Or perhaps you think there is a good reason for leaving usernames even if they haven't logged in for 5 years....?

Just being idle is not a good reason for removal.

For instance, take the example of paco, who has already been mentioned in this thread -- who would be associate paco's old post with? It wasn't written by the new paco, but the message needs to have an owner.

The only way that you can remove a record is if it's not referenced anywhere else. (a concept known as 'Referential Integrity' in database terms). Some things can be checked for -- if they have posted any messages, if they've earned any xp, etc.

But what about those who have been linked to? You'd have to go through every last message that has been posted, and look to see if someone has been linked to (eg, 'Barry' was mentioned in one of the other threads that has already been linked to -- so if you remove him, you have a dead link, which isn't so bad ... but if you allow someone else to use that name, then you have posts talking about a user that they didn't intend to talk about.

But ... what about those folks who were mentioned, but not actually linked to? Removing dead users is a much more difficult thing than just removing those items with no activity -- and if the benefits don't outweigh the cost of doing it (with the benefits being measured by the person who's doing the work, in volunteer situations), it's not going to be done.

In reply to Re: MonkReaper?! by jhourcle
in thread MonkReaper?! by anonymized user 468275

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