Why are some members listed in a different color?

[Steve Ashton]

If anyone has looked at our members list recently you may have noticed that some member's names are now listed in different colors.

I thought I would give you an explanation of what is going on.

I have been going through our entire list of members one-at-a-time. I have been looking for the sleeper spammers and those who have left drop box spam on the forum.

It is sort of hard when dealing with over 15,000 members to keep things straight and remember where I left off at the end of the day.
The forum software we use has some handy features that can help me in this. I can create what are known as usergroups. These groups can be sorted and listed in a variety of ways.
The vast majority of our members are in usergroup Registered Members. If you are in this group your username is listed in Black. You have full access to the forum and enjoy all the benefits of our community.

As I have been working through our members list I have begun to note those, who while registered, have never made a post. These members have never joined us in our discussions. These members will have their username listed in Green. They will also say "Has yet to post" under the username. When these member make their first post they will return to registered users.

I am also making note of those members who seem to have chosen not to remain active on the forum. These members have not logged onto the forum for more than one calendar year. These members will have their username listed in Blue. They will also say "Has not logged in for 1 year" under the username. When any of these members logs-in again they will return to registered users.

Spammers will of course be listed in Red. I usually have this category turned off. I don't think you actually want the spammers to show on our members list. I sometimes have this category turned on when I am working on the forum, so you may see these and I want you to know what is going on.

Those members who have repeatedly violated our rules and have had their membership revoked will appear in Sienna on the members list.

Every day I get notifications that our system has attempted to send an email to some of our members, but due to a problem, the email could not be sent. The most common reason for this is that the member has changed their email address and not updated it in their forum profile.
As a gentle reminder these members usernames will turn Purple.
As soon as they contact me and say that they have updated their email address they will return to registered members.


So what has all of this to do with you, our Registered Members?

Recently a member wanted to contact everyone in their social group and notify them of an upcoming event. They sent a PM to everyone in the social group. Unfortunately many of these members are not active or have old email addresses in their profile. The next morning I came to the shop to find over 100 system error messages.
These inactive members will never respond, they will not attend your event, and will probably not even find out that you want to contact them.
The colors could help. They could save you some time and frustration attempting to contact someone who is no longer interested in X Marks.

The colors should help if you wish to know if someone who posted to an old thread is still active.

The colors will also let you know that your friend has not visited the forum in a while. You may want to contact them and invite them back.

I hope that as I work through the member list removing the lurking spammers, that I will keep this an enjoyable place to spend your on-line time.
I also hope that this change to how we list members will help you to keep in touch with the friends you have made here.

[Bugbear]

Much appreciated. Thank you for letting us know what's going on.

[KiltedDixon]

Thanks for the update and explanation.

[KiltShot]

Thanks for keeping the place tidy.

[Father Bill]

Well done, Steve. That's a lot of work.

[Baldybrown]

Wow, I'm continually impressed with the amount of work that has gone into this site. Good job, Steve.
Ron

[Standard]

Thanks for keeping the site up and running for us Steve.

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

What about the ones in yellow? Are they on yellow alert?

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Cool idea. It should really be of immediate benefit to the members.

[Newfoundlander]

Well done! Your obviously more computer savvy than myself! I, and I'm sure we as a whole, all appreciate all your hard work.