User cull?

[Amb]

We have a lot of users left over from the spam days. Can we cull out all users with 3 or less posts that havent posted for say 2 months? I do use the memberlist from time to time, and would like to see it made more manageable if possible.

[Samadhi]

I believe there's another thread where antrax talked about this. The issue is complex because it is not always clear why someone registered an SN and for what reason. And separating the wheat from the chaff is time consuming. So you have to either be exhaustive in your investigation of SN use, or risk aggravating some legitimate users.

I think that 3 posts is a good target, but initial implementation should be on zero posts. Because there are some issues associated with deleting an SN that has made posts (Any posts by a deleted user become guest posts, and are unsearchable by SN). After that, appropriate 1 posts could be handled. Then 2, etc up to an arbitrary max.

Implementation should include sending GL notifications to the email listed for the SN, a thread with the list of SNs to be deleted, and a global post linking to that thread so that people can object.

I could easily do all that with sufficient ability, but I only have the ability to do the last (unless I brute force it).
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Antrax]

I really hate mass-emailing users. The issue could be solved by cross-referencing low posts with the contents of the spam forum (via SQL), but it's below other things on my list, like upgrading our phpBB version, adding the ORDER BY Nsof asked for a while back, and possibly stealing features from scum.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Beartalon]

There are curently 1438 usernames with zero posts, out of a total of 5075 ~28%, total posts ascending.

Assuming these are numbered in registration order since they haven't posted, of these 1438 the first 1409 regestered before January 1, 2007.

I think you're safe with that cull.

The last id with one post is #3101. I guess we're mostly one-hit wonders

[Samadhi]

That's a simple query. We could just do a global post with a link to the list of those to be deleted. Give it a month, then delete.
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Neo]

I'll have a list of 0 post names by sometime later tonight.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Neo]

Done.

http://glpics.com/neo/zeropostalpha.txt

The list is EVERY user with 0 posts as of this date and time. I figure those that recently registered (ie: this year) can easily speak up if they don't want to be deleted.

Shall I go ahead and put up a global post?
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_{Ad Astra}

[Martha Marshmallow]

Yo, pls don't delete me

[Neo]

You're no longer on the list.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Courk]

I have an army? Fare the well, unknown minions.

[Neo]

They tried to oppose EEEM's Army for a while.

Or that was their intent. I remember their creation.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Antrax]

Neo, if you don't mind, I'll handle this. Deleting every user with zero posts is not only crude, it's also ineffective. I can do it more accurately and less painfully through the magic of SQL.
_________________
After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[Samadhi]

And I was about to ask how he got access to the tables. Neo, you did that without SQL? How....tedious.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Neo]

Oh, I didn't plan on doing the deleting, I just gathered a list. I mean, I figured if it was going to eventually be advertised, it would need to be done.

I couldn't figure out how to access lists of users in the Admin panel, so I just sorted the memberlist and copy-pasted into Excel. From there it was just a matter of deleting all the columns except the name.

Took me about 20 minutes once I got started.

I don't really have much to do in the evenings these days.
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_{Ad Astra}

[Samadhi]

Yeah, that's about how I would have done it.

With SQL it takes about 10-20 seconds to type the query, then given the list size, probably 1 or 2 more seconds for the query to run.
_________________
And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Antrax]

Which is why, in the future, consulting me might prove beneficial. Again, no offense intended, but I'd really rather be doing this myself despite my busy schedule. If you could divert your energy and free time towards gathering more main page puzzles, that'd be great.
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After years of disappointment with get rich quick schemes, I know I'm gonna get rich with this scheme. And quick!

[worm]

[Samadhi]

Ah, that brings back the days.

[total hijack]When I first got the nod and joined the reporting team because of my technical knowledge (in 2001...what a joke I barely knew how to use excel and knew nothing of DBs), the rest of the team would spend all day printing out crystal reports, then typing the data they wanted into spreadsheets. I mean literally 3 people taking all day to take information out of the db, then type it back into the computer. Mindboggling, but it explains my skyrocketing in the company.[/thj]
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And he lived happily ever after. Except for the dieing at the end and the heartbreak in between.

[Dragon Phoenix]

I'd prefer to keep Art Rock. It is the name I am using on most forums since a year, and I registered it here to avoid confusion.
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My photography:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/artrock2006/

[groza528]

Please do not delete "Sir Edgar." He's part of the first SEKKRET hunt.

[Neo]

Both off the handy-dandy list.
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_{Ad Astra}