Auto-Delete Accounts

[G/S/B Master]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1][FONT=Century Gothic]I've seen accounts that clutter Otakuboards. So I suggest that the messege board auto-deletes the account in 30 Days. THe user will be notified via e-mail if they're not on for a week. They'll be counted as an active account when they sign back on.

Then there's vacation mode. When you're going somewhere without computers, you can activate vacation mode. The person sets the time how long they'll be going away. And when that time ends and the week time has ended, the e-mail appears and you know the rest.[/FONT][/SIZE][/COLOR]

[OtakuSennen]

[color=navy]I've seen forums that do the auto-delete thing before. I've never joined them, mind you, but I've seen them.

I wouldn't support the idea coming to OtakuBoards. Such a thing would remove some of the inactive members, and clear out banned ones, but I have nothing against anyone who made an account and forgot to ever use it again. They're not doing anything to hurt the boards, or inconveniencing anybody else. They're just there.

Not to mention the insanity that an automatic account deleter could cause among people who are too lazy or un-knowing of the feature to use it. What if, hypothetically, a member suddenly got cut off from the internet and had no possible way to get back on and keep their account alive? I would find it devestating if such a thing happened to me, and I finally came back only to find that my 800-something posts and countless hours spent on this forum had been erased.

Such a feature is unnecessary, especially with James and Charles clearing out inactive accounts every once in a while. [/color]

[jblessing]

In terms of auto-deleting accounts, the only accounts we currently delete are those that do not activate their account after registering [not e-mail verified]. I'll prune these accounts every once in a while, and I only delete the accounts that have not been verified after 90 days or so of registering.

Now, I disagree with actually pruning inactive accounts. Of course, this may not be the same opinion that James or Charles may have. Basically, a user may not be active on or a board for numerous reasons, and their inactive state could be for a long time. It would be unfair to a user to lose their account name. Also, if the user was well-known around the boards and suddenly disappeared. What might happen if we delete their account, in say 30 days of being inactive? If someone else registeres that name, he may be confused with the older person on that name.

In terms of the vacation mode idea, I feel it would be a waste of my resources to actually develop such an addition. It seems rather pointless, and not needed. Chances are, if a user is going on vacation, they're aren't going to remember to update their OB profile to reflect that. Also, it wouldn't be required if we aren't pruning accounts anyways.

[Semjaza]

I must say that 30 days is a REALLY short period as well. There's countless people here who disappear for months at a time only to return in full force. Deleting their accounts would be pointless. It'd also disrupt many threads here as well... Their posts would disappear and many things simply would not be as they once were. It's all intertwined together.

I really fail to see how threads by someone not here any longer really affect anyone. If the thread is active, it's active. If it's not, it's not.

[G/S/B Master]

[QUOTE]
Originally Posted by Semjaza Azazel
. It'd also disrupt many threads here as well... Their posts would disappear and many things simply would not be as they once were. It's all intertwined together.

I really fail to see how threads by someone not here any longer really affect anyone. If the thread is active, it's active. If it's not, it's not.[/QUOTE]

[COLOR=SlateGray][SIZE=1][FONT=Century Gothic]Not really. All the posts of a deleted account would say above their posts,

Username
Guest

blah blah blah blah blah.

I guess this suggestion won't go through heh.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Semjaza]

Ah, yes. I forgot about that heh.

In any case, I don't really see the point of constantly doing that. It's like Justin said, what if someone makes that same username and everyone gets confused? It seems like it'd be more of a problem than a benefit.

If that person's posts are still around... isn't their "clutter" still on the site anyway? The only thing this would really accomplish would be a lowering of the registered member count and opening up a few usernames (mostly of the GokuGold22354523 variety, I'd imagine) lol.