The list of members seems to contain many names which I have never seen in forums etc. I suggest: if a Renderosity member goes (say) 6 months without accessing Renderosity, send him an email asking if he wants to stay in Renderosity. If it bounces, or he does not answer within a month, or he answers "no", unsubscribe him.

Do these members have image galleries? If yes, then just because they don't post, its not a reason to unsubscribe them. But for ones who dont have galleries, or post anything and just seem to be lurking, an email asking if they are still around might be nice...{thinking of all those members that have been logged on since the beginning of time, and never logged out} Why someone would become a member of an artists community, and not participate in any shape, form, or fashion is beyond me....but I guess they could just be looking at all the pretty pictures....{which in itself is no reason to unsubscribe them}

Has visions of all these members sitting at their computers (since the beginning of time) with cobwebs hanging over their boney hands ;] Hey I agree that house cleaning of accounts that have not been used for several years is Not a bad idea :) I do know of several member who do not post to the galleries, yet enjoy the visual beauty of our site :) Great points Jump and Anthony :) ladynimue

Don't underestimate the presence of lurkers...those who read and view, but do not post or upload. I do think, and have suggested before, that some member weeding probably wouldn't hurt. Every member list collects some lint of people who have forgotten they ever registered in the first place. I would think if you are getting bounced emails, reflecting (perhaps) dead email links that need to be checked, would be one place to start.

When I first joined I was really green to the whole internet, etc. I came and looked at the galleries every day and downloaded stuff from the freestuff. I thought the forums were chat rooms. (DUH!!) So I never went to the forums. One day I had some extra time and was just looking around and went into the Bryce forum. I then realized that I had been missing out on the best part of Renderosity. Okay guys, you can't stop laughing now-LOL! Arleen

I don't think anyone would laugh at you, Arleen. I didn't start on the forums immdediately because I thought they were like some groups I'd been on which had become disappointing over time. They are much more dynamic than than that. Confusing, but very interesting. I'm sure a lot of people aren't sure what is going on at first, and are reluctant to jump in until they feel the place out. So as to speak.

Thanks Dialyn! I just had visions of people clutching their stomachs and rolling uncontrollably on the floor, as tears roll down their face (grin). Arleen

Just weeding through by login date would work. It's a pretty safe bet that if someone hasn't logged in in say, a year and a half or so, that they've left or good, or created another account.

Message 2 says "thinking of all those members that have been logged on since the beginning of time, and never logged out". What happens if a member is logged in, and his computer suddenly drops without a chance to send a logout code to Renderosity? How long must a logged-in member be inactive for, before he is automatically logged out?

Don't quote me as this is a figure that popped up from the back of my head so to speak, but I think if a member logs on, then doesn't do anything for about 30 mins then the account is logged out automatically. It may be longer or shorter than that, but I think it's nearly right.

Kevin, you're right about the 30 minutes.

Wow, my memory worked! That makes a pleasant surprise :)

I want to say something here about these so called "lurkers". I think I registered here in like 1997 or something, anyway it was ALONG time ago. When I first came here I don't think I posted anything in the galleries or forums or chat or anywhere for like 2 years. Mostly I "Lurked" and at the same time I learned. By hanging out in the galleries and reading the forums I learned a great deal about the digital art medium. It ALSO took me a while to get the confidence to actually post anything (mostly cuz I had never ran into critisim before:-) Its easy to think your a decent artist when your sitting alone in a monitor illuminated room all by yourself and enjoying something you created, even if its just a metaball floating over an endless sea.... Now, this thread actually seems kinda "Elitist", Just because nobody ever posted or nobody ever commented in the forums does not mean they are not using the site. Yes I am sure there are examples of folks who forgot they registered and everthing else but come on who are we to say who they are? Anyway, thats my two cents worth.... And remember before you critisize someone elses work, walk a mile in their shoes........that way when you do, your a mile a way and he has no shoes :)

See message 8. Even if someone never posted a message, Renderosity would still know that he had logged in.

Maybe deleting the membership details of all the people that have been banned would be a good start.

Huh? Banned members stuff is still here? I mean is it showing them as still members? * Just because nobody ever posted or nobody ever commented in the forums does not mean they are not using the site. Yes I am sure there are examples of folks who forgot they registered and everthing else but come on who are we to say who they are?* Not saying anything about people that dont post to forums, or to galleries, just about the members that haven't logged on in a lonnnnnnnnnng time. As Kev said, 30 mins. of inactivity will cause an automatic logout. {it has happened to me while in the middle of typing to a forum, something comes up and I leave my machine for awhile, and come back to discover that I have to log in again..} Also, I have heard of some members that have never been logged off...{glitch or something}... ~Jani

I'm not sure if I get the problem... as long as the number of accounts doesn't kill the board software (in which case I'm sure the Renderosity tech staff will delete all "unnecessary" accounts immediately anyway :-) I can't think of a reason why anyone should be blocked simply for "inactivity".

As a matter of fact, Renderosity is a huge place with a clear commercial aim and focus (this has been stated and discussed for good and for worse many times). Renderosity wants as many members as possible (because they are all potential customers for their marketplace), and those of us who make announcements about our own activities are here for exactly the same reason... 1000s and 1000s of listeners! And even if I only ask something then it doesn't hurt to have a lot of reading people either.

If anyone doesn't like to share posts with people who only read and never write then there are many smaller "activists talk with activists" places.

We were not complaining about lurkers. Only, if many of the listed members have not logged in for a year, then they can't have read or written anything in Renderosity in all that time, and many of them are likely to have forgotten about Renderosity, and there is an opportunity to weed "dead wood" out of the membership list.

If they were to "weed out" the inactive members from the membership list, my guess is that there would be thousands fewer members. I also figure that the more members this place has, active or not, the better it looks on the books...

The system does "weed out" the inactive members. That's been done for quite a while now.

They are added back in when they sign in again.

-Jeff

I've wanted to ask about this for some time now, but frankly it seems inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.

I'm pretty sure that's a system bug. PhilC has been around R'osity for a while now, but not quite 33.4 years! Aaron