Purging old/inactive members

A place to post thoughts, errors, praise, or other comments about CactiGuide.com
DaveW
Posts: 7373
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by DaveW »

The problem with old pictures can be people who don't post the picture on the forum itself but link to a hosting site. Then if they pull them off the hosting site or don't keep up their membership of that site they disappear off this Forum too, although the text of their post still remains
User avatar
EdekaReweAldiLidl
Posts: 88
Joined: Tue May 21, 2019 2:09 am

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by EdekaReweAldiLidl »

If the first 10 messages would be restricted, you would expect 10 questions from a new member. When I was a newbie, I didn't have anything useful to contribute. All I did was ask on the first posts.

Also, when I started with cacti, I was so excited and bought 4 different cacti. It would be difficult if I was restricted to ask for an ID for 1 cacti for every 10 posts.
DaveW
Posts: 7373
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by DaveW »

I don't mind lurkers who just read. Yes multiple pictures to identify plants in a single post can be a problem and the number per post should be restricted in the "Rules" (however when we join how many of us read the Rules?). Therefore when a new member makes a mistake it is only necessary to point it out politely to them to cut the number of images in future to that stated in the "Rules" and not wade in aggressively.

The restriction of a number for identification per post would only be because when you get to the end of the post you have forgotten what the first picture was and so don't bother to reply, therefore an excessive number of pictures per post is counter productive for the poster themselves. Maybe also normally restricting identification posts to solely the two identification sections and putting a limit of the number of pictures per post and limiting the requesters posts to one per day? As always with newcomers mistakenly posting in the wrong sections, we may need to move any to the correct one until they become familiar with the board.

In other travelogues or blogs that are not specifically requesting identities (though the odd "anybody know what this is" in a travelogue is OK) they could have no reasonable limit on pictures since they are aiming to share their information with others, as my travelogue on a Chile trip and others travelogues here:-

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/viewforum.php? ... 4d4c2c5f12

As said earlier, the normal method of culling is not if people did not post and simply lurked, but those who had not bothered even logging on for a year or more, whatever time period chosen. Their profile indicates the last occasion they logged on, therefore their activity is known. You don't have to be a member to read the Forum therefore that does not stop anybody lurking and reading, but why join if you don't want to post very occasionally or ask questions?

There is nothing stopping anybody coming back after a period away and reading without becoming a member again, though they obviously could not post and if they want to post simply reapplying and becoming a member again.

As said before, dead images in old posts are not the result of the forum taking them off, but people using image posting sites and then not keeping up their membership of those. I was on a camera site about eight years ago and left, however as I posted my images directly on it from my computer they are still there in my old posts, whereas if had I used a photo hosting site and left it too they would be gone now as the picture links would have been dead..

Maybe we could modify Steve's "Blogs" suggestion to "Blogs and Travelogues" and use this section for those wanting to show numerous pictures per post that were not specifically for identification purposes?

Anyway nobody wants to exclude anybody who is interested enough to keep logging on, poster or not. The idea surely is merely to remove the names of those of whom have obviously lost interest and departed the Forum?

Dave Whiteley (DaveW)
User avatar
Steve Johnson
Posts: 4514
Joined: Thu Nov 03, 2011 4:44 am
Location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by Steve Johnson »

DaveW wrote: Sun Jan 19, 2020 11:28 amMaybe we could modify Steve's "Blogs" suggestion to "Blogs and Travelogues" and use this section for those wanting to show numerous pictures per post that were not specifically for identification purposes?
When you mouse over the Cacti Places link, you'll see this description:

"Share info and Pictures about gardens, parks, nurseries, and other locations with cacti."

Since the Member Blogs forum is designed for people maintaining their own collections, I'll suggest changing "Cacti Places" to "Cacti Travelogues". No disrespect to our founder Daiv Freeman, but a few of his forum titles weren't very descriptive (hence why Member Topics is now Member Blogs). Same with Cacti Places, so bring this up with Elie, and if he agrees with my thinking on this, he can make the change.
If you just want photos without all the blather, please visit my Flickr gallery.
My location: Los Angeles, CA (Zone 10b)
User avatar
Edwindwianto
Posts: 497
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:43 am
Location: Bangkok - Thailand

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by Edwindwianto »

ElieEstephane wrote: Tue Mar 19, 2019 11:08 am
The problem with new memeber is endless IDs and requests and then they disappear.
I ask this question to forum, not to the author personally

Why is it a problem when people ask some ID and then disappear?

I mean...i only go to police station when i have some problem, right?
I mean, i dont have to hang around everytime in the police station, in order for them to help me, right?

I go there when i have some problem...my problem is fixed...i disappeared from that police station...
The next day and a lot if days to come after that...i don't think i need to hang around in that police station...
Chatting around with some polices etc

My point is...i dont see any problem with peoples disappearing after getting the ID answers

Some prople may buy their first 10 (or 100) cacti in an impulse...exited, asked iD...
But then, they find that this is not their thing...so they disappear...
Many of them are like this...

If any...answering ID question sharpen your own skill, right?

So, NO, peoples shouldnt get any restrictions to ask some ID they want

But, YES, you could delete some inactive member...let's say, member who don't post for longer than 5 years...
But if that means their old posts will be delete too...then let them stay
I dont see any problem with letting those inactive members stay...unless, this forum has a max number of member allowed...
Then...you really need to delete inactive members
DaveW
Posts: 7373
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by DaveW »

It's not a problem people disappearing Edwin, it is just pointless keeping them on the list of members if they are not going to log in say at least once a year or so. I have been on sites that claimed they had hundreds of members mainly because they were supported by advertising, but in fact they had very few logging in to them before they closed and were never clearing out the "dead men", some probably were actually dead at that time! Therefore you could consider that a form of fraud by inflating membership numbers in order to attract advertisers money. Newspapers usually regularly publish their audited circulation list for advertisers, since there is no point them advertising if nobody is reading the paper.

The difference between our type of free sites and subscription ones or printed Journals is they know by subscription renewals who has rejoined that year and last years members list is updated. We have no feedback except looking at your or my profile to see when we last logged on, even if we lurk rather than post. Therefore nobody would get removed before say a set period of not logging on. Also people who left can always rejoin again, and some do.

Deleting members does not delete their past posts, or necessarily their pictures. I can go back to sites I left years ago and still see my pictures there because I posted them directly to that site from my computer. The reason pictures disappear is usually they are not posted on this site, but on a picture hosting site which if they do not keep up their membership their pictures get deleted, therefore the link to them is dead. I am not enough of a computer nerd to know if keeping "dead men on the books" takes up much bandwidth, but it seems a bit pointless cluttering the membership list up with people gone forever.

I think Elie means some people just come join and just ask for their plants to be named and then immediately leave without ever contributing anything else. They could always give a few details of their methods of growing etc in a post, or post pictures when their plants flower as well as merely asking for identifications.

One problem with posting a long list of photo's at once for identification is by the time the reader has scrolled down to the bottom they have forgotten what the top one was therefore do not bother to name any, which is counterproductive for the poster themselves. A limit of say three or four in a post for identification is probably the best to get more identifications than posting 12 at once. However posting pictures for others enjoyment needs no limit.

Nobody wants to discourage anybody, but it is nice if people do contribute to the discussions when they can rather than leave it to just a few. We were all beginners once and still learning after many years of growing the plants therefore do remember when we were asking the same questions.
User avatar
Aiko
Posts: 2369
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:26 pm
Location: the Netherlands

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by Aiko »

And in most of the cases it is absolutely not relevant to know which species you have to be able to grow them, if you are a beginner.

I completely ignore any identification request, unless it comes from someone who has been a very active forum member. Unfortunately there are days when over half of the new messages on this forum are yet another identification request from yet again a relatively new member. Or even a member that is around longer, but shamelessly only posts identification requests. Sometimes other new messages that might be interesting to read get snowed under because of the identification requests. And that is a shame.

I consider the many identification requests on this forum as annoying flies or musquitoes that are buzzing around your head. Sure, they have their rights to be here, but it is not making this place more fun or interesting for the others from my point of view. It just makes me hit the 'read all messages' button quickly, leave again and just hope for another day where I can read something interesting without finding my way through the identification requests.

There could be a day where I don't bother to come back again at all...
User avatar
Edwindwianto
Posts: 497
Joined: Tue Nov 19, 2019 12:43 am
Location: Bangkok - Thailand

Re: Purging old/inactive members

Post by Edwindwianto »

@Dave
Maybe we could have ID admin 😁
Some1 who skillful enough to do identification and willing to answer ID question from time to time (his own time)

@Aiko
You could always turn off your subsciption to any subforumso as to not receiving anymore notifs from that subforum

Just uncheck this button (in your case, on Cacti Identification subforum)
rsz_studio_20200228_190138.jpg
rsz_studio_20200228_190138.jpg (45.03 KiB) Viewed 4330 times
Post Reply