To keep the Database, also known as 'DB', of members free from inactive members and peepers that do not contribute to the community we often clear the DB after 'x' number of days where the user has not posted anything. How much time should we give a member before their account is automatically deleted?
I voted for six months. The only reason I give it that long is that sometimes we have members who are inactive with good reasons for over 2 weeks.
However, I would want to be able to keep some members, especially if we know that there are very special circumstances. For example, we have one member now who is on active duty in the military, and is in Iraq. I don't know what his particular circumstances are right now, but I wouldn't want to delete him anytime soon.
However, if someone has only posted their introduction, or hasn't posted at all, then I would say to delete them if they haven't visited the forum in a month. I understand how people might want to read, but not participate all that much, so would give them the opportunity to stay here if that is all they want to do. After all, maybe we are helping some of them.
However, I noticed that we have some members who posted a few times, possibly even reached mature status, then stopped visiting the forum altogether. That is sad. In those cases, if they haven't visited in 3 months, and haven't communicated with the Architect or the moderators, then I would remove them as well.
Well, it depends. I voted for 6 months, but it might be necessary to give less time is DB size is an issue or concern. If size is an issue then I would drop that to 3 months. However, if size doesn't matter then I think 6 months is a nice even, well balanced number.
At present it is set to 200 days which is a little over six months. If the person joined and did not post nothing then two weeks. I find that what happens is that the net is so big that users forget they joined this Community, so the only time they remember is when they get an Email. Unfortunately some do not have their Email configured well and it get's sent to the Spam / Bulk mail folder so our notifications get ignored, then months after they send me an Email complaining that they cannot enter the site . Being a member on several forums I can honestly say that I have not visited some of them in many months - if they deleted me I would understand.
I also voted for 6 months earlier today. I feel that that is a fair amount of time to give a member to come back if the member was active in the community before. I understand deletion for members that join and never post after 2 to 4 weeks. But for members who were active at one point, things happen in life, like the war in Iraq like Nighthawk suggested was a reason for one member. I am more talking about those that have a sudden reason for not visiting the forum that is a valid one. In many cases a member could give warning that they might not be on the forum for a while, but other circumstances beyond their control could come up preventing them from coming to the forum. Just my opinion.
I voted six months but I think it depends on how active they have been. If someone has been active for a long time an inexplicably stop posting, I would give them a longer time then someone who signs up and posts once then stops. a good general rule would be six months but be willing to make a judicious exception to the rule.