This bothers me...
 

i did a search of all members with less than 50 posts going back to 05-01-03 and what surprised me was that had these folks just come in as guests rather than join i wouldn't be upset...

my findings are...

19494 out of 31836 members = 61 % do not get involved...

so i went further and found that since 05-01-03 only 667 members have over 50 posts... that's 2 % people...

so, what i need to know is this...

this costs us a ton of $$$ to offer this community to you but i see a lot of inaction - shit - i just canned a friend of mine i brought in because he decided it wasn't worth his time...

is it worth your time?

it's nice to give your friends a beer or two on the infrequent times that you see them. But if they come every day, make it more work for me to clean my house, eat all my food, and drink all my beer, well, that party has got to stop. I don't have kids for a reason, I'm not about to start with a full grown one.

I have some friends here that I invited here and they came and during the previous whackings they got whacked. Their loss. Too bad for them.

I assume you're posing this question to the leechers/lurkers rather than to the people that post on a regular basis.

31, 836 is a LOT of members, and I don't think it's realistic to think that all 31,836 of them are going to post. It's very easy to get an account here on TFP. It doesn't cost them anything and they don't spammed as a result. I'm sure tons of people join, realize that the TB is nowhere to be found, and leave without bothering to erase their trail.

So take out the trash! Take those people that signed up way back when, with zero posts, that haven't visited in ages, and delete them. Or is there a way to send those members with under 50 posts an automated e-mail, telling them that their account will be deleted in seven days unless they start contributing to the community? Although I know that would potentially be a lot of work for mods to then evaluate each member.

I can tell you that for the first four months I was signed up, I had maybe 3 or 4 posts (and they were all on the TB, of course). It wasn't that I didn't want to contribute to TFP. At the time, I just didn't have the time and energy to join a new community and keep active. I'm glad I wasn't deleted because I eventually was able to get into the groove here (after a few weeks' lurking). But if I had been deleted, and I had gotten an e-mail explaining why, I would have understood it. If it was that important to me, I would have signed back up and contributed.

If it's costing you guys extra money to have the extra members on here, then get rid of them. They won't see this message anyway.

Im new, so...yeah. 50 posts is a big deal when simply starting out, but once a member finds his or her own little groove in the forum they'll begin posting regularly.

edit: dang... only 4 posts? I wouldve sworn I had more than that!

To tell you the truth, I used to come here just for the titty board. Since that has been gone, I slowly started getting into reading threads and posts. Now I enjoy reading threads and post. Also making threads and mostly replying is very enjoyable. This is a great place to interact with people and get other views about certain topics and issues. Everyone here that participates is very nice and constructive when they write. Yes it is worth my time because it is a good community. To the top dogs in this joint, I appreciate and thank you for all the hard work.

Halx said that he didn't want to deal with "endless complaining" from lurkers (http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthr...threadid=33644). I can't blame him -- unless you were to ban their IPs they'll just reregister anyway. I doubt there's an easy solution to this problem.

If you're a lurker: I was a lurker once! Now that I post regularly, I feel that I get a lot more out the experience. I highly recommend it, and we'd like to hear what you're thinking!

Is there a way to determine who drains the most bandwidth without contributing?

Perhaps if we titled this thread like "Get Your Boobies Here" more of the lurkers would see it.

I'm scared I will get whacked. I mean< i have enough posts I think, but every once and a while I just go into "I hate the internet" mode or "I have too much homework to do anything" time. I also love the journals. When deciding when to get rid of people do you consider their journals and PMs to other members etc?

You mean there are other things here besides the TB? WOW!

Sometimes I feel intimidated by the clever minds of the members.
I like posting here, but it does conflict with my signature line.

i find the second part of that interesting the since may thing


well i know i particapate in the commuity


i am not sure what the soulition here is


to answer your question yea its worth my time

I share your frustration, understanding the cost issue, and will be making a donation as soon as I pull off that bank job…;)

Mine is selfish, during my registration, trying at least thirty names, all were taken.
Now I’m stuck with Average-Joe. Oh well.
What irked me is finding members with names I requested, either having no posts or haven’t participated in months.

Maybe these non-active members should be deleted?

Yes, I’m a rookie and what I say should be taken lightly.

"Worth my time?" YES

I like it here. Almost 50 posts in 2 weeks. :thumbsup:

Hanx isn't talking about you. He's talking about members who join and don't post at all. Taking breaks here and there is fine. We all take vacations, or need time to deal with issues in real life. What is bugging him are the people that join, seem to log in daily and never post even a reply for months.

Shiftless lay-abouts! Scoundrels!! Quit eating the bandwidth!

You either are a contributing member of society or not. Grazing for months at a time without giving anything back to the community is a travesty!

I say: Get involved, get active, or get out.

Clean house, they won't be missed.

It is very worth my time. I don't do things that AREN'T worth my time. I enjoy the time I spend here and the interaction. I have made some good personal friends IRL from this site.

My sweetie is a newbie and he usually posts each time he visits.
I can't imagine why anyone would bother signing up if they aren't going to participate.

What is equally as frustrating is that there are those of us who donate not ony our time but our money to help keep this site going and others come in and abuse it. I say use it or lose it!!!

Worth my time,its probably the best chat/information site on the web.I'll try not to get wacked but my input is in relation to the shifts I work.

i am probably one of those who has less than 50 posts. but i come on here like everyother day, i just dont post alot. i really only post when i have something to say that someone else has not. and i am sure there are more like me.

It's definitely worth my time! Hopefully, I'll be able to donate after Christmas!
This is by far the best website, community on the internet. :)

I don't post a lot but when I do it is on a serious level.I don't waste bandwidth with silly,inane crap.I like this board and appreciate this community too much to do that.

I would really miss this board---J/C I almost went nuts when
we lost the last one---it took a little to get involved again
but I look forward to dropping in and listening to those crazy Aussies. etc....

If it is a matter of cost----cut the dead wood....

I love reading these boards, but I often find that by the time I get to a thread, the discussion is too far along to really get involved in it. I don't think there's any shortage of active posters here. Quite the contrary, there are so many that it's intimidating.

I understand how it must feel for a new person here but the fact is that there are plenty of boards and threads that don't have heavy traffic.
Your post is just as important as the other folks here and we look forward to the new input.
The journals are an important part of the community as is the chat.
People who are active in those places are respected members too.
Thanks to everyone who contributes both cash and their thoughts.
For those of you who haven't... jump on in the water is fine.

i was one of those people till a couple weeks ago, now im planning on hangin around for a while

I don't post often or frequently (hence my lack of an avatar), however I generally try to contribute to the community with what I do post. The stats posted here are amazing though.

More and more frequently I feel myself relaxing when I come here from my duties on another board.
This boards' structure feels more like home than any other site, so yes, it's definitely worth my time.

Thank you, guys.

I'd definitely agree that a lot of people probably come here in search of the TB, but I lurked around for quite some time before I started posting. It took a while to understand just how open minded and welcoming the members are, and then I felt at home and willing to share with the people here things I wouldn't think of discussing with anyone else.

I am still a strong believer in the delete anyone that has zero post thing, I mean if you even step in to say "Hello" you shouldnt be here.
Simple as that.

the stat that shocks me the most is that only 667 of us have more than 50 posts.

i figured that there would be thousands of folks just lurking, but i would have guessed the number of involved people would have been somewhere around 2000.
i was way off.

I come to TFP to relax and have a little private time. Sometimes work and family keep me tied up. Maybe the solution would be for active members to e-mail zero posters asking them to please be nice, and decide if they want to participate or withdraw. A second alternative would be termination after 45 days of inactivity.

This news is a bit shocking, maybe slackers should get blocked for some time as a warning. After that comes banning from TFP.

We visit many places in life that we enjoy but would never call home. 39% of us are different. The online world mirrors reality!

to be honest, i cant understand why you are complaining, you realize that by posting they are creating an exponential effect of adding kilobytes to each page for people to read.

as it is, each time I come here, and click "new posts since last visit" I get hit with a minimum of 9 pages, and I visit daily.

Thats pretty crazy to me.

but you have to realize, this is a public website, people have free will.

I understand your frustration, I used to run a forum on my site which was a repoistory for pictures that I took at parties, all these party kids would come look, download, link to my site and use my photos on other message boards, and not even post or say thanks to me for my work of maintaining and raising that site.

I've since sold that website to someone else because they thought they could do it without bitching, like I did.

what did they do? shut down the site after 2 months of trying to get some recognition for my work.

pretty sad, but I walked out of the deal with 50$ *shrug*

point is, you need to stop looking at the site as your playground now, its up, its pretty much self contained at this point, the people who DO post are the ones adding to your content, and the ones who provide the repeat traffic.

if anything I would like to see a webmaster/admin focus more on complimenting the people who DO contribute, and DO participate, rather than bash on the people who do not.

positivity is everything man :)

Its worth my time... But I know Im not the one hes talking about. I love this place.

I'ld say that its very much worht my time because it gives me someplace to go when i need to get away from the crap of life. Besides I think TFP has helped me start thinking things through in my writings for my college classes.

As you can see i've also started baring my soul in the journal section as well, which helps me sort out stuff in my head too.

Makes me think about cows that don't give milk.. they eventually end up at the slaughter house.. hehe :D

shauk... [q]if anything I would like to see a webmaster/admin focus more on complimenting the people who DO contribute, and DO participate, rather than bash on the people who do not.
[/q]
i did not mean that as demeaning in any way - just pointing out the effort that those that do participate are a minority...

no - i've never had a site of my own and no - i don't know the costs and no - this is not in any way a canvass for donations...

but it just occurred to me that those that do get involved are looking for a release from the mundane...

there are many here that do not understand that the more they are do participate, the more forums will open for them...

call it a teaser if you will, but the point is to consider this site an interactive thesis in motion, where we all can express our values and beliefs in an atmosphere where you feel safe...

as for thanking the members, we all do that in our replies...

If a person has signed up and not posted a damn thing in months then there is no reason to keep that person on record. I'm sure they figured they got cut anyway. Seeing as how there is no way to cancel your membership you just have to leave. Cancel it for them. Get rid of all the people that have signed up before a certain date with less then 50 posts... maybe even 100. There is no reason for them to take up space that can be used for someone important that might wanna be a active member. As active and my member... *wink, wink... nudge, nudge*

It's worth my time and I contribute here, but a lot of times (Especially with so many members) someone has already said exactly what I would have posted.

yeah on a site this size, theres no problem with pruning the users that are inactive, pretty much i'd kill anyone off with more than 3 months since thier last post.

my problem is that my net access is eratic at best

When I'm here, I post a fair amount. I like to think I contrinute pretty well as a member of this community...


...but right now I only get occasional 'net access and most of it is at work. I don't really want to go online much at work, especially to a place with NSFW content, so I'm kind of limited to days when I'm not working and I'm doing laundry instead (no 'net at home either)

so it looks sometimes like I'm lurking, but I swear I'm not. This is a good place and I'm proud to be a part of it.

This board is definitely worth the time. When i initially signed on, I signed on for the TB. I donated to help pay my way while I got familiar with the board but didn't post much at all.

After a while, I felt more comfortable with posting and started posting here and there. I try to post and contribute when i feel that I can add something to a topic or if it is something I have an opinion about. Many times I feel that my contribution has already been made by someone else and I let it slide.

With a wife, kids, business and a new house under construction, I don't always have alot of time to post but I try to post when I can. I don't worry about getting booted because I try to contribute more than just "me too" posts and such.

Thanks for the great place to blow off steam!

I admit, I first came here for the TB, but these days I rarely go. I'll have a day when I go and look at a bunch of stuff, but I think most of my recent posts have been just in discussion. There are some fascinating mofos here.