logged in, the number goes to 155 which makes the figure 2.9%.

210 unique users have submitted one or more designs, so 3.9% of the currently registered users.

Why would they need removing? They're not doing any harm sitting in there so it seems silly to remove them surely?

@Christopher: As we know, you don't need an account to view the forum or to download designs. You only need one to comment or start posts, so I think any users who haven't commented or started a thread in 8-12 months should be removed. If they need to comment or start a thread, they can re-register. That will help clean up the database a little bit.

Newsletter is a good idea :)

@papab30: I explained in my previous comment why I think we should remove them. I had said:

...you don't need an account to view the forum or to download designs. You only need one to comment or start posts, so I think any users who haven't commented or started a thread in 8-12 months should be removed.

So again, to view the Open Designs forum or read comments, you don't need an account. You also don't need an account to download design templates. If people don't post threads or comments, having an account is pointless.

@JJenZz: What would we put in a newsletter that can't be viewed in a forum post or on the OD home page blog? Newsletters are cool but for OD I think it would be a waste of time since anything that we could put in a news letter could be a weekly or monthly post in the forum.

@bakercad: Agreed, they are not hurting anyone but having user accounts sitting dormant for 8-12 months without any posting or commenting does fill up the database and if people just want to read the forum or download designs, no account is needed.

I'm not saying removing dormant accounts who have posted or commented in the past, just the users who don't post or comment. My thoughts on this is just looking at ways we can keep the backend tidy and clean without unused accounts taking up space.

Posted By: conartistdesigns...Warn them that due to lack of account activity there account will be removed in 5 days (or something) to give them a chance to come back. At least don't remove the accounts without notifying the users.

I think not posting or commenting is lack of activity, at least worthy of having an account that isn't doing anything specific to some degree.

As mentioned before, if you only read posts and comments on the forum (which is fine) or download design templates (also perfectly fine), no account is necessary, so either people have registered an account thinking they need one to download designs or to read the forum. Both are untrue.

You only need an account if you submit templates, forum posting or commenting. Nothing else.

I'm puzzled at how people don't get what I'm saying here. I'm not saying zap accounts who have posted or commented, only accounts that have no activity which is required to have an account that's been unused for 8-12 months.

How would sending these technically un-active user accounts an email do anything? Example: "Hi, you have an OD account but don't post or comment, you only download designs and read the forum which a user account is not needed for this, so we are going to remove your account unless you post or comment within X days". To me that's a huge waste of time.

If people download designs and read the forum, they are being active but for those two functions, accounts are not necessary and as pointed out by Christopher, we have thousands of registered accounts doing just this... absolutely nothing forum posting, comment or design submission related.

Posted By: fernbapIt happens to me. I go to a forum, i see stuff, but i wonder if there is stuff only available to registered members. So, i register, just to realize that i got nothing from it. I believe many members are just that.

So if that's the case, we need to have more clear FAQ's or instructions... sort of a "how-to" get the most out of OD and what having an account verses not having account does for you.

Posted By: SeanI'm puzzled at how people don't get what I'm saying here

I for one, never said that I don't get what you're saying. I understand. But now that I think of it, a newsletter is not needed. After a member has been here for 12 months without posting at all, send them an email like papab30 said. Say something like

"Hey, we haven't seen you around Open Designs in the past 12 months, we've done some great things here, new designs...etc, etc.

To keep your account active, please click here [supply link] within 7 days. If after 7 days your account remains inactive it will be deleted. Of course, you can always come back, but you'll need to register all over again.

Thank you for understanding.

OpenDesigns.org"

Posted By: SeanI can see sending an email to users who were once active (posting, commenting or submitting designs) and are no longer active, but those are not the users I'm talking about.

If members were active (posting, commenting, submitting) even 8 or more months ago, what's to say that a little reminder before we cancel their account wouldn't spur them to come back and become a valuable member of the community?

I have nothing against cleaning up the database, but it's just common courtesy to give these people a bit of notice. It only takes a few minutes to fire off a mass email, doesn't it?

Posted By: acousticsamIf members were active (posting, commenting, submitting) even 8 or more months ago, what's to say that a little reminder before we cancel their account wouldn't spur them to come back and become a valuable member of the community?

I have nothing against cleaning up the database, but it's just common courtesy to give these people a bit of notice. It only takes a few minutes to fire off a mass email, doesn't it?

@acousticsam: I'm not talking about members who have posted, commented or submitted a design. I'm talking about users who have only registered an account and not posted, commented or submitted a design.

Posted By: 19jumpAs a 'dormant' member I am opposed to getting an eviction Email.

@19jump: You are one of the members who this wouldn't apply because even though you haven't posted, commented or submitted a design in a while, you have at one point been active, so your account would stay.

Again, I am talking about people who have accounts that don't do anything with it. No account is required to read the forum or download designs.

Sean,

I think we have a pretty good idea by now that a person DOES NOT NEED an account to read the forums, or to download a template. But, I think what's missing is seeing that something caused a person to 'want' to sign up for an account on Open Designs. From what I can see, there was something that caused them to go through the effort (how little it might be) to fill in a form to register an account. Maybe they've never used it since, but I think just by that fact it would be a good idea to shake the rafters and see why this person never used the account, and where they went instead of coming back to Open Designs.

For as busy as this community is, you would really think that there should be more 150 people being active community members, and this would be a good way of getting some new repeat customers.

I have no problem with doing DELETE FROM USERTABLE WHERE LASTLOGIN < 1/1/2008.

I would just hate to see throwing away that many contacts without first trying to encourage them to at least visit one more time. If they don't login at least once after the email, then delete them from the database.

A simple cron job would work to run through the users table, check last login and then fire off a reminder email to all users who haven't logged in during a set time frame. Remind the user that due to space restrictions and what not tthat all users who have no been active for a period of time will be removed. With this action you give those people a chance to revalidate themselves, and gives the staff here the ability to clean out the database on a regular schedule.

Posted By: copsworldWell I for one hate to have to sign up to comment or ask a question.

We made this a requirement in the very beginning to help keep spam to a minimum, not to make things harder for someone to comment or ask a question.

@papab30 and copsworld: what you both seem to be missing to some degree is I am not proposing removing accounts that have commented or posted at least once (even if it was over a year ago), or submitted a design template, but for users who have never posted anything.

There is no requirements for people to post threads, comments or designs. This is a users free choice.

The purpose of not removing an account that has at least one comment, etc is to keep that conversation on the forum.

Again, I am only wanting to remove accounts that are 8-12 months old or older and that have no trackable activity.

Posted By: conartistdesignsI understand that sean. I agree that it should be done. I just think they should be notified. Thats just me.

Ditto. I understand where you're coming from Sean. Keeping threads intact is a good thing and such. And a clean up is probably needed. But some kind of notification to those users might be in order.

I personally think that it's nice to have a core group of community users here who are active in the forums, and who also take the time to submit designs.

What if a member is only registered to submit a design now and then but does not deliver one design per year? Then they would need to re-register if they do not deliver at least one design per year? I think one year is a very short period for deleting accounts.

Posted By: bluecafeWhat if a member is only registered to submit a design now and then but does not deliver one design per year? Then they would need to re-register if they do not deliver at least one design per year? I think one year is a very short period for deleting accounts.

As I mentioned before, this wouldn't matter. If you only submit one design and never come back again, your account would stay on the site because there is content tied to it.

Is it causing any speed issues with the site having all those registered names? If not, I don't see why they even need to be purged. Maybe a 3 year inactive purge done every year?

why not? *shrug*

This would be my take on it: remove accounts only under the following conditions:
- have not logged in in over 12 months (this is important, because our logged-in lurkers want the convenience of knowing which threads they have or have not read)
- have never posted a comment or thread, or a comment on a news article
- have never posted a design

Sean: here is a challenge for you: make threads with comments not yet read by any staff show up with blue background for staff members. It is no wonder you are tired of repeating yourself, since not everyone reads all the comments before they post.

I was going to say exactly what gnome said for the criteria. I also think an opendesigns newsletter is a great idea... Although, to be honest not too many newsworthy things happen here...

Lists make sense for business sites, but I would imagine that trying to monetize OD by filling newsletters with affiliate links would be off-putting to many members.

Maybe I'm in the minority with my opinion, or perhaps I misunderstood your post.

Posted By: TrinLists make sense for business sites, but I would imagine that trying to monetize OD by filling newsletters with affiliate links would be off-putting to many members.

Maybe I'm in the minority with my opinion, or perhaps I misunderstood your post.

no, I don't mean that OD should should send out newsletters with a ton of affiliate links, but it wouldn't hurt to have another way to communicate with users besides the forum. A monthly newsletter filled with informative tidbits, is just another way to keep in touch with the users and it doesn't hurt to promote some products or services that add value to the community, like for example, maybe a list of members who offer hosting, members who port templates into WordPress themes. There is nothing wrong with helping each other prosper. Anyway, I am not admin here, nor am I a mod. Probably that is a good thing, as my opinions are not always popular

@arwen54: The suggestions you make about a newsletter promoting who offer hosting, members who port templates into WordPress themes could be done with a monthly forum post.

Newsletters are ok, but we would also need a way for people to opt in or out and right now we don't have that... all the 1,000's of users who have signed up for OD didn't agree to receiving a newsletter, so for us to just send out something might cause issues.

Then we would also need someone to maintain the list and putting together the newsletter.

I guess this needs more thought but my gut feeling is a newsletter for OD wouldn't offer anything new that couldn't be done in a forum post.

I'm doing some testing of WordPress 2.6 on our development server with a backup of our current user base and content to see how things run and work. Once I talk with Joe and Christopher and we do some additional testing, we can post a new thread about what will happen next.