Signed up and left?

SouthEastern-465 · 9 Jun 2009

It is really getting on my nerves that,people (not just spammers) are signing up for this and other train sites and never using that account again.

Go through all the user names and you will see a large majority of them that give the site a look,and sling there hook after an hour or two,i think this is selfish for many reasons and this is just one of the reasons 'how about if someone else uses a name and then slings there hook and some one else wanting to use the site wants there name,i know they could use another one but that aint the point is it.

This is wasting space on the site we dont need,i think personally if someone has joined and after a year they dont use there file delete the file.

Atleast if they want to join give the site a look for a week,look at the community's opinions Etc... look at the forums see if they like it,and if they would get on with others.

On another site i wrote this and a mojority of people said "maybe some of them just want to view the site" "and keep silent and just view the forums" but i thought why dont they just join as a guest.

what is your opinions on this matter?

RailUK Forums

Jordy · 9 Jun 2009

As you said, some people just want to sign up and view the site, which we don't have a problem with.

90019 · 9 Jun 2009

It happens on all forums I'm on, and I would guess the majority of others, some of them will just be lurking on here.

I'm not sure you can actually view everything here without being a member.

theblackwatch · 9 Jun 2009

90019 said:
It happens on all forums I'm on, and I would guess the majority of others, some of them will just be lurking on here.

I'm not sure you can actually view everything here without being a member.

There are certain sections which only members can read. And yes, I think it does happen on most forums, so here are a couple of statistics - on here we have 3,225 members, of which 1,478 have never made a post (around 46%). On another railway forum I'm on, there are 2,922 members, and of those, 1,545 have never posted (about 52%). A lot of people are happy just to read forums rather than participate, and it's up to them if they want to join in or just 'lurk' - as Jordy said, it isn't a problem.

generalvegitable · 9 Jun 2009

this situation is particularly bad on my other forum, it is a webhost's support forum, and our system admin has linked up the register for a site with the forum, so you get a forum account with your site, it was done to encourage more forum use, But what it has done is instead of increasing post count, just member count, about 90% of the users there have no posts. most people are lurkers (it is genuine forum slang). but there are alot of 1 post wonders who just make 1 post about something (often asking for help but sometimes spam) and then go away again, which is alot more than here. and on my other forum.

me123 · 9 Jun 2009

I've also seen quite a few people join up who just want to ask one question, or make a comment. These people make less than 5 posts usually.

That's the structure of a typical forum. People who sign up and lurk do seem a bit odd to me (feel free to say hello if you're reading!

). There're a few who make the majority of posts (the "regulars"), a few more who make some posts infrequently and quite a lot who ask a few questions, get their answer, and don't participate any more. Of course, it all depends on what you want to do, and your level of interest in what's being discussed; nothing wrong with any option in my opinion.

thefab444 · 9 Jun 2009

I don't think there are any database capacity issues, and I'm sure one of the admins will notify us if there is one. If this non-issue is getting on your nerves, maybe you should get out into the real world a bit more, and worry about real issues?

Oswyntail · 9 Jun 2009

I, too, see no problem. On other forums I use there are those who simply read, waiting to pluck up courage to go "into print", and those who have an opinion on every thread (valid or not). And it wouldn't half be a pain if all 3000+ users posted something every day. Simply scanning the new posts would take all the time.
We are all different

Skarpur · 9 Jun 2009

Members details don't take up much room in the database at all, perhaps if there were millions of users who'd never posted then it might become an issue so I don't quite see what the problem is. I'm a "lurker" if you want to call it that, I read this forum most days, but I only post when I feel I can contribute something sensible to a discussion. Infact this thread could be classed as wasting space

Mojo · 9 Jun 2009

If you're not going to post, people might still register for a number of reasons:

It stores which posts you have read and which ones you haven't
You can optimise the forum to how you would like to see it (eg: more posts per page)
Have your preferred theme each time you visit - as opposed to the default
Less adverts

Moodster020 · 9 Jun 2009

For me, i dont post often, just now & then.

Main reason is that i'm a member of quite a few forums (one of which several thousand posts & a member since '03), and if i was a regular on all of them, i'd have no time left in the day! so my postings/visits is intermittent as a result.

David · 10 Jun 2009

Just slinging my tuppence worth in here ....

There is a lot that members can't see, but moderators and admins can.

The members who "lurk" on these sort of forums, you never know who they are (depending on the email used to register, mods and admins may have a fair idea though). If in doubt, be careful what you post, as you never know who could be reading.

Aussie_Rail · 10 Jun 2009

This is not rare or unusual for any such forum, no matter what subject they are based on. One forum I used to be a part of in Australia had over 20,000 members from all over the world, but less than 5000, maybe not even that more like 2000 even were regular posters.

Most do join and never post again, many of which are spam and people that join and either forget the password or just don't get around to posting and eventually forget that they are members.

Which does suck, because if you want to join and a particular user name you want has been taken by someone who has never posted it does kind of suck.

There should be a way that emails confirming your existence are sent out to all those who have not posted in say 6 months, maybe less and they simply click to confirm they still want to be a member, if they don't click the link within a certain time frame, say a month then their account is deleted and the user name can be recycled if required.

FusionRail · 10 Jun 2009

Thats a good idea.

Mojo · 10 Jun 2009

It would be difficult to implement. Idle users aren't really a problem, not taking up much space and there are so many usernames out there that people could choose. Generally speaking, we don't delete user accounts unless they contain an offensive name.

Aussie_Rail · 11 Jun 2009

Could they be tagged with a 'no longer posting' label for sensus reasons, so at least an accurate number of people who still post can be calculated?

Mojo · 11 Jun 2009

We know the numbers of users who are still classed as 'Active,' this is listed at the bottom of the homepage in the stats, which is 741 at present. It would be possible to move users into a separate Usergroup and also to email them as well!

Signed up and left?

SouthEastern-465

Established Member

RailUK Forums

Jordy

Established Member

90019

Established Member

theblackwatch

Established Member

generalvegitable

Member

me123

Established Member

thefab444

Established Member

Oswyntail

Established Member

Skarpur

Member

Mojo

Forum Staff

Moodster020

Member

David

Established Member

Aussie_Rail

Member

FusionRail

Member

Mojo

Forum Staff

Aussie_Rail

Member

Mojo

Forum Staff