What to do about ghosts?

What do you do about ghosts users?

On my forum, there is this one user that regularly comes online but NEVER posts. I'm not sure if their a real person, or a bot. They do use tapatalk though...

So, what would you do with ghost users that made an account and login but just don't post?

Liam

 

They could just be a browser and not a talker, there interested in some content on your site but don't have any comments they feel worth while sharing yet.
Or he could be a competitor checking out your site, or then again a spammer who is PMing your members.

 

A long list of possibilities...

The thing is, everything is available to guests anyway so I don't understand why people sign up if they don't post...

 

It's hard to say or try to find out what some people are up to.

You could always send them a message saying something like

"Hey I've seen you around, we would like to get to know you so why not join in the chat and introduce yourself in the introduce forum. I would love to hear about your thoughts about "your site niche" and what got you involved in the subject in the first place.
Hope to hear from you, forum admin."

May be a bit cheesy but you might get a response ;-)

 

True Or it may make the person think I'm some weirdo

 

That sounds a bit harsh...

 

That's probably true, although most people may not like the approach and never come back.

If I were to do this, I would send a warning email.

 

How long have they been registered for? If its a few days the I would leave of for another couples of weeks then and see what happens.

But if its been a month or so the I would still go with the approach of sending them a message like I said before, or my new updated version:

You can be like "Oi you weirdo what are you doing just logging on my forums mooching about but not making any posts???"
Talk or I'm guna boot your ass outa here!!!"

lol...

 

LOL. I just sent a mass email to all zero posters saying I'll be deleting their accounts in 24 hrs unless they make a post. Actually, I sent it just after 7PM BST...

Someone came on and made a post lol!

 

24 hours is a bit short notice, you could of given them a couple of days or a week or something

And even then I would delete the dead accounts in sections, all the oldest ones first a few at a time. Well a few hundred at a time if there are thousands of inactive accounts. (But then I would be worried why there as so many in the first place )

How many dead accounts like that do you reckon you actually have?

 

According to xenForo, 7. I think that's small though, and I also think there is an issue with my promoting system...

 

[QUOTEThey could just be a browser and not a talker, there interested in some content on your site but don't have any comments they feel worth while sharing yet.
Or he could be a competitor checking out your site, or then again a spammer who is PMing your members. ][/QUOTE]

A good post. We have had some spammers and scammers join and immediately start to PM members with their BS.

I think that some people do not realize that on some sites they can see all the public section without having to become a member, and so sign up thinking they will be able to see more.

 

A good post. We have had some spammers and scammers join and immediately start to PM members with their BS.

I think that some people do not realize that on some sites they can see all the public section without having to become a member, and so sign up thinking they will be able to see more.[/quote]


Aye. The thing is, it can't be PM spam - zero posters aren't allowed to use PM's...

 

Good idea, but when they join do the spammers know this?

 

Probably not...

 

Another option is that it could be a banned member using a proxy to check things? You can do a search of his registration IP to see if it is a proxy.

If you send me the IP I can check it out for you if you like. You can also Google his IP and see what shows.

 

Unlikely, I haven't banned anyone accept spam bots, and I don't have any spam bots!