# Mass removal of User Names



## BlackCaptain (Aug 9, 2003)

I was looking through a bunch of usernames, and decided to look to see how many totaly inactivee people we have.

Wow

We have hundreds of users here at TTF with 0 or 1 posts. And, a good handfull of these are great usernames like 'Elwë' 'King Thingol' 'Ulmo of Arda' and just other great usernames that some future users might want to use, but can't because it is already taken. I dont think it would be fair for them to suffer a personality change because of users like 'Elwë'. Would it be possible to get rid of/dispose of a good majority of these usernames? Sure, it may not 'Be fair to those users whom we are deletingn from the database' or something... but I doubt they even remember this forum, and may want to come back but forget their username or something...

There's pros and cons to take into consideration, but I say we remove those users with 0 posts. I don't mean to be mean to them or anything, but it's just an idea


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## Feanorian (Aug 9, 2003)

I thought this is a good idea too. I remember when i was originally Gondorian45 and I was gonna change to Feanor but then someone with like 1 post and someone with about 20 posts had taken the two good versions...


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## Talierin (Aug 9, 2003)

Webmaster does periodically clean out the usernames. Usually everyone that hasn't posted in 6 months or so and with very few posts is deleted. It's prolly about time to do that again, I'm guessing.


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 9, 2003)

6 months? That sounds like an awfully long time for someone to be inactive... If someone hasn't posted ANYTHING within at least 3 months of their activation into TTF I doubt they'd ever come back. Iduno, maybe though


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## Elendil3119 (Aug 9, 2003)

I don't think this is a good idea. I know of one user (HalW) who is on at least once a week, but has been registered for about a year and has never posted once. To be safe, there should be some system of looking at when such-and-such a user was last online, and then deciding whether or not to delete that user. If you stereotype all users who have been registered 6 months and have never posted, you will inevitably delete someone's profile who actually cares.


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## Feanorian (Aug 9, 2003)

> I don't think this is a good idea. I know of one user (HalW) who is on at least once a week, but has been registered for about a year and has never posted once. To be safe, there should be some system of looking at when such-and-such a user was last online, and then deciding whether or not to delete that user. If you stereotype all users who have been registered 6 months and have never posted, you will inevitably delete someone's profile who actually cares.



I dont agree. Why prevents him from viewing everything as a guest? There is not much of a difference. It takes up space (very little..granted) and takes up good names that many people, who can contribute on a regular basis would like.


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## Elendil3119 (Aug 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Feanorian _
> *I dont agree. Why prevents him from viewing everything as a guest? There is not much of a difference. It takes up space (very little..granted) and takes up good names that many people, who can contribute on a regular basis would like. *


Why do you think he logs on his profile? Why did he register? Just because you don't use your old baseball bat any more doesn't mean that I should just be able to walk in and take it from you. I think it would be much better to be more specific than a steriotyping "pruning" job. Like what I suggested in my previous post.


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## Talierin (Aug 9, 2003)

I believe it's done by when they last logged in... so if someone hasn't been on in 3, 4, 5, 6 months or so, they'll be deleted.... but then again, I'm not sure on any of this, I'll wrangle Beorn onto this thread


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 9, 2003)

Elendil, if someone is a member they can still look at all the threads. This HalW, if he hasnt posted in a year then he doesn't deserve the rights to post if he has a username that could be used by someone else. Granted, HalW probly wouldnt be used by anyone else, but it's a thing about principal. One could still look at all the threads without posting if they didnt have a username. 

I guess what I'm saying if they don't post and only browse, do they deserve the right to have a username? I mean this HalW could still do everything that he's done for a year if he didnt have a username. So then why would he have one?


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## Talierin (Aug 9, 2003)

Maybe he wants to vote on polls? You can't do that if you're not a member


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 9, 2003)

Ahhh a flaw in my brilliant plan. Why is it *I*'m never the one to spot my mistakes


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## Elendil3119 (Aug 9, 2003)

> _Originally posted by BlackCaptain _
> *This HalW, if he hasnt posted in a year then he doesn't deserve the rights to post if he has a username that could be used by someone else.*


BC, just because he has not made full use of his username does not mean that "he doesn't _deserve_ the rights to post." Why do you "deserve" to be registered on TTF? It's a privelege, and I don't think it should be taken away just because someone is not active according to your standards.

As I said before, not just anyone who has never posted should be deleted. It should be by when the person last logged in or something, like Tal said; but I think even 6 months is way too short a time. There have been members who have posted a bunch, but have not logged in for 6 months. Who's to say that they won't come back?


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## Feanorian (Aug 9, 2003)

> There have been members who have posted a bunch, but have not logged in for 6 months. Who's to say that they won't come back?



We arent talking about the people who have posted alot and then take time off. We are talking about people with maybe 1 or 2 or even 0 posts.


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 9, 2003)

Elendil, I later explained in my post what I meant by not deserving the right. I guess 'the right' was a bad term... More like... ''Why should they have a username if they don't use it''. I dont see any point in someone who only reads the threads having a username


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## Beorn (Aug 10, 2003)

Typically, when user names are pruned, it's by users who haven't logged in in 6 months, have no posts, and registered more than six months ago. Usually, if we need to we'll delete a name if someone wants to move in on it (when I had my name changed to Beorn, WM deleted someone already named Beorn (his occupation was 'I make hot dogs') because he had about 3 posts, and hadn't logged in in months)...

Mike


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## Wolfshead (Aug 10, 2003)

I'd recommend the idea of deleting people who have been inactive for 6 months, and have less than 10 posts. Of course, this has been stated already, so I'm maybe just wasting my time, but I might as well support the notion. Not that it needs it, but still...


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 10, 2003)

I did some quick math last night... 492 users with 0 posts. 

That's a good 1/6th of our users.. about. I just think that 6 months is too long. By that time alot of people would have forgotten about their account. At least I would have...


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## Turin (Aug 10, 2003)

I agree with BC, when I joined this forum I had to join as turin56 cause Turin was already taken, the guy only had one post and he hadn't posted in 3 or so months. I don't think I really have a point.


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## Beorn (Aug 10, 2003)

http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12708

In case you're curious, here are some names that I believe were cleared up:

Avari
Bilbo_Baggins 
Bombadil
Celebrian
Ciryatan
Dúnadan
Elrohir
Fool of a Took (note the spaces!)
Lembas
Lurtz
Mike
Nenya
Orcrist
Ringwraith
The Witchking 
Thindraug
Tom
Túrin Turambar


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## Wolfshead (Aug 10, 2003)

There're some fairly good names in there, I can see some people changing their names in the next few days


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## Turin (Aug 10, 2003)

I think everyone who changes there name should put something on their sig that says there old username.


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## Wolfshead (Aug 10, 2003)

Yeah, definately, it's common sense. I was confused after Nóm changed her name, it was just after I started posting regulary, and I was mightly confused by people keep on referring to Confusticated. To her defence, she did have 'Former Confust' in her title, but still...


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 13, 2003)

Woah... what was Nom's old username?


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## Wolfshead (Aug 14, 2003)

It was Confusticated, or I hope it was, at any rate


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## BlackCaptain (Aug 16, 2003)

Hahaha I find myself in a state of Confusication quite often. I thought I invented that word!? Oh well


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## Gil-Galad (Aug 18, 2003)

Actually Nym used Confusticated for quite a long time,and I was really surprised when she changed it.


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## Wolfshead (Aug 21, 2003)

Yeah, Nym, Nom, Nóm, all the same, just depends on your keyboard setup.


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## Arebeth (Aug 22, 2003)

Good idea.
I wanted to be Nimrodel but someone with just 6 posts who hasn't post for something like a year already had it.


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