Unused Accounts Piling Up?

What to do?

[FourDegreez]

What do you guys do with all the accounts that have been created but never used or not used in a long, long time?

In the past I've sent out periodic (automated) emails basically asking if they still want their accounts. This usually leads to a lot of people requesting their accounts deleted, plus a short-term bump in people signing in. I've found that the vast majority of people who have inactive accounts will never become regular visitors, even if they return a few times after I send them the reminder email. Think it's best to just clean these accounts up and forget the emailing?

I know some forum operators will keep these inactive accounts around indefinitely to pad out their numbers: "We have 20,000 users!" Okay, but only 1/20th of them are active. I find this to be unethical, especially for those trying to attract advertisers this way.

[trillianjedi]

I copied Brett - auto-expire after 6 months unused, and mark posts from that member as "Member Expired", so people know when they're looking at threads that member is no longer around.

Put the "expiry period" in your sign up page and TOS.

TJ

[rogerd]

I'd think that post counts might enter into it. If a member has never posted, and hasn't logged in for, say, 6 months, I'd delete them and make the name available. If the member has a history of many posts, though, you may want to keep that name reserved lest someone new come along and unfairly benefit from the association with the past prolific poster. (Of course, the post count would disclose that it's a new member.)

[vkaryl]

I do a combo of tj and rogerd's posted methodisms.