Account Deleted

[Jazzy]

I received an email from a forum and here is what it said:

Due to your account being inactive, your account has been deleted. If you would like to create a new account please use this link (insert link here).

The last time I posted on this forum was May 12th. I never heard of deleting an account for being inactive. Especially for only two months. What if I had issues in RL and wasn't able to post for these two months? To heck with them is what I say.



Questions:



Has this ever happened to you?



If you are a forum owner: Do you delete inactive accounts and if so, what length of time do you consider to be inactive?

 

[Raven]

Had this happen to me alot. Not bothered, because if I don't post regularly I won't miss it

 

[Ashley]

I received an email from a forum and here is what it said:







The last time I posted on this forum was May 12th. I never heard of deleting an account for being inactive. Especially for only two months. What if I had issues in RL and wasn't able to post for these two months? To heck with them is what I say.



Questions:



Has this ever happened to you?



If you are a forum owner: Do you delete inactive accounts and if so, what length of time do you consider to be inactive?

The only time we've purged, deleted inactive accounts was when we were working on closing/merging Chatting Time into Pluto Hosting's official support forums. At the time, we only deleted accounts created by members who were only on our forum because of package requests or post exchanges. Had we purged accounts during CT's heyday on the Internet? I know we discussed it, but I don't think it ever happened. My tech admin was too busy with the host, and there's no way I could've done it without removing something I wasn't supposed to remove... so we never deleted accounts until we officially merged with PH.



As for having my account deleted for inactivity, yes, like many members, I have had this happen before. How I feel about it depends on what kind of forum I was deleted from. If it was a site that I enjoyed being active on, then yeah I probably would be pissed about it. but if it was a site I didn't care for or was hardly ever active on, then I could care less.

 

[DrLeftover]

I don't post all that much here.



There are a couple of other forums I consider myself active on where I might post once a week or so.



If that's not enough... oh well.

 

[Evil Eye]

It does make sense to delete inactive accounts once in a while to free up names for new people...

Still, it really shouldn't be done unless they've been inactive for ages.



I once ran a script that deleted every account with 0 posts... place was overrun with bots.

 

[Sinon]

I've only ever had it happen on a chatting website, not a forum. Inactivity led to purging accounts, though why I'm not entirely sure.

 

[Jazzy]

I would think any forum would want to show a high member count. Deleting all inactive members could really make it look like a forum is dead.

 

[Evil Eye]

I would think any forum would want to show a high member count. Deleting all inactive members could really make it look like a forum is dead.

Depends on how many members they already have...

 

[Jazzy]

Depends on how many members they already have...

True but still, inactive accounts don't always mean the member will never come back. We've had inactive members here that once they received an announcement email, have returned.

 

[Evil Eye]

True. Smaller forums should only remove 0 post accounts that never even signed in really...

Larger ones can have valid reasons, though. Speed for one and also name availability.

 

[Jazzy]

True. Smaller forums should only remove 0 post accounts that never even signed in really...

Larger ones can have valid reasons, though. Speed for one and also name availability.

The one that did this to me is a small forum with under 300 members.

 

[Evil Eye]

I suppose they could have a crappy server... I think they're just overzealous though

 

[Jazzy]

I suppose they could have a crappy server... I think they're just overzealous though

They have been up and running for over four years now.

 

[Evil Eye]

Doesn't mean they have a fast server

But, as I said, they're probably not doing it for any good reason.

 

[Jazzy]

Just checked the site for the number of members. It went from approx. 347 and is now showing 118.

 

[Evil Eye]

Huh

SpringSummer cleaning I guess.

 

[Jazzy]

If they deleted me after being inactive for only 2 months, then I say to heck with them. Maybe when they do their next cleaning, there will be only the 3 staff members left.

 

[Evil Eye]

Quite right!

 

[Jazzy]

Maybe that's their plan.

 

[Evil Eye]

Would be a pretty weird plan...