Deletion of non-posters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

Hi I do realise this could be controversial,But I was recently checking an item up on the Medal Forum and noticed that the mods on that forum were actively deleting members who had a zero post count, and had joined that forum around a year ago.obviously warnings about the impending deletions were given, and any members with a zero post count that were in the firing line so to speak were asked to email the mods if they wished to stay on as members and encouraged to actually stick a toe in the water and post a quick introduction about themselves and their interests.
The Medal forum had in fact actually deleted over 2000 members that fell into that catagory.
What do members think about doing a similar thing with the badge forum ?.
It would at least make more space on the forum for members who actually did wish to contribute.

Thats happened to me on the medal forum..... I don't collect medals..... but I am interested in some of the individuals that earned them. Whilst not being able to contribute with medals I have been able to contribute with information on the medal recipients (and therefore reinstated) :)

Yorkie ....some give, some give and take .... some just take.

Do we want to discourage casual enquiries such as this? Sometimes people join forums to find out a specific piece of information or about a specific item, and that's it. I know there are times when someone has joined hoping that other members of the forum will do their research for them instead of doing it themselves. Maybe they don't have the reference books, the computer savvy or just knowing where to start looking. Sometimes it's just laziness.

I joined the Royal Artillery forum to find out specific information on my grandfather's RA regiment, but probably won't have anything to contribute now I have that information, thanks to one member in particular. So, should I quit?

Obviously, most members try to contribute as and when we can. Some members seem to contribute every day! Maybe some newbies feel either that they now have their information so don't need us any more, or feel intimidated by the wealth of knowledge of (some) members and back off. Perhaps those who only intend to be on here for a short time should state that, then sign off, saying "Thanks very much. I got what I came for. Have a nice day." But what if they suddenly discover another badge that they need info or an opinion on? Do we need a Casual/Part-time Member category?

Just thought I'd toss that out.
David

I feel its up to the owner and moderators to make a decision of this kind, bless em;)

Do you feel that some of these "lurkers", (is that the right term?) are up to no good?

Rob

I reckon I must have been a 'lurker' :) for a good eighteen months before posting.
The reason being I had nothing to contribute, and yes I was a taker if you'll excuse the expression! ;)
Not having any knowledge of the subject before joining the Forum, I now feel I have a basic grasp on the subject, and can contribute every now and again, though I do still post the usual ' Opinions on this'.
Cheers Tony.

I am aware of no need to delete non posters and other than reducing the IT burden (if there is any) I see no benefit in doing it.

John

I cannot see the need to delete "silent" members, unless they were preventing new members from joining or were "A Drag on the Rations"?

Andy

I don't post very much on here as my interests are very specific and the vast majority of the content is of little interest. I'm sure there are many others. A zero post count after 18 months, OK see ya, but I'm concerned this could become a slippy slope...

I don't post very often either, but since I have retired I log in every day (when I am home).

I take a great interest in the posts on this forum, I am a former Scottish badge collector, I have given up collecting because of the many, many fakes that I have encountered along the way.

I now know a lot about fakes due to this very forum and the know how of the people who post.

Although I have given up on hat badges and helmet plates and collar badges, I still collect Scottish sweetheart badges, there isn't much on the forum about this subject, but I still keep looking.

Meanwhile I will continue to log in every day, and hope that I will be allowed to do so for a long time.

Drummajor

I personally am not suggesting a mass culling of Members and even people who have never posted on the forum would only need to register with the mods that they are still interested.
I think that from what I can read into the medal forums reasoning behind these deletions, is that those members who joined a long time ago and have never posted or said they still had an interest in that particular forum even after warnings that such culling was to take place,only then were they removed from the lists.
I think I should say that I am not for one second suggesting that the British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum should follow suit with the medal forum,I just thought it would be interesting to see what members thought about this idea.

Deletion of non-posters!!
 

Gentlemen,
I would personally exercise caution in the deletion of non-posters. My rationale is as follows. I created and maintain a personal blog page which has been on line for approximately 2 1/2 years. For some inexplicable set of reasons the blog has been reasonably successful. I have had hits from all 50 of the United States, plus territories, and 148 nations, currently totaling in excess of 117,000 hits. Many of the pages of the blog are devoted to guidance in discerning genuine from fake militaria, specifically regimental cap badges and cloth insignia of Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Given all that activity the blog has seen only 34 comments. However, by analyzing the originating locations and subjects of interest (reinforcing same with follow-on articles), the blog seems to be maintaining interest level and growth. I would hate to see new collectors or potential collectors denied access (they have to register to even read articles in the forum), just because of lack of current personal knowledge, or intimidation by virtue of the abundance of expert opinions and in-depth discussions. This is only one person's opinion.
Arnhem Jim
Arizona Territory

The old adage - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" springs to mind. Leave "aziz" sounds good to me.
David

I'm a member of about 20 odd, forums. I post to them all, when I visit, but TBH there are sometimes months go by before I visit some of them. I cannot see the point of never posting, but unless it's clogging up some bandwidth or whatever it's called is there a reason to cull those that are phantom members?

Saying that culling's too good for some of us on here!

We did do a cull a few years back.

the criteria was: zero posts + not visited the forum in the last year.

think we took out about 500

Never got a single "where's my freaking account Bud?" email either.

I'm nervous about do such mass deletions though. I could have a senior moment and delete everyone.

What is to gain by doing such a thing? - not much that I can think of. The member list will be shorter when searching for someone. As for server space consumed by the extra database fields for those members you could delete - probably almost nowt.

I too do not see any benefit in removing non-posters from forum membership unless the membership has reached unmanageable proportions, which in our case it hasn't. Those members who remain silent do so for various reasons and we should not deem them lesser members for doing so. Also, I think that the administrators do a terrific job maintaining the site at no extra cost to us members and I believe we should not burden them with extra administrative work unless there is a real need to change something because it isn't working as intended.

Garry