At least your name is timeless, does anybody even understand my screen name anymore?

Damn you pop culture reference and our ADD society for preventing me from being eternally cool!

something about a risky back alley?

I'll set up a job to delete accounts that have:

a) Never been activated (531 accounts)
b) Never played a game (2410 accounts)

I think 3 months is a reasonable timeframe for this. I definitely don't want to go down the route of deleting or renaming old accounts that have been active - I think this forms part of the history of the site which is worth retaining.

I've found that it's more effective to create tags that redefine your intended tag.  Much like when I saw "coolguy" was taken I created AttilaTheHun which people now associate with "cool." :)

weathertop wrote:

you know how long it took me to come up with a suitable alternative to weathertop (for an email address while i was tryin to switch hosts) when i found some dofus already had it ... and didn't use it, and still has never used it? 

but i understand your point.

FYI - I work in a weather related field, and 'Wx' is a very common abbreviation for weather, so you could go with 'WxTop' if you run into this problem again, and want to be clever.

You work in a weather related field????????

Ozyman, do you know THE Weather Girl?  I don't know where she went but I was and still am in love with her!

RiskyBack wrote:

You work in a weather related field????????

Ozyman, do you know THE Weather Girl?  I don't know where she went but I was and still am in love with her!

I have no idea who you are talking about.  I work with a bunch of nerds who do all the behind the scenes sciency stuff.

Don't hate her because she is beautiful.

tom wrote:

I'll set up a job to delete accounts that have:

a) Never been activated (531 accounts)
b) Never played a game (2410 accounts)

I think 3 months is a reasonable timeframe for this. I definitely don't want to go down the route of deleting or renaming old accounts that have been active - I think this forms part of the history of the site which is worth retaining.

I cannot believe how many accounts this effects, close to 37% of all accounts (6.5% never activated is what I was expecting since I might have two of these).

Alpha wrote:

tom wrote:

I'll set up a job to delete accounts that have:

a) Never been activated (531 accounts)
b) Never played a game (2410 accounts)

I think 3 months is a reasonable timeframe for this. I definitely don't want to go down the route of deleting or renaming old accounts that have been active - I think this forms part of the history of the site which is worth retaining.

I cannot believe how many accounts this effects, close to 37% of all accounts (6.5% never activated is what I was expecting since I might have two of these).

When you say never played a game, does that mean never finished a game?  Do games that are in-progress count show the account as activated?

It means never been in a game that started.

Like the idea.

Any account not activate and authenticated after 3 weeks should be wiped and the user name made available.

Any account not used after 3 months of total inactivity should also be wiped and the user name made available.

As far as game history.  An asterics would solve that problem.  Works for the Baseball Hall of Fame, it will work for wargears.  The asterics simply means that the username is now being used by a different player.   And is that really that important?  The point is you won. Or lost, whichever is the case.

Still the potential problem of people coming back and how would they get their name back?

They wont Yertle.  Cause if you think about it.  Someone who created their account, played through a few turns before abandoning the game for three months probably wont even remember their user name and password to begin with.

If they stop playing completely, what are the chances they'll be coming back after more than 3 months?  Or that they'll even remember their user name?  I forget my facebook acount log in after a week. 

I think 3 months is more than fair... anyone who is in the group of people who havent logged on in 3 months or more speak up now or forever hold your peace.  What?  They're not logging on anytime soon?  Oh well, I guess they dont get a say.

Bad timing for that rebuttal .  Hugh just came back after a 5 month hiatus (not positive if he logged in during that time, but was boot from 54 games over the course of that time), went cold turkey from what I can tell but then came back.

Well their you have it... Hugh made all the players in 54 game wait for him to finally be booted.  Which is something we're discussing in another thread.... FIFTY FOUR GAMES!  Thats a jerk move if you ask me.

He should have his name put back on the available names list.  He is one of how many?

And besides there is no guarantee that someone was going to take his name anyway.  And also he was a paying customer so that can also be an amendment.

If you pay for the membership then you shouldnt have to worry of loosing your name.  If after 3 months or so after your premium membership ends you dont log on then maybe they should get a courtesy e-mail sent to them regarding this.

Really this is just ment to get rid of those who open free accounts just to try it out and then never come back or quit after a short while.  I have a free account now only cause I'm broke having to put all my money into fixing my car, but then plan on getting the yearly thing.  BUT if I where to stop loggin on next week and not come back for 5 months.  I wouldnt be surprised if they erased my account.  I would just think of a new name, or see if my old one is still available.  If not, then its my fault for going inactive.

If there was an "autosurrender all games" button I would have pressed it. I'm not saying it wasn't a jerk move, but I needed to pull the needle out of the arm, and insisting on using the remaining goods seemed counter to recovery. Hoping to keep it saner this time around...

I agree with the main thrust of "fewer than 5 games plus 6 months of activity means they won't be returning or caring about losing their Wargear name if they do return." Wherever that line is drawn, it should be drawn conservatively. It can't be just based on recent activity. I think Andernut, asm, Gimli, Risky, Severene, Weathertop, Yertle, and a very very long list of others, should be able to leave for 5 years and have their names and stats still here and be outraged if their name got deleted. And yes, I am on that list!

How about if you have championship points then you are automatically protected from ever being deleted / renamed?

I think the asterix prefix idea is a good one to separate old retired players from current ones.

Toms on the right track.  If you're a player who at one point had platinum, championship points and what not, then your spot is secured for life.

We could do what Nukezone.nu did and have a community scoreing system.  Where by being active on the forums, being active on the games and gaining championship points all gains you community points or something along those lines.

Then guys like you are going to have a hugher community score, reach a certain level and you're a lifer.

tom wrote:

How about if you have championship points then you are automatically protected from ever being deleted / renamed?

I think that makes good sense!