Rocks'n'Diamonds

Couldn't you delete the user
which are since a very long time registered and
never write something?
Almost two pages of the memberlist
are users that have never written something.

Sascha, you should consider that some users register only to be able to see the posts marked as "new".
You don't have such a feature, being just a guest.

Maybe you think they are simply "gone away", but maybe they log on the forum more often than we do, who knows.

Sascha, to answer your question more directly:

It is possible to delete a user by going to "Users -> Management" in the ACP. Then you check the checkbox that says "Delete this user; this cannot be undone." Then you press Submit.

However, that wouldn't be necessary for Holger to do in this case. (Unless he needs to save space in the database, which I doubt.)

Francesco wrote:...maybe they log on the forum more often than we do, who knows.

I don't think many (if any) do, because then they would show up in who is online, either as a hidden user or a registered user.

Of course you need to be the administrator to do such things, in fact your link to ACP shows an "Hacking attempt" message

Daniel H. wrote:I don't think many (if any) do, because then they would show up in who is online, either as a hidden user or a registered user.

OK, maybe the biggest part of these users would never log in again, but how can you tell who to delete and who to leave?

Maybe Holger can see for how long a user didn't log in, but then, how to make a choice?

I don't think there is a real need to delete them, as long as you don't face a spammer or an harrassing poster.

BTW: Users' data take almost no space, in the DB, I think. If you are in lack of space, you'd need to delete posts or even entire topics... and it would also mean that you are in serious trouble

I wasn't arguing, of course, it's quite clear that we agree about this issue

Francesco wrote:[...]in fact your link to ACP shows an "Hacking attempt" message

Oh, that wasn't a real link to the ACP. It was a link to one of the phpBB include files, which, when executed alone, will say "Hacking attempt." Here's the real link to the ACP. (This doen't work any better, it just gives a more specific error message )

Francesco wrote:Maybe Holger can see for how long a user didn't log in[...]

Unfortunately, you can't see that in this version of phpBB. (Unless you query the database directly, and who would want to do that?

Francesco wrote:I don't think there is a real need to delete them, as long as you don't face a spammer or an harrassing poster.

I agree.

Francesco wrote:BTW: They hold almost no space, in the DB, I think. If you are in lack of space, you'd need to delete posts or even entire topics... and it would also mean that you are in serious trouble

Well, that's true, but on larger bulletin boards, they tend to build up over time. Some bulletin boards automatically prune topics and posts regularly!

I'm glad that this one doesn't!

>OK, maybe the biggest part of these users would never log in again, but how can you tell who to delete and who to leave?

Somebody could send a PM to all users that have never
written in this forum and who answers in a time of one week
will not be deleted!?

> Somebody could send a PM to all users that have never
> written in this forum and who answers in a time of one week
> will not be deleted!?

If you don't use the forum for some time for whatever reason, you probably won't read that PM...

Why should I bother deleting forum users? If somebody decides to not use the forum for a year or two, this is perfectly OK for me. Why should this user find out that his account was deleted when he returns? Inactive users don't hurt the forum, as far as I can see.

(I don't care much about the number of users of this forum, or the percentage of active or inactive users of all registered users..)

But why do people register in this forum when
they never write!?

Sascha wrote:But why do people register in this forum when
they never write!?

I wrote:Sascha, you should consider that some users register only to be able to see the posts marked as "new".
You don't have such a feature, being just a guest.

Sascha, that's my quote from the second post of this topic... didn't you read it?

And after all, in which way do those users disturb you?
There is absolutely no reason to delete them, hope you catch this point, after all these posts...

>Sascha, that's my quote from the second post of this topic... didn't you read it?

Of course, I read it.
But I was just wondering, why
people register, when they not write, because
I didn't know, that they only want to read the new
replies.
And why is that not possible for
not-registered users?
but for example:
the user, that registered
after Holger (the 2nd one),
"test", I don't think, that "test"
everyday looks at the forum.
I thought: Perhaps it's good, if
this users, that never write become deleted,
I didn't know, that you can't see the new posts
when you are not logged in.
But I don't understand, why do registered users
sometimes log in than guests?
I think this post can be deleted now.

> And why is that not possible for not-registered users?

How should this technically work? If you ever use the same computer, you could use cookies, but if you check the forum from home and work, for example, this wouldn't be possible. The forum server has to identify you somehow!

> the user, that registered after Holger (the 2nd one), "test",
> I don't think, that "test" everyday looks at the forum.

That's me. Sometimes I want to check how the forum looks for non-admin users (for example to check that hidden, moderator-only sub-forums are really only visible to admins and moderators after I created them, and things like that)...

Holger wrote:That's me. Sometimes I want to check how the forum looks for non-admin users [...]

I do that, too!

phpBB3 (currently only beta released) has an option where you can "test out a user's permissions." But then, in phpBB3, you would need that option so much more badly than in phpBB2!

>How should this technically work?

Yes, you're right.

>>I don't think that "test" everyday looks at the forum.
>That's me! ...

Ah...