Cleaning out the cupboard

[Dawg]

Hi, everybody!

Everybody, I think, has that one cupboard or drawer in the kitchen that collects all the stuff that doesn't have any other place of its own.  Of course, it might not be a drawer or cupboard in the kitchen at all - it might be a workbench in the garage.  Like at my house....  :roll:

Anyway, there always comes the time the drawer sticks, or you have to dig way in back to get the thing you were looking for, spilling half the contents you didn't haul out onto the counter onto the floor...  And the time has come to clean out the extra - stuff - that has collected.

We've hit that point.

There are memberships here - some that date back two years - of people who have never made a post.  There are other memberships that were registered just to give spam a home (not that they're allowed to do anything).

Ladies and gentlemen, buoys and gurgles, we're cleaning house.

First, spam begets spam.  If there are spam registrations, disabled or not, they can act as magnets to new spam registrations.

Second, if someone registers here, should they not expect to participate?  Otherwise, why register at all?  It takes bandwidth to store a member profile, even a very brief one.  Why would we want to maintain a profile of someone who doesn't come around and talk to us, and hasn't for weeks, months, or years?

This is a shout-out to all the legitimate folks who have registered with us but never posted a word - you're memberships here are going away unless you log in and say Hi.  It's easy, and we really would love to hear from you.

(You'll notice I didn't say anything to the spam registrants - those are just going away, regardless.)  

We're working on this now.  As you read this, like as not, one of the staff is in the act of removing the inactive and spam files.  Things are set up now so that there will be no successful spam registrations on these forums (it's a little extra work for us, but it's worth it) - but we would welcome anyone who wants to join us, and actually talk with us!

Thanks very much - and enjoy the site!

I am
Dawg
Webmaster, LauretteSpang.com

[Dawg]

I'd like to announce that we have completed the purge of spam and non-participating registrations.  Which, it seems, were pretty much one and the same.

We have also taken measures to make it more difficult for automated spammers from getting a foothold here.

The house has been cleaned to within an inch of its life - now we start the home improvements.



Thanks to julix and zankoku, of course, for everything they've done and continue to do.  They both have been and continue to be a welcome and necessary part of what we do here.

I am
Dawg
Webmaster, LauretteSpang.com