# active vs. inactive posters **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [April 5, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612 "2003-04-05T02:05:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![raisinbread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8491ac/32.png) [@raisinbread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raisinbread)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/1 "2003-04-05T02:05:02Z")
What’s the ratio between active and inactive posters on the SDMB? How many people register here, post a couple times then vanish into obscurity for other things? Are these usernames reaped to save database space? What percentage of users are inordinately active above and beyond the call of duty? ---
**Author:** ![Jenna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Jenna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenna)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/2 "2003-04-05T02:17:13Z")
An inactive “poster” still needs a username to utilize the search function. Some people register, post a couple of times, and decide they’d rather be a lurker. My guess is they very rarely, if ever, purge the database of inactive members. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/3 "2003-04-05T04:03:07Z")
The concept of an active poster is really vague, which makes it hard to answer your questions quantitatively. However, I’m almost totally sure that they have never deleted a single account in the interest of saving space. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/4 "2003-04-05T05:06:58Z")
Part of this question has already been discussed. [Does the SDMB purge inactive member accounts?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=155825&) [Deleting inactive names](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=161080&) ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/5 "2003-04-05T05:37:45Z")
I tried and failed to define “active poster” myself in my own thread here trying to get at the same idea. I’d redefine to say at least one post/day average for at least a year might be an active poster. My WAG is that of our 30,000 plus, the vast majority would NOT meet the above criteria. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/6 "2003-04-05T06:10:45Z")
Yeah, I’m not even _close_ to one post per day. ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/7 "2003-04-05T07:42:26Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*Yeah, I’m not even _close_ to one post per day. \*\* Well, **Q.E.D** does exceed the “at least one post/day average” stipualtion but presently fails the “for at least one year” requirement. Time will tell. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/8 "2003-04-05T15:45:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lorenzo \* > \*\*Time will tell. \*\* Time, indeed. **Q.E.D.** has got enough posts to average one a day for _seven years_… even without posting any more ever again! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/10 "2003-04-05T16:10:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irreproducible results \* > \*\*What’s so special about that? Everybody has had at least one post per day (on the first day 😃 ). \*\* Welcome. ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/11 "2003-04-05T16:24:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by wolfstu \* > \*\*Time, indeed. **Q.E.D.** has got enough posts to average one a day for _seven years_… even without posting any more ever again! :eek: \*\* Yes, if **Q.E.D.** were to retire today and remain continuously retired for six + years he would still be averaging more than one post per day in 2009, but IMHO no reasonable person would still consider him an active poster under such conditions in 2009. I suppose it would be more precise to say an active veteran poster is one averaging at least one post per day with at least one post in each of the previous 12 months. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/12 "2003-04-05T18:59:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by irreproducible results \* > What’s so special about that? Everybody has had at least one post per day (on the first day 😃 ). Actually, there are quite a number of members who have registered but never posted. Welcome. I love the user name. ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/13 "2003-04-05T21:01:50Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lorenzo \* > \*\*I’d redefine to say at least one post/day average for at least a year might be an active poster. > > My WAG is that of our 30,000 plus, the vast majority would NOT meet the above criteria. \*\* Certainly true. I’d guess that even among those usernames that aren’t abandoned, many don’t post at that rate. I consider myself a semi-active poster at about 12 posts/month. ---
**Author:** ![Sparteye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Sparteye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparteye)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/14 "2003-04-07T01:55:21Z")
Gosh, I hope they never decide to delete the quiet accounts. –\> insert witty punchline here … obviously, I can’t, or I’d be posting much more often \<– ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/15 "2003-04-07T19:09:26Z")
Last time I saw the statistics (which was a while ago, but I imagine that the numbers are still sound) the median number of posts was 1, and the mode was 0. That is to say, over half of the registered members have 1 post or less, and more people have 0 posts than any other number. On the other hand, the _average_ number of posts per member is over 90, since people like **handy** and **Guinastasia** (or heck, anyone with over 180 posts) skews the average. As for active posters, I’ve seen folks who posted a dozen times, then went away for nine months… And have now gotten up above 3000. Obviously active, but you wouldn’t have known that at first. ---
**Author:** ![DougAB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@DougAB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougAB)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2003, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/16 "2003-04-08T23:24:51Z")
> [@](#): > > –\> insert witty punchline here … obviously, I can’t, or I’d be posting much more often \<– Now that’s humor! ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/17 "2003-04-10T19:56:39Z")
So are banned usernames purged so that they can become available again? I’ve seen some good, clever and creative usernames get wasted by people who seem to only want to troll the boards and cause trouble and it would be nice to have good names available to legitimate users. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/18 "2003-04-10T20:03:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dwc1970 \* > \*\*So are banned usernames purged so that they can become available again? \*\* Nope. Banned users names are kept. For one, it keeps things neater for continuity’s sake. For example, you may have a poster (oh, let’s call him **Satan** \*, for example, who makes about 5768 posts (just to pick a number at random). If you free up the name again, people who were not around when **Satan** was banned will not realize that this is not the same poster. In addition, this very same **Satan** could always apply for reinstatement. I’m sure he’d be upset if we gave away his name in the interim. Note, any coincidence between any real posters and my example are purely coincidental. No connection between any real poster and … aw, who am I kidding? Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2003, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-vs-inactive-posters/166612/19 "2003-04-10T21:07:09Z")
OTOH, if someone was banned after one post (say), I don’t know why we couldn’t consider allowing a name to be reused. You’d have to request such from an Admin, and it would depend on the circs surrounding the bannee.