Delete users with 0 posts?

[Dean]

If it's a personal forum and want to keep it neat and tidy, I suggest you do go ahead and delete users who have 0 posts and haven't visited in X days.

If it's a public or business forum, you would be better off keeping the member base.

Why? Because even if you forum were to have 50000 posts and 1000000 threads but only ~75-100 members, it degrades you forum. I learned it the hard way. 🙁

 

[Teekay]

Having more members makes you forum look good statistically.

 

[Justin]

No man, that is stupid. Leave them there. If it isn't broken, don't fix it, and if it is pointless, why do it?

 

[AnAccount]

When I ran a forum, I never deleted members no matter how many posts they had, because you never know if they'll want to show up again some day and start posting.

 

[Fergal]

I'd recommend sending them an email, but I wouldn't include anything negative in it. Try to keep the email positive - maybe you could offer them an incentive / contest for visiting the forum again and making some posts. Or simply update them on forum news and how well the forum is doing.

I would not delete the accounts, those contacts are valuable. The more members your forum has, the more valuable it is. More members makes a forum look more attractive to first time visitors, plus website buyers will pay more for a forum with lots of members (should you ever decide to sell).

Another advantage of having those members is that you can contact them periodically with special offers and incentives.

 

[Zero]

I'd recommend sending them an email, but I wouldn't include anything negative in it. Try to keep the email positive - maybe you could offer them an incentive / contest for visiting the forum again and making some posts. Or simply update them on forum news and how well the forum is doing.

I would not delete the accounts, those contacts are valuable. The more members your forum has, the more valuable it is. More members makes a forum look more attractive to first time visitors, plus website buyers will pay more for a forum with lots of members (should you ever decide to sell).

Another advantage of having those members is that you can contact them periodically with special offers and incentives.

I agree with you there. Even if they don't show up, they will come back after a while. Some people usually focus on the amount of members one have at their forum to see if its active.

 

[Fredward]

I'd never delete users, even banned ones.
If a user requests to have their account deleted that's a different matter, but generally i'd never want to make my forum look smaller. And there is always a bit of hope one day a newsletter will get through to an inactive member and they'll stop by and post!

 

[Mr.Hazey]

For me having done this admin lark for 10+ years I have found that I prefer a site with a small memberbase that all post then a large memberbase with 1000's of dead accounts, so I have a policy of deleting dead accounts after 90 days of inactivity and have 0 posts, its in my terms of use.

 

[hcfwesker]

Those 0 posts members are a part of your forum history. whether they got active or not, it shows they found your site and took the time to register.

 

[Nebulous]

I have many users that have 0 posts. Should i send them a notice saying that if they don't post within the next week that i will delete them? I don't want to see a bunch of users and have many of them with no posts. Anyone think this is a good i dea?

Why not send out an email asking them if they've forgotten their username or password and offer your help if they have.

-Edit- This topic is old and the topic author probably does not need advice anymore. 😛

 

[Mr.Hazey]

Those 0 posts members are a part of your forum history. whether they got active or not, it shows they found your site and took the time to register.

While it is true, if they were so interested they would have took the time to at least login, I have found over the many years I have been doing this, if a user ain't active after 3 months then 9 times out of 10 they are never going to be.

 

[Fergal]

...if a user ain't active after 3 months then 9 times out of 10 they are never going to be.

Hence, if you delete ten of them you lose member who may be active and don't really gain anything by deleting the other 9.

 

[Saruman]

Some of my members are "lurkers" family/friends, who only log on to read the latest postings, so no, I don't delete those members.

 

[Mr.Hazey]

...if a user ain't active after 3 months then 9 times out of 10 they are never going to be.

Hence, if you delete ten of them you lose member who may be active and don't really gain anything by deleting the other 9.

Well in 10 years yet to be proved that my way does not work 😛

 

[GAF]

if a user ain't active after 3 months then 9 times out of 10 they are never going to be.

Agreed there mate. I delete all users with 0 posts that ain't active after 3 months

 

[Impulse]

Some of my members are "lurkers" family/friends, who only log on to read the latest postings, so no, I don't delete those members.

This.

And I don't see any real reason to delete an account, it's not like they take up a lot of space anyway.

 

[Mr.Hazey]

Some of my members are "lurkers" family/friends, who only log on to read the latest postings, so no, I don't delete those members.

This.

And I don't see any real reason to delete an account, it's not like they take up a lot of space anyway.

You just set it so guests can view latest posts so there is no need for them to join then

 

[Nebulous]

...if a user ain't active after 3 months then 9 times out of 10 they are never going to be.

Hence, if you delete ten of them you lose member who may be active and don't really gain anything by deleting the other 9.

I concur.