Members ready to help you!

[alderjones]

Am I the only person watching the number of members ready to help you message as the number increases! It's interesting to see presumably new members joining all the time. Just waiting for it to hit 280,000 now.
But - does anyone ever get removed? If someone dies and notification is passed on do they get removed from this number? How many of the 279,000 plus are active or have logged in in say the last 12 months?

[louisa maud]

I  do  know  a  dear  friend of  mine who died,   I  did  pass the  info onto  a  moderator, don't  know  what  happened after that , assumed  her  name  was removed

Louisa  Maud

[ThrelfallYorky]

I think I dimly recall "deceased + date" being added on one post I saw, to the name. I could be wrong....
TY

[Girl Guide]

Well I suppose it depends on whether the deceased's relatives are aware that he/she was a member of Rootschat.  If the relative is able to access their computer and knows the password for Rootschat then notification can be given that the Rootschatter has passed away.

I would imagine that there are quite a number of registered Rootschatters who haven't been online for several years and have probably passed on.

We quite often see old threads being re-activated by an enquirer.

[Little Nell]

If we are notified that a RootsChatter has passed away, their profile is edited to show

Deceased † Rest In Peace

But as Girl Guide says, we are not always informed if friends or family are not aware that someone was a member.

Some people join and only use the chatroom.  Others join but make no postings - quite a few of those.  But their names remain on the list of members.

You can always check to see when someone last logged in by viewing their profile.  I just picked one at random who joined in 2004 but had made no postings.  They last logged in in 2006.

But there are plenty of us still around who joined a long time ago and still going strong. 

Nell

[louisa maud]

Which reminds  me I must  tell my family my subscriptions, it will tidy  things  up but  not  for a  long time

LM

[candotout]

How many inactive users are 'logged-in'? How many of those will ever access Rootschat in the future?

When anyone logs-in to RootsChat, the default option is to stay connected. The user has to actively uncheck the box to prevent this.

Sarah and Trystan are certainly aware that there is a limit to how many simultaneous connections can be active on any server (even for Google & Facebook!).

There may also be security risks to allowing your device to stay connected.

I would advise RootsChat to reverse their default option, or, better yet, to automatically log-out any user after a reasonable period (1 hour?) of inactivity.

It would not be complicated to send an automatic email to any user who has been inactive for a very long period (2 years?) to forewarn that their account will be closed after a period (3 months?).

For users, I would STRONGLY advise that you always set yourself a time limit to stay connected.

GENEALOOGY CAN BE ADDICTIVE !!!

p.s. on the subject of 'security'; a user's activity pattern can be extremely revealing: It would be nice to see this feature eliminated when looking at a user profile. My house-burglar friends really love this sort of information!!!

[aghadowey]

It would not be complicated to send an automatic email to any user who has been inactive for a very long period (2 years?) to forewarn that their account will be closed after a period (3 months?).

Why? it's often the case that someone comes across an old thread/post and posts a reply to someone who has been seemingly inactive a long time. With your suggestion the user would not get notified that there is a reply to that thread and may miss out on connecting with a long-lost or previously unknown relative.
You also can't tell from looking at a profile whether or not a user has been following a particular topic (or board or indeed all new posts) without logging in. Some people probably only log in if they are going to make a post.

p.s. on the subject of 'security'; a user's activity pattern can be extremely revealing: It would be nice to see this feature eliminated when looking at a user profile. My house-burglar friends really love this sort of information!!!

Not at all. How on earth can the user's activity pattern be revealing to complete strangers? If, for example, I'm not online it doesn't mean that I'm away from home. I could be out in the garden, doing housework, making meals, doing something else on my computer or any number of things. It also doesn't mean that my house is empty waiting to be burgled as there are others in the household.

[Girl Guide]

Not at all. How on earth can the user's activity pattern be revealing to complete strangers? If, for example, I'm not online it doesn't mean that I'm away from home. I could be out in the garden, doing housework, making meals, doing something else on my computer or any number of things. It also doesn't mean that my house is empty waiting to be burgled as there are others in the household.

Absolutely true aghadowey - I quite often nip off to do something else for a while then come back and carry on with whatever I was doing on the computer.