Number of members

[CK & AK]

Having seen the following answer to a question as to how many S4R's there were in the club:

Originally Posted by fatbloke
In UKMOC? 85 so far

I went on to answer:


"Is that people who ever use the site Terry tho? - as members - or guests?" (if guests, then they aint members?)

Having spent an idle few minutes looking into the members lists, there are many many people who have never posted.
Look closer at these same people, and they were 'last active' on the day they registered - and many of these 'registrations' are more than a year old - if not more than 2 years old.

There are a dozen or more that I can recall - having known them slightly - who dont now have a monster - and havent used this site since they sold their bike.

I know this has been a thorny subject on & off (innit GT from AGM 2 years ago?) - but any chance it could now be considered to do some 'spring cleaning' - and remove people from the members list?

The only criterion would be those who have got zero posts combined with the factor of whose last activity was in excess of more than 1 year?

This is the type of thing I mean:

http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/member.php?u=1190

This one above, joined & has never posted or been back on forum since the day he registered. There is at least one like this per page (taken from a random selection of pages) that I have found.

In most other clubs (Ok, the UKMOC isnt 'most other clubs' - I know, I know!) you have to renew membership annually, but surely someone who hasnt used the boards & also never posted in 2 years, couldnt really be considered to be a member now?

At present, whilst giving a 'healthy' look to the number of members, this is not portraying an accurate account of numbers at all, and when you remove the aliases too.....

Your thoughts members?

C

I agree in priciple Charlotte but some people who join just don't post but are active
in other ways.
In fact the member you have used in your example "S4Rthebest" although does no
t post has booked 2 places on the trackday for himself and his partner who rides an M1000.
But I agree some "members" register and never come back but its hard to know who.
On the other hand if we do have a small percetage of way ward members does it
really matter ?
After all they are using up no UKMOC resources ie web space is it worth the time
and effort to go on a which hunt for them?

I was just about to post a reply agreeing that we need a springclean but as Terry's just pointed out that that chappy and his missus have booked up for the trackday...well I'm not so sure now as it would be a shame to have lost that member had he have been blocked ie. he may not of been bothered to have to re-register as a member and start all over again and then thought sod it and didn't bother booking the trackday.

Do you get what I mean?

(I've got verbal diarrhoea tonight - excuse the poorly worded post )

[marchesini]

Originally Posted by fatbloke

After all they are using up no UKMOC resources ie web space is it worth the time and effort to go on a which hunt for them?

I totally agree - live and let live. Some may be really shy and don't like to post but if they glean even one ounce of information from 'lurking' then that's got to be worth something. I was a member years ago but only posted on the forum perhaps 12 (ish) months ago - does that mean I would have been kicked off because I didn't post?

And really I don't know who "S4Rthebest" actually is (and I take it that you don't either), if he/she is a 'lurker', what impression would this post give to him and other quiet members. I'm sure you can make your point without dragging innocent parties into it who have done nothing wrong other than not to post any questions. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and speak on a public forum and I don't see why they should be made to post - stand up for the little man I say.

Now apologies in advance if the activity monitor works differently to how I think -does it show when you last visited or when you last posted? Sometimes, when I log in from other computers, I don't sign in because I just want to read and then it wouldn't show that I had visited - maybe that's what a lot of other non-posters do. Perhaps some joined and then didn't like it. Yes, perhaps a renewal reply e-mail on an annual basis would trim the chaff but again, someone would have to do this and this is a totally free forum with no membership fees and no red tape - which I think is one of the most endearing things about this place.

Best regards all (including the lurkers)

simon

Oh a hard one.... At the end of the day it is a forum.. I say kick em out, and if they want to stay they can post "hello" in test area once a year...

[marchesini]

Originally Posted by Banshee

Oh a hard one.... At the end of the day it is a forum.. I say kick em out, and if they want to stay they can post "hello" in test area once a year...

Is the criteria for being here that you have to post. Surely not? I'm sure some come for the technical advice and get their bike fixed or look for recommendations on dealers or workshops or to get custom ideas for their bike. Even though many (including myself from time to time) like to have a bit of banter, many aren't interested in talking boll ocks - should they be excluded aswell?

best regards

simon

I'm with Simon on this one..(and el Tel)..
we all know who rides and who posts..some of my Hants rides have had 'members' join in but they dont post ...they view the forum for info and if they have a Sunday free they can join a ride or just drop in to the meet point and say hello...

oops..posted at the same time as Simon....
...and we think the same...

[CK & AK]

Ok, Simon & Boozy, I do see where you are coming from equally so, there are, as FB says, people who go to the trackday who are not users of here (well, not publicly)
Terry, I wasn't saying to have a 'witch hunt' but merely to tidy up the figures - to give a more accurate number in the club. As you say, the club is a web-based one, not operated by any other means (eg payment etc) - but surely this forum should reflect a reasonably accurate figure?

To return:

However,there ARE people registered on this site, who do not use it, who dont have a monster any more.
Also for example:3 people who I meet on an occasional basis admit to having re-registered with a different name, different ISP too when they had been 'lapsed' for a while.
Some have purely registered to sell an item.
Some have registered to ask a few questions about monsters prior to a possible purchase - and then not got one

I do think that it is a fallacy to publish incorrect figures for membership, based purely on the amount of people who have registered since the forum went live in August 2002.

C, waiting to be shot down in flames again,

Well Charlotte, I agree with you up to a point. As time goes on, there will be more and more people who are no longer members, for whatever reason.
There are many for instance, who eventually get fed up with a particular bike, and want to change.
I for one, would not insist that anyone has to be active on the forum,(each to his/her own), but CK does have a point. Where will the cut-off be for those that have dropped out? How many ex-members will there be in 2-5 or 7 years time?
Maybe some sort of system where a member is sent an e-mail after say 2 years inactivity, just to confirm that they are still members?
There will come a time in the future, when something will have to be done about it I believe, and it must be the same for any type of club.

When I was the manager of the London Bikers once a year I would have a "spring clean" - I would get together with the moderators and we would go through the membership list making a list of people who hadn't posted in the last 6 months. We would drop them an email asking them if they wanted to stay on the forum or be removed, we gave them 14 days to reply.

Quite often we found that the email address was no longer valid, people who had registered and forgotten their log in details would start using the forum again.

It's a bit time consuming but at the end, the members list gets tidied up, we get a true membership figure.

My point exactly Celeste.

I really dont see the point in a spring clean? and why do we need accurate figures? surely if the site wants sponsorship "eyeballs on monitors" numbers or leverage with the gangsters...sorry Olympian Gods at Ducati then a higher number is better even if skewed? in any case all figures are skewed to a point and the trick is to skew them in ones favour. "welcome to the ukmoc" active members...a bit less than a hundred!" The really splendid features of this club are its knockabout ding dong manner, lack of fees and on the whole a very "live and let live" attitude. After the recent furore (cabin fever mainly) I did have a look at a few other forums but they were pretty dry...and had teeny avatars....oh and Berto was on one of them...the tit.
Alex.
ps. feel free to spread some of my post count amongst the invisibles, they need it more than me, in fact a weeks disqualification like upstart Richard_S would bring it down to zero again!

upstart? you little monkey!

Personally I can't see the problem but as this topic keeps rearing its ugly head perhaps it would be best to put it to bed, thus satisfying the few who need to know exactly how many people use this place.
I prefer to concern myself with other things but hey whatever. It doesn’t really matter either way.

[Paranoid Dave]

Such a hard one this, One one hand I back CK and say that a tidy up is a good idea, it'd be good to see some accuracy in the figures to know how big and far reaching the club is. On the other hand I can see Terry and others point of view.
Saying that names should be removed when the bike is sold is wrong as on other sites built for single meakes of bikes, the friends you make are still friends regardless of what you ride and you keep posting because of that. And when we have members who log on and never owned a monster like Zimbo, Brolly Dolly or Fodder then why should they be allowed to stay when someone who has sold up be booted? Can you really see a good reason for waving goodbye to Overipe and Keen, or Billy Bigwheels.
What this could need is a compromise between the two, at the moment a user of this site is either a member or a user, can we not get a better clarification between the two so the MEMBERS are counted and the users are not. Maybe those who sell will be users just like those who want but never get round to buying one surely are. If you were to send a yearly mail out to people who have not visited the site in that time, rather than boot them they could just have Member status turned to User, and on return be asked the question do they still own... and if so back to Member they become. I'm no computer whizz so I dont know how hard any of this would be but it would make it a lot clearer as we could see 1500 people on the site but know 400 are MEMBERS. Why not some change of colour to their name surround too, not to discriminate but again it would make it so much clearer for Reps to see when searching their counties lists of names to see who could be contacted for a Ride etc.

What you think???

PD