Large amount of non-posting members

[MRNpoultry]

I wanted to say I just joined a few days ago, and every body answered all my question. I felt welcomed since the day I joined. The only thing is you made my chicken addiction
worse. LOL

 

[hypnofrogstevie]

well speckledhen is the worst person I ever met! she made me get more eggs. she brainwashed me. Darn you.. you enabler!

. I am an addict! *cries* lol

 

[Scrambled Egg]

It probably is smart marketing to boast to a sponsor about the number of registered users but a smart sponsor would also take a look at the site. It would be at that point that they would lose all interest in who had more than one post or not and instead be impressed at the activity on the forum. That sponsor would be handing Rob their money in a hurry so they could get the business over with and get themselves registered in order to join in the chatting fun themselves, lol!!!

 

[rufus]

I check this site a couple of time a day. I usually don't log in unless I find something I am interested in. Basically, I guess I am a lurker.

Some of the most interesting posters seemed to suddenly disappear. What happened to Pickles Pickles, 4H mother with kids or Mac from Abilene? And now Paganfish has dropped away?

However, I have learned a lot about poultry here, which is not easy for a guy that thought he knew everything.

Rufus

 

[Scrambled Egg]

I worried about Pickles myself, funny how people's lives take them elsewhere. Mac is in the military and hopefully not deployed, the 4H mom I never knew but Pagan is alive and well but sadly on another forum!

 

[BYC User Wild]

People come and people go. That is the nature of life on the internet.

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

Great discussion, my thoughts:

Regarding resource usage: This isn't an issue at all. Having 1 or 10,000 users that have 0 posts won't really effect anything. What uses resources is the 100,000 pageviews per DAY and each one having about 10 database queries each... that's a resource user, but that's also why we've got a very robust server and constantly do upgrades.

Regarding deleting "inactive" members: I don't see any pros to this, especially considering the above. I'd rather have 1,000 inactive members than delete a user who just went away for a few months and came back to find their account deleted... that wouldn't be a very positive experience. Again, since no resources are used, I don't see a reason to delete them. Most forums I visit do NOT scrub out "inactive members".

Regarding sponsors: Yes, sponsors should look at forum members, but they also look pageviews (impressions), unique visitors, sessions (visits), clicks, conversions, active members online, # of threads/posts, etc. Again, "# of members" is relative, but since most forums do not scrub / erase inactive members it is a good relative measurement.

Regarding "cliques": Sure, with such a great community of friendly people you will find groups that gravitate together. Nobody should ever feel excluded from the forum just because they aren't active in any of these "groups". This forum is big and supportive enough for everyone.

We do have a newsletter that goes out to all the members and we're always encouraging everyone to be active with the community. We've got such a great group of people here that make this place such a fun, friendly, and safe place to be (thanks BYC Staff). With that said, we've all got multiple responsibilities and sometimes they get in the way and interfere with our addiction!