I was taking a look at the list of forum members and I saw something I had not noticed before so I decided to look a little closer.

What I noticed was that there are over 525,000 registered members on this board. More than a half million. That seemed really odd to me since I think we all know it's the same 200 or so people who post regularly here. Upon investigation I discovered right here that less than 33,000 of those members have actually posted something at one time or another leaving over 492,000 registered members who have never once posted a single thing on this board. A great majority of these nearly half a million people registered their account within a month or two of the board's first day on the web in June of '07.

That is a long time to sit dormant. That is a whole lot of usernames that cannot be used by new members just joining (who might actually want to participate) because they are already taken. It is also a whole lot of server resources tied up in maintaining a list of members in which 94% of it is meaningless. Surely this albatross must also slow the site down as well. Every time you search the threads the ratio is 19:1 where 19 is the number of entries that are irrelevant but have to be searched anyway. It's actually even worse than that when you look at the pages and pages and pages of members who have posted only once and never again since.

Can we not cull this list? Let's say any name that has never posted anything and joined prior to a month ago. I think a month should be sufficient for a newbie to look around and decide whether or not to dip his/her toes in.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

That's deep
Quite inquisitive

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

Who's watching
Tell me, who's watching
Who's watching me


I'm just an average man
With an average life
I work from nine to five
Hey, hell, I pay the price
All I want is to be left alone
In my average home
But why do I always feel
Like I'm in the twilight zone


And (I always feel like)
(Somebody's watching me)
And I have no privacy
Whooooa-oh-oh
(I always feel like)
(Somebody's watching me)
Tell me, is it just a dream

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

I don't find that so strange. I guess most Fender buyers get some kind of invitation to participate in the Forum , as they register their instruments. I think I was registered quite a while before started posting . But did some lurking ,as I remember. I guess there are both registered ''lurkers'' as well as unregistered watching these boards. Can't see anything wrong with that. But - of course , if there is a problem managing/administrating , we (Fender ) should look at that. Occupied names ? Well - just encouraging some more creativity ? Eh ?

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A-man

I watched you, and you and even you!!!!
MMUUUAAHHHAHAHA

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"Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present."

oogway, kungfu panda 2008

I'm guessing that many read and not post.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

makes you wonder how many of these "creeps" are reading this very thread and aren't replying to defend themselves!
but seriously, there should be some kind of cutoff. maybe a year or two. but that would at least get rid of most of those people from 07 , right?

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~Dan

I registered a long, long time ago (in guitar years) and I posted some at that time and then... I disappeared from the face of the earth for years! I only came back posting with a vengeance a year or so ago, can't remember exactly when. I still average only about a post per day.

I'm trying to pull my weight!

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Dennis in CR
Rockin' since 1963

I'm certain that if these "half a million registered lurkers" were causing any operational problems with how fast the forum pages load, then Brad would consider such a situation as "actionable" and take the appropriate measures. That he doesn't speaks volumes.

And as for "occupied" usernames, TFB. There are as many potential log-ins as there are stars in this galaxy and nobody of significance is gonna go cryin' to their momma 'cause "wah wah wah, somebody already took the neatest screen name and my wittle heart is bwoken".

Man up and deal with it.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

It took me almost 2 years before posting a lot on here. I still average about a post a day. Some days more than others.

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

It's not a big deal but it would probably be a good idea to clear out the user names of people who joined more than a year or two ago and have never posted anything.

I doubt most of those folks even remember that they ever joined this group in the first place. And even if they did, it's not likely that they could recall their user names or passwords.

If they are indeed here and are "just lurking," well, they don't need a login for that. And if they want to join in the discussion, it's easy enough to re-register.

Interesting STATS BMW-KTM

and +1 to Schnepf13............. just by looking at some of these "Author" names we could do with an un-used database overhaul/ clean out

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GUITAR: Fender USA JazzMaster.
BASS: Fender USA 58'AVRI
AMP: Fender USA SuperSonicTwin - Blonde.

After purchasing a bunch of Squier guitars during 2007-2009, I visited the Fender web site and Fender forum frequently for two years before joining. I used the search box and found most of the answers to the questions I had, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading through the various sections of the Fender web site and forum -- no lurking, just lots of interesting reading. I know others who have visited the site without joining. There's probably a good sized guest audience.

I wonder what the visitor traffic is, and I wonder how often registered users visit the site but don't log on, and how many have multiple accounts...don't forget the spammer accounts, snipe accounts, troll accounts, saboteur accounts (see it all the time on all branded forums) etc.

After I joined, I visited the site infrequently and then I ended up with enough time, reason, and desire to get involved in the forum. But, that could change in a heart-beat. I could get involved in a project that would leave me with zero time for this forum for days, months, years. I'd be disappointed if I came back and found my account name was purged unless there was a clear policy in place before joining.

A simple way to purge the data base and stimulate traffic/customers is to email users who haven't logged on for over a year and ask them if they want to keep or delete the account, leave it up to them.

Unless there is a clear and visible account deactivation policy, it's my opinion that it would be bad business and rude to arbitrarily delete user accounts with no deactivation policy in place on branded forums -- you'd lose an opportunity to communicate with customers and potential customers and you'd probably tick off a few people who opened the account after purchasing an instrument but didn't need any advice or information at that time but may need it in the future and will try and log on with the account.

If I were running the Fender forum, I'd be massaging that data base deeply instead of contemplating junking it.

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"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a Conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists. The American mind simply has not come to a realization of the evil which has been introduced into our midst." J. Edgar Hoover

Hey, RK: similar thing here. I think I was registered for about ten months before I got round to posting something.



Hi lameandcliche: gosh, that's a bit harsh, no? Maybe you're allowed to read a webpage and not post on it without being a creep...?



'Zactly: that's the nub of it. From Fender's point of view, all of this is here for the purpose of selling product. This Forum is the only time I've ever given Fender my email address, so when I get marketing messages from them it must be via this database. No doubt the same goes for half a million others out there.

And nuttin' wrong with that, to be sure. We all understand the T&Cs when we sign on.

Cheers - C

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I'm willing to bet the vast majority of the people on your list are people who registered for a giveaway but have no interest in engaging in a forum. If you aren't a community member and you enter a contest it asks you if you want to set up a profile and receive emails. Part of that is a username. Which is also your board name by default.

My girlfriend is one. She enters the giveaways as she plays guitar as a hobby, but has zero interest in the tech talk, history, or the alchemy of what makes certain models and features preferable to others. She just knows she likes the sound of Fenders more then other guitars and loves her Strat.

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http://www.reverbnation.com/casanovafrankensteinandthevoodoomachine
https://www.facebook.com/CFandtheVM

2012 Fender Custom Shop 55 Precision Bass
2012 Fender American Vintage 57 Precision Bass RI
2014 Fender Super Bassman and Bassman 100T/410 Neo