Reducing the Memberlist...

Post by **CraigRat** » 08 September 06 7:41 pm

It would seem lurkers can be of several categories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurker

I know which one I fit into,,,,,,

Horus · Post by **Horus** » 08 September 06 8:08 pm

CraigRat wrote:
I know which one I fit into,,,,,,

<p>
So do we

<p>

<p>
You had to had seen that one coming?

suedenharr · Post by **suedenharr** » 08 September 06 9:42 pm

CraigRat wrote:It would seem lurkers can be of several categories:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurker

I know which one I fit into,,,,,,

Ahh I have been educated once again as the term Lurker is not derogatory. Maybe I will research much deeper next time.

The Ginger Loon · Post by **The Ginger Loon** » 09 September 06 12:35 am

EcoTeam wrote:The problem with this is that you might have people who register and then don't log in but contine to browse without logging in. Some poeple like to leave cookies turned off for instance, so it's not unreasonable to think some new active members might not log in for a few months.

EcoDave

Actually it's not possible to browse the forums without logging in these days. You either have to log in manually or use cookies. Either way the system knows when you have logged in last and updates your profile accordingly.

caughtatwork wrote:From an administration point of view culling the memberlist is going to cause some longer term issues.

Let's say cacher X signs up at GC.com.
They find one cache.
They signup here.
They never find another cache and never log onto the forums again.
The memberlist is inflated by 1 person who has lost interest in the game (assume this).

However, the cacher called X still owns the find on that cache.
If we cull X from the list and someone else signs up with X, we now have a non-registered cacher who has found a cache and the new cacher who appears to have found a cache that they didn't actually find.

etc...

I am talking about the membership list from this forum only, not from the GCA listing site. I can't find anywhere on the GCA cache listing site that uses the forum membership list. The stats are generated from GPX files, cache logs or some combination thereof.

Having 2 different people using the same logon in 2 different sites is something that can't be planned for unless you scrape the secondary sites' membership list and use that to validate the GCA memberships. I am not advocating or suggesting you do this. Conflicting login to me are another problem altogether.

To make myself absolutely clear I am requesting that the membership list for this forum be culled of those members where;

Date last visited = Date Joined
OR
Date of last visit = NEVER
AND
Number of posts = ZERO
AND
Date since last visit is greater than 100 DAYS.

No-one goes anywhere unless ALL, I repeat ALL, the above criteria are met. Kapeesh?

The forum membership list carries over 3500 entries and NO index...

Try this for an excercise;

Click "Memberlist" at the top left corner of this screen, (go on) and try to find the profile of one of your caching buddies. Without knowing when they joined or when they last visited or how many posts they have made or by any of the other criteria you can search for, unless their name starts with A or Z it's difficult. There are over 70 pages to wade through.

Now I could use the "search" feature to find my caching buddy but because the member names are case sensitive, unless I get the spelling INCLUDING CASE exactly right I'm not going to find my buddy.

Or I could just wade through the forum posts until I stumbled upon one of his/her posts and click on the profile button. Not a very satisfactory solution.

I am all for people coming to the forum. I am all for people geocaching. This forum is an open and friendly place where people are free to watch the proceedings without participating if they so choose. I am not advocating culling those people who for want of a better term are called "lurkers". My use of this word was in no way meant to be derogatory and I apologise if anyone took offence to it, as none was intended.

What I am advocating is a spring cleanup of the memberlist of this forum only, so that it may be more user friendly to the people who reside here.

L()()N

swampgecko · Post by **swampgecko** » 09 September 06 2:06 am

Here's a thought, why not set up a similar system as to what hotmail uses/used, if you don't log in to your account for X number of days after activation, say 100 as Loon suggested, or make a post within that timeframe then the account goes inactive. Then after another set period where the account isn't logged in on, say another 100 days, then it gets dumped.....

Post by **CraigRat** » 09 September 06 9:06 am

The Ginger Loon wrote: I am talking about the membership list from this forum only, not from the GCA listing site. I can't find anywhere on the GCA cache listing site that uses the forum membership list. The stats are generated from GPX files, cache logs or some combination thereof.

Careful, they are the one and the same (the listing site uses the phpbb members table for login).
This is a consequence of the forums coming before the listing site did. Logically it should be the other way (log into the listing site to use the forums)....one day is may get changed.

So if I come here, register then only ever use the listing site, you wont see my last login change on the forum.

suedenharr · Post by **suedenharr** » 09 September 06 11:33 am

The Ginger Loon wrote: What I am advocating is a spring cleanup of the memberlist of this forum only, so that it may be more user friendly to the people who reside here.

I am wondering why you are advocating (and working hard at it) on this subject when the net administrators are not particularly worried or seem not worried at this stage.

Surely, if this is a problem the administrators would fix it. From what I have read they are fully aware of it and have commented accordingly.

I am not having a go at your good intent but you have lead the administrators to the pond and it is now up to them to drink; if they wish.

riblit · Post by **riblit** » 09 September 06 12:11 pm

As CraigRat has stated, the forum was here first - the profile pages and the database were changed from the "out of the box" install to accomodate some extra information that was required for the stats. Listing was added after the stats and the extra tables added to hold the additional information.

Everything revolves around the forum users table.

Searching the forum memberlist is a problem - that uses the original forum code which doesn't have a alphabetical search function. We could write one but we're busy at moment and have plans to upgrade the forum software.

Post by **caughtatwork** » 09 September 06 7:55 pm

A quick change has been made which will get into production with the next code promotion.

You know how at the top right you can enter something and the site will be searched and return cachers and caches, etc.

Well, it will also search forum member names with the next lot of changes (which aren't too far away).

So if you enter loon it will return a link to the forum member profile for The Ginger Loon.

It's case insensitive so LOON, loon and lOOn should all return The Ginger Loon. This is a quick way to get the result that I think is desired for fiding forum member names.

Of course, it doesn't cull people from the "neighbours" section. That will have to wait for later.