Active members of this site
Quote: GreasyjohnJust curious, what makes an active member? There are many more total members. Are those all the people that have joined? Are active members those who have contributed something in some prior 3 months or something?
The list at the bottom is a list of members logged in right now and doing something (like replying to a thread on active members). They'll probably be some limited on how long since I clicked something for me to remain active. But not very long.
Quote: thecesspitThe list at the bottom is a list of members logged in right now and doing something (like replying to a thread on active members). They'll probably be some limited on how long since I clicked something for me to remain active. But not very long.
I know where it shows how many members are on this site right now, and how many have logged on today. But that is not my question.
Sorry, let me be more clear. There are 8,020 Total members and 4,784 total active members. I'm wondering what makes an active member. And I'm supposing that it's someone that has made a post or started a thread in some recent period of time, like 3 or six months.
Quote: GreasyjohnI know where it shows how many members are on this site right now, and how many have logged on today. But that is not my question.
Sorry, let me be more clear. There are 8,020 Total members and 4,784 total active members. I'm wondering what makes an active member. And I'm supposing that it's someone that has made a post or started a thread in some recent period of time, like 3 or six months.
It's just the number of members who have made atleast 1 post or thread since WoV was created.
Quote: mipletIt's just the number of members who have made atleast 1 post or thread since WoV was created.
You mean the total membership ( made at least one post or thread) ? Then what is an "active" member?
Quote: GreasyjohnYou mean the total membership ( made at least one post or thread) ? Then what is an "active" member?
Nope. Total members are number of registered members including those with no posts. Active simply means that they have made one post or thread.
Quote: mipletNope. Total members are number of registered members including those with no posts. Active simply means that they have made one post or thread.
So 8,020 signed up but only 4,784 have made at least one post or started one thread?
Quote: GreasyjohnSo 8,020 signed up but only 4,784 have made at least one post or started one thread?
Yep. You have to be a member to follow or block threads (or block people). So silent membership has some advantages, even if a person doesn't want to post.
Quote: RaleighCrapsI wonder if the single posts busted for spam are included in the Active Member numbers?
Yep, spammers are active members too :+)
Quote: rdw4potusYep. You have to be a member to follow or block threads (or block people). So silent membership has some advantages, even if a person doesn't want to post.
Thanks for the answer.
Quote: mipletYep, spammers are active members too :+)
Interesting.
I always just delete anyone I find spamming my board.
Why do I want that kind of person on my members list?
I just looked at the member list through the letter A and found 253 with no posts. That leaves B through Z.
Quote: Blonde4everInteresting.
I always just delete anyone I find spamming my board.
Why do I want that kind of person on my members list?
I've been reading your web site, LasVegas4ever, more often lately and I'm impressed with the forum rules. If I may cherry pick a few gems:
Be nice.... If you are a miserable cuss..... I will get rid of you.
No profanity. No goofy spelling of profanity.
No use of theFword, in ANY form...... ANY spelling, ANY abbreviation.
Threads violating these rules will be deleted or corrected without warning.
Clear, concise, easy to understand. I love the "I will get rid of you" and it's refreshing to see your stand on the F word. Kudos for that!
Everyone has different tastes and tolerances and that's fine. I do applaud yours.
How do you handle a ban? Is the offender just never heard from again? Do you have a suspension list that the public can view for eternity? I didn't see one.
If someone is doing something offensive, I Private Message them and point them towards the rules, which lots of people don't bother to read.
ie...using lots of profanity, calling other members names, posting offensive jokes etc
If they respond "Whoops...sorry"
Then they are good.
If they start fighting with me, they are likely going bye bye...forever.
There is no suspension list.
People who show up out of no where just to pimp their own products that they are selling
(i.e. Like Vegas Rover) are immediately deleted and banned.
It is obvious they are not there to chat about Vegas or share information,
their agenda is just to sell their own stuff.
I must admit that I am guilty myself of not doing that.
Before....not now. I always read the rules now.
Many years ago I joined this board
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/108/las-vegas-lifestyle/
and shared a link to one of my trip reports.
I did not read the rules. Apparently they are very much against this practice.
I was banned before I knew what hit me.
A simple Private Message would have done the job, but I was never given a second chance.
Ironically, this board still sends me Happy Birthday messages, but they won't let me speak. Ha ha.
Anyhow....I learned my lesson, the hard way!
Quote: GreasyjohnJust curious, what makes an active member? There are many more total members. Are those all the people that have joined? Are active members those who have contributed something in some prior 3 months or something?
As I'm posting there are 8,898 total members and 5,296 active members for a difference of 3,602. That 3,602 looks like the number of members who have not made a single post. The ranking of members link seems to confirm that.
From that list we can see that the number of members who have made ten or less posts is 4,693. That leaves the heavy lifting to a mere 1227 members, those with more than ten posts.
Every banned member is still a member even though they can't participate. Every one time spammer is a member even if their one post has been removed. Some of these people have their name in red and some do not.
While 8,898 members may look impressive, the numbers don't tell the whole story. It's possible that some members joined to read the forum and not post, needing the membership to log in. It's also possible to log in and hide your online status. It's not possible to hide the date of your last visit which appears in your profile.
Here's the question of the day. If someone joined the forum in 2009 and hasn't logged in since would it be safe to assume that they no longer choose to be a member? Should their account be deleted? Are they being kept to inflate the membership? Lastly, there is always the unpleasant thought that some have passed away.
Quote: 1BB
Lastly, there is always the unpleasant thought that some have passed away.
Unless of course, you picked them on your team. :}
Quote: 1BB
Here's the question of the day. If someone joined the forum in 2009 and hasn't logged in since would it be safe to assume that they no longer choose to be a member?
There's no reason to make that assumption as they signed up for the site and created an account. I obviously can't disclose much, but I've received PM's from people who have never posted. Many Members like to have the functionality of having marked threads as such so they don't have to read the same thing any number of times.
With respect to last post v. joined date in terms of deleting accounts, I know that I don't have the functionality to outright delete someone, so I honestly can't say whether or not it exists. However, if it did exist, I don't think that it would be worth the effort.
Quote:Should their account be deleted? Are they being kept to inflate the membership? Lastly, there is always the unpleasant thought that some have passed away.
Again, I don't know if it can be deleted...and even if it could...I don't know that there's any truly compelling reason to go through the hassle.
"Kept to inflate membership?" I would say no, but it is a side effect, that's fair. Although, one reason that you don't want to outright delete Spam accounts (I know this from experience) is because the bot often comes back and creates a new account with the exact same handle. So, that's something.
It is quite possible that some have passed away, and with respect to meeting in person at events and establishing friendships outside of the board, I think that's only a positive because you may have board Members who care about one another, to a certain extent, but do not associate outside the board. For example, we've never met, but I'm sure we'd each appreciate knowing if the other had died.
For my part, I have my handle and password in my will along with a message to all Members in the event that I should die that will be posted by one of three people.
You need go no further than page one of the letter A on the member list to see an account that joined on Nov. 2, 2009, made no posts and has not visited since that day, a period of over five years. Technically that is a member in good standing but is that what you would call a member? I'm sure that it doesn't hurt a site's standing to have as many members as possible to those who care about such things.
What about the one post hit and run spammers? Keeping them around is really the best way to control them? I've noticed that they are not all dealt with the same and it may be a way to control them. Not asking for any trade secrets here.
Most, but not all, spam posts are removed. Some spammers have their post removed and find their name in red. Others have the post removed while their name remains in blue.
This morning's spammer is an example of the latter. With the name in blue, this person or bot is free to spam again. No ax to grind either way, I just find it interesting and have gotten some good laughs from our spamming friends. I probably wouldn't think it so funny if I owned a site.
Quote: rxwineI'm been on another site for quite a few years, which has 8175 members just for the letter A. Most have zero posts.
Well, you said quite a few years so I guess it's not DT. :-)
Quote: 1BBThere are members who have joined but have never logged on or posted. They would have to log on to enjoy the functionality that you speak of. When they do, their profile is updated to reflect their last visit. Members can keep their names off the list of members who have visited today but they can't control the profile.
I understand that, my point is that it is not worth the effort (even if Members could be 100% deleted, and I don't even know if the Forum has the functionality for that) to go through thousands of Members who have never posted to determine whether or not they have logged in since the day that they joined. To what possible end would somebody be doing this, just to, "Clean up," the Membership list?
Like I said, bolstering the Membership is an unintended side effect of this. If we deliberately wanted to falsely inflate the numbers, (again, we don't pay much attention or worry about it, either way) then we could create ghost accounts deliberately and have 100,000 Members, if we really wanted to. Obviously, we would never do that.
Quote:You need go no further than page one of the letter A on the member list to see an account that joined on Nov. 2, 2009, made no posts and has not visited since that day, a period of over five years. Technically that is a member in good standing but is that what you would call a member? I'm sure that it doesn't hurt a site's standing to have as many members as possible to those who care about such things.
I agree with that, I'm just confused about what possible benefit there would be to manually pouring over thousands of Members with zero posts to do that? Again, I don't think we really care about this one way or another.
If you think about it the opposite way, having a high proportion of, "Active Members," or even Members with posts in the last year compared to overall Membership looks even better because it creates an illusion of even more activity...even though the actual activity is the same.
With respect to the Philosophy site at which I used to Moderate, we decided to take your proposed action for just that reason. The functionality there may have been different, though, because you could delete Members en masse simply by putting in deletion parameters. Joined Date = x-x Number of Posts =0, that sort of thing. We couldn't really tell last login there, (unless they actually posted) but we made an Announcement asking any long-time lurkers to simply make a new account and created a thread where they could post a single letter, or whatever they wanted, to avoid the next mass deletion.
Quote:What about the one post hit and run spammers? Keeping them around is really the best way to control them? I've noticed that they are not all dealt with the same and it may be a way to control them. Not asking for any trade secrets here.
As long as they are banned, it doesn't really matter. There's no set standard for what to do with them, or with the post. If there are no responses, I ban the Member and delete the thread. If the thread has gotten responses, aside from one-liner jokes about the Spam itself, then I'll usually ban thee Member and allow the thread to remain.
Yes, Spambots will occasionally go to the same site and register under the same handle if you simply delete the account, though. We used to delete the accounts at a different Philosophy site (smaller) at which I was an Administrator, but we stopped doing it for just that reason.
Quote:Most, but not all, spam posts are removed. Some spammers have their post removed and find their name in red. Others have the post removed while their name remains in blue.
I don't know why someone wouldn't ban the Spammer or Spambot. They should be banning the Spammer, either way. Whether or not the post remains is largely immaterial.
Quote:This morning's spammer is an example of the latter. With the name in blue, this person or bot is free to spam again. No ax to grind either way, I just find it interesting and have gotten some good laughs from our spamming friends. I probably wouldn't think it so funny if I owned a site.
It's not a big deal, compared to any other site at which I have Moderated or Administrated, we see very little Spam.
