Removing user accounts

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Re: Removing user accounts by theorbtwo (Prior) on Nov 10, 2003 at 21:32 UTC
As far as the first issue, if you want to limit it to those purticular monks, it's "easy" for a god to get rid of them -- he simply has to go to the node, type in "nuke" in a textbox, and hit the "op" button. If you mean generaly getting rid of users that aren't used, and have never posted, I think it's a good idea, but not really worth the effort. There's plenty of other threads on this, though. (BTW, it has been done before, and that sweep accidently wiped out a user related to some of the perldoc on the site, who still hasn't been restored, which is why those nodes have no author.) As to getting rid of users who /have/ posted, such as yourself, I think it's a horrible idea. Such users are part of the history of PM, and we value our history. Warning: Unless otherwise stated, code is untested. Do not use without understanding. Code is posted in the hopes it is useful, but without warranty. All copyrights are relinquished into the public domain unless otherwise stated. I am not an angel. I am capable of error, and err on a fairly regular basis. If I made a mistake, please let me know (such as by replying to this node).	[reply]
Re^2: Removing user accounts (faq_monk) by tye (Sage) on Nov 10, 2003 at 21:44 UTC
that sweep accidently wiped out a user related to some of the perldoc on the site, who still hasn't been restored faq_monk was restored quite a while ago. - tye	[reply]
Re: Removing user accounts by rir (Vicar) on Nov 10, 2003 at 21:48 UTC
In the general case I disagree. I would hate to see Theo leave and someone else take up the handle. Confusing! There seems no reason to deactivate an account, implementation issues aside. Even a vacation_until_date value seems overkill to me. An unused account is a special case but even there it seems inhospitable to delete an account just because someone got sidetracked and has not been back for a while.	[reply]
Re: Removing user accounts (fixed) by tye (Sage) on Nov 11, 2003 at 16:41 UTC
Thanks to vroom for fixing PM's broken e-mail. Thanks for Petruchio for doing the initial research. Thanks to Forrest for bringing the problem to Petruchio's attention. The rash of accounts from people just trying to register with PerlMonks should now subside (now that they can get their initial password e-mailed to them again). I'll probably purge a bunch of the recent usernames when it becomes clear which one each user selects to use. - tye	[reply]
Re: Removing user accounts by Nkuvu (Priest) on Nov 10, 2003 at 22:57 UTC
How much does it hurt PM to have those extra users? Obviously those accounts take some disk space, but are they otherwise detrimental to the site? Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see useless multiple accounts removed, but I am not sure how much work it would be to monitor new accounts, see if they're very similar to another account, possibly contact both account holders (it could just be a user group who all want similar handles (unlikely, but hey it could happen)), and determine whether the accounts should be removed at all.	[reply]
Re: Re: Removing user accounts by Theo (Priest) on Nov 10, 2003 at 23:47 UTC
There seem to be over 20,000 initiates and less than 1200 novices. That suggests to me that there are a lot of monks who checked in once to ask a question or just looked around and never came back. It seems there could be a lot server time used searching through those inactive/never used accounts. If the accounts are stored on the server in any kind of order then perhaps, once in a while, reordering them by "last here" could reduce that search time by quite a bit. Or it may not be a problem at all. What do I know? :) -theo- (so many nodes and so little time ... ) Note: All opinions are untested, unless otherwise stated	[reply]
Re: Re: Removing user accounts by TomDLux (Vicar) on Nov 11, 2003 at 18:56 UTC
If an unused account uses 1 KB, and there are a million unused accounts, that comes to 1 GB. Ten years ago that was the entire hard drive for a Sparc 10 that was shared between 7 users, but with this week's hard drive prices, it's worth between fifty cents and a dollar, Canadian. Now if they were locking up good useful NAMES, that might be a cause for concern. -- `TTTATCGGTCGTTATATAGATGTTTGCA`	[reply]
Re: Removing user accounts by PetaMem (Priest) on Nov 11, 2003 at 09:02 UTC
I was just about to write the same node, except my list would have been longer: ((-_-))=-=((-_-)) ((-_-))Shadow((-_-)) -_-((_))-_- -_-((3770))-_- -_-((-Hack-))-_- -_-((Hacker))-_- -_-((ShadowHack))-_- -_-((Hack))-_- -=((-_-))=- -(-_-)- --((-_-))-- -((-_-))- ((-_-)) -_-Shadow_Hack-_- -_-Hack-_- -_Hack_- Shadow3770 H_A_C_K_E_R Shadow_Hack_ Bye PetaMem All Perl: MT, NLP, NLU	[reply]
Re: Removing user accounts by calin (Deacon) on Nov 11, 2003 at 18:05 UTC
A somewhat different issue: is it possible to delete my own account? Not that I'm contemplating such a drastic step, it just seems that if a person had decided to leave the Monastery, it would be polite to delete or at least de-activate his/her account. If you want to "de-activate" your account, you can do it yourself. Just change your email address to `nobody@example.com`, then change your password to LONG random garbage so you won't remember it. Also make sure you kill browser cookies etc. AFAIK this has been done before here. Best throw your HDD (or whole computer) out of the window, destroy backups, burn your fingertips, pour acid on your face, pull your teeth, set fire on the house and run like hell!	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Removing user accounts by demerphq (Chancellor) on Nov 19, 2003 at 19:55 UTC
pull your teeth, Well, that bit seems a touch extreme.... --- demerphq _{First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Gandhi}	[reply] [d/l]