Purging Inactive Members

[Shawn Gossman]

How do you feel about the idea of purging inactive members?

This would mean mass-deleting those who are no longer active. Maybe for a year or more...

Is this something you have done, will do, or are current practicing on your forum?

What are your advantages and disadvantages of doing it?

What's everyone's thoughts on this type of tactic?

 

[Cpvr]

I’m not a fan of purging inactive members. There’s a chance they could return one day. I know I’ve left forums alone for a couple of years at a time, and I’d be extremely disappointed if I came back to find my account deleted.

So, as a forum owner, this isn’t something I would do.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I’m not a fan of purging inactive members. There’s a chance they could return one day. I know I’ve left forums alone for a couple of years at a time, and I’d be extremely disappointed if I came back to find my account deleted.

So, as a forum owner, this isn’t something I would do.

Personally, I am in agreement with you.

I would leave the accounts alone.

I would, however, want to send periodic emails to see how they are.

 

[AWS]

I got into a habit of purging old members. Reason for it at one time spammers would create accounts that would sit idle for months and sometimes years. Then all of sudden they would come alive and you'd have a boat load of spam.

I haven't seen this happen in a while. New spam filters stop them from even registering so it might not be a problem any longer.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I got into a habit of purging old members. Reason for it at one time spammers would create accounts that would sit idle for months and sometimes years. Then all of sudden they would come alive and you'd have a boat load of spam.

I haven't seen this happen in a while. New spam filters stop them from even registering so it might not be a problem any longer.

That's what I would think now.

I wouldn't purge because I'm using that spam filter idea you have.

We have promotion features on XF. I wonder if we can't do that in reverse? If you become inactive, you get put back into an inactive member group where you can't post links.