New Members, Existing Members Who Have Moved On, and Existing Members Who May Be Scammers/Spammers

[Temp. Cook/Bottle Washer]

When this website was moved to a different server some glitches were discovered (some of which may have been there before the change; some may have happened during the change). One of those glitches involved folks who tried to register as a new member and the required email confirmation for registration may not have gotten through to them; thus, the system shows them as "Awaiting email confirmation," or "Awaiting approval."

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE NOW TRYING TO REGISTER, I think the above-referenced glitch has been resolved and the email confirmation step is now working. When you have completed your registration there will be a message alerting you that you must verify your email and the system has sent you an email. The email will contain a verification link that you have to click. If you do not see the email, please check your Spam folder.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO TRIED TO REGISTER PRIOR TO THE LATTER PART OF MARCH 2024 and WHO ARE "AWAITING EMAIL CONFIRMATION," or "AWAITING APPROVAL," the above resolution may not help you; thus, you might need to go through the registration process again.

As for existing members who may have moved on. There are a LOT of members who have: (1) not been "seen" here (i.e., have not signed in) for over five years; or (2) been a member for several years but have never posted here. I plan to delete a lot of those members. If your account got/gets deleted pursuant to the foregoing and you have not moved on please accept my apologies, and feel free to re-register.

As for existing members who may be scammers/spammers. First, there are a LOT of members who have: (1) been a member for over three months; and (2) not been "seen" here (i.e., have not signed in) since the day they joined, or shortly thereafter. I plan to delete a lot of those members. If your account got/gets deleted pursuant to the foregoing and you are not a scammer please accept my apologies, and feel free to re-register. Second, it's not unusual to see what appears to be spam-type posts (don't ask for a definition of such posts). I plan to delete those posts when I see them, and may delete the members account if I see several such posts from the same member.

 

[rsmithsr]

you are going to be busy..there are a ton of them ( look at my ignore list most of those are scammers)

 

[hayscott]

If you delete members that haven't been active, will their previous post be removed? I was thinking that there may be a lot of great information that members that have left or passed will be lost...

 

[Temp. Cook/Bottle Washer]

If you delete members that haven't been active, will their previous post be removed? I was thinking that there may be a lot of great information that members that have left or passed will be lost...

I agree about not wanting to lose some of those old posts. Fortunately, the software displays the following above the "Delete" button: "This will not remove any content this user has already created." Based on that, I assume previous posts will not be deleted — even spam-type posts. I guess identifying spam-type posts would be VERY time consuming; thus, many of those posts will likely not be deleted.

 

[erieeroot]

A quick note:
When I migrated the site over to our host, I went through a huge backlog of reported posts and banned spam users and deleted all of their individual posts. Of course that would only cover the ones that people bothered to report the posts of, so be sure to hit that report button if you do see any spam posts... The queue will be maintained going forward.

Note - banned users have a line through their name and still show up, so if you look at people on ignore OR see an old post by somebody with a line through them then they can no longer post at least.

 

[erieeroot]

An update regarding the second paragraph in post # 1 above. As I recall, at the time I posted this thread the "Forum statistics" showed that there were approximately 28K members. I've been, periodically, deleting members who have not been seen here in over five years; starting with the most-ancient such members. I've gotten to those members who haven't been seen since Jan 2006; the statistics now show less than 24K members.

Something to keep in mind while deleting accounts...
1. A banned user can no longer log into the site or create a new account using that username or email.
2. A deleted user can recreate their account using that username or email address.
3. A deleted banned user would be able to recreate their account thus circumventing the ban technically.

So even if it may look a little messy on the back end it may be prudent to leave banned users to prevent account recreation.

 

[afrench]

As for existing members who may have moved on. There are a LOT of members who have: (1) not been "seen" here (i.e., have not signed in) for over five years; or (2) been a member for several years but have never posted here. I plan to delete a lot of those members. If your account got/gets deleted pursuant to the foregoing and you have not moved on please accept my apologies, and feel free to re-register.

Most of the attachments to posts on this and other websites require the user to login to view. Photos can appear in posts for non-members and visitors, depending on the settings used when posting, and the 3rd party host. Attachments won't.

Please be cautious with the removal of old/inactive users. I'd hate to see conversations and threads lost based on the understanding of what a button claims to do.

Thanks for what you are doing.

 

[Temp. Cook/Bottle Washer]

I'd hate to see conversations and threads lost based on the understanding of what a button claims to do.

It's my understanding that deleting a member does not delete the member's post(s). I just confirmed that understanding by deleting a member who had one post and hasn't been "seen" here in over 10 years, and his post is still shown.