A couple suggestions...

[vipp]

First, does anyone besides me think that the user base is too huge? I mean there are SO many people that registered, then never posted. Personally, I think maybe cleaning it up a bit, and deleting, say, all users that have been registered for more than 4 months yet have never posted. After all, you can browse the entire forum without having to be registered, if reading is all you have in mind.

Second, how about limiting the number of characters a user name can be. I mean really, when someone calls themselves iwannabeheresomuchicouldshitbutiwont, it disrupts the page when viewing (for my resolution anyway).

Just a couple minor suggestions. :)

[rainbowdemon]

iwannabeheresomuchicouldshitbutiwont,Great name. I wish I'd thought of it!! LOL But that is a good point. Clean up the dead wood.

[NightZombie]

Good point.

[fernandez]

Some people simply don't like the pop-ups, that might be the incentive for them to register in the first place.

[johnsmatrix]

ZP could always send out a general email to those people asking them to reply if they want to keep their account current.. Everyone who click on the link keeps their account.. I dunno if long usernames affect anybody's page viewing but big SIG's do.

[cheapprick]

Two issues with that:
1)I know of at least 4-5 people that registered here in the first day the site was renewed (April 2002), but have never posted. I wouldn't want them to feel they weren't wanted here just because they have never posted. The same goes for people that post in the news. but not the forum.

I could mirror your point if it was people who had never posted or signed in since they signed up, and more than 6 months has passed.

2)Only if it was an automated procedure. It is too much to ask anyone to sort through manually.

[Wolfie]

Originally posted by fernandez
Some people simply don't like the pop-ups, that might be the incentive for them to register in the first place.

That does make sense. Though I do agree with how annoying some of the ultra long names are (ones that are more like sentences).

[Brycen257]

What about posting a Notice in the forums that anyone who wants to remain registered as a member of zeropaid must post sometime within the next 30 days or so and that all members must post once a month . I can understand that no one wants to make those who may read through the site but not post feel unwelcome, what is the point of being a member of zeropaid if they are never going to post ?

[phalkon30]

What does it hurt to have those extra users there? Anyway, there are a ton of people who signed up, posted in the news once or twice, and visit every couple of months...how can you tell who is active and who isn't. Making everybody re-register is the only way I can see that working.

[Aaron73153]

I think it would be good, doesn't hotmail do something similar? I also would imagine that deleting non-active users would help speed things up a bit.

[Krell]

I do not agree that the user database of names has any impact at all on performance, and in my opinion, isnt even large enough for me to use to test an SQL or Exchange database with.

I do believe however, that this will happen:

When the names that are older than 3 months AND . . that have not been accessed (signed on) in 3 months, or authorized, is deleted

THEN

Any users who "once upon a time" registered, will simply have to reregister, and I DOUBT that hardly any of these people will A: ever be back, and B: would be able to find their log in info anways.

Now reread that part
.................................................. ...........................................


What I DO NOT want to happen, is for the list of banned people to be compromised, I want their IP addresses and email address intact also. You cant imagine the fury that would be invoked if we had to start all over with these numbnuts.

.

[isus]

Originally posted by fernandez
Some people simply don't like the pop-ups, that might be the incentive for them to register in the first place.

the exact reason i registered.

now, checking some type of log, to see who has registered, and then not visited in the past year? that would be a good idea. why register and then never visit.

or maybe we should find a way to register two seperate types, one for the forums, one for the ability to stop pop-ups.

instead of worrying about the users, maybe we could get the board's time fixed?

LOL

[FreakinWeasel]

I got a mass mailing froom the amdmb.com forums a while back asking to come and sign in or my account would be deleted for no usage. It doesn't seem to be that weird to request that the users stop by and sign in every 6 months. But again as it has been observed, I would hate like hell to personally email all those people, so maybe one broadcast email to everyone and give 'em 2 weeks notice ( or Brycen's 30 day notice) and then sack their arses.

[vipp]

Originally posted by phalkon30
What does it hurt to have those extra users there?

It's not that it hurts, it's just annoying to have to wade through seemingly thousands of user names with zero posts, if you are searching for someone and you can't remember their exact user name. Especially those type of users who have registered long ago and haven't been active.




About the pop-ups, I thought now days everyone had a pop-up stopper of some sort.

And I agree Krell, nothing should be done to compromise the list of banned members. Be nice if there was a way to preserve that while still cleaning things up a bit.

[napho]

I agree with vipp. Although 165,000 is great for bragging rights it'd be better IMHO to have a more accurate representation of ppl who are active or semi-active here. UTC had tens of thousands of members but as we can see from their total of 821 members now the overwhelming majority of their previous members were only there for the downloads or browsing. It's better to be honest and see a true number rather than an inflated one.

[jonnymnemonic]

First, the superlong username thing does suck, so fixing that would be nice. My name is about as long as I'd wanna see. Too much longer and it weirds out the tables.

Secondly, make it so that for anyone who's been registered more than three months, if their average posts per month drops below a certain level, auto-delete them. That will mean that the userbase is comprised of those who actively participate. Like, say, 5 posts a month on average to keep the account. (Of course, this could also have a detrimental effect, in that some people might make stupid nonsense posts just to keep from being deleted, but hey, no solution is perfect.)

[FutureIverson]

Originally posted by jonnymnemonic
First, the superlong username thing does suck, so fixing that would be nice. My name is about as long as I'd wanna see. Too much longer and it weirds out the tables.

Secondly, make it so that for anyone who's been registered more than three months, if their average posts per month drops below a certain level, auto-delete them. That will mean that the userbase is comprised of those who actively participate. Like, say, 5 posts a month on average to keep the account. (Of course, this could also have a detrimental effect, in that some people might make stupid nonsense posts just to keep from being deleted, but hey, no solution is perfect.)

Some people never post, but they constantly read so their zeropaid members, too. I'd just send mass account activations. Ever 6 months or yearly to make sure your active.

[Krell]

You guys are still pissen around the edge of the pot. You make this more complicated than it needs to be by not understanding what can be done.

Its not the POST count that counts, one can still register and lurk all they want, I mean, if youre that interested in ZP, then by all means, sign in, theres no law against that. I dont want people posting under duress, it will just be nonsense.

If you DONT log in for a significant period of time, then your account becomes defunct. If we have a built in rollover, say 1/2 year, then it happens automatically. No login, your out.

Jorge and Dub can clean this up and accomplish all of this with the tools at their disposal. They know how to use them, and besides that, the tools also have help forums and catagories, just like ZP does.

The ability to set the user name length takes all of 15 seconds and they could do it if they were blind.

No offense, but you new people really should stay the hell out of ZP politics. If you want to be recognized, do something signifigant and stop being an armchair quarterback. Yapping from thread to thread doesnt qualify you to know whats in the sites best interest.

Personally, I would LOVE to see a cap on the number of posts one can make from the beginning. Then, after you make a certain number, you will earn more. This might cut down on the yapping and useless drivvle.


.

[vipp]

Originally posted by Krell
You guys are still pissen around the edge of the pot. You make this more complicated than it needs to be by not understanding what can be done.

Its not the POST count that counts, one can still register and lurk all they want, I mean, if youre that interested in ZP, then by all means, sign in, theres no law against that. I dont want people posting under duress, it will just be nonsense.

If you DONT log in for a significant period of time, then your account becomes defunct. If we have a built in rollover, say 1/2 year, then it happens automatically. No login, your out.

Jorge and Dub can clean this up and accomplish all of this with the tools at their disposal. They know how to use them, and besides that, the tools also have help forums and catagories, just like ZP does.

The ability to set the user name length takes all of 15 seconds and they could do it if they were blind.

No offense, but you new people really should stay the hell out of ZP politics. If you want to be recognized, do something signifigant and stop being an armchair quarterback. Yapping from thread to thread doesnt qualify you to know whats in the sites best interest.

Personally, I would LOVE to see a cap on the number of posts one can make from the beginning. Then, after you make a certain number, you will earn more. This might cut down on the yapping and useless drivvle.


.

Sorry if I seemed to be "yapping". I thought I was giving "suggestions" in the "suggestion" area.

[TipYourBartender]

Originally posted by Krell
Personally, I would LOVE to see a cap on the number of posts one can make from the beginning. Then, after you make a certain number, you will earn more. This might cut down on the yapping and useless drivvle.

I know that being a mod, you have a different viewpoint than I, and I respect that, but I believe that what you are proposing would be a really bad thing for this site. Newbies will never get really active in the site if they are restricted in that fashion. They would just leave. Not to mention it is extremely elitist.

Again, you know I respect you, Krell, but I also respectfully disagree with you here.

[Krell]

Elitist yes, practical more yes.

I see no reason why it is beneficial to post 20+ times a day and not say a damned thing worth while.

Newbies will never get really active in the site if they are restricted in that fashion

You DO realize that only 1 or 2 out of 10 newbies will be here more than a short while anyway, right? The rest are fanboys, and spammers. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

I didnt expect even a single person to agrree with me, I just stated what I thought, no biggy.

[MoonMan]

I personally FULLY 100% agree with Krell's views on this subject. There is no harm being done by having a whole bunch of accounts with people who have 0 posts. And, by my understanding, it is fairly simple (if you know php w/ mysql anyway) to implement a "rollover" type function to clear out accounts that have not been accessed in a certain amount of time. Again I will also reiterate the fact that if this were really some kind of problem, the admins would have already done this.

People who are still kinda new to the site shouldn't be making issues out of nothing. Hell people who have been here a while also shouldn't (but probably know better).