I am running a Mystic BBS and during the past couple of years
I have gathered a lot of users who are no longer active. And
some of them never were. Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months? I could write my own, if I knew
which file to update. Where is the list of users kept in
Mystic? Thanks for any help.

... 640K ought to be enough for anybody. -Bill Gates, 1981.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: From the depths of Bunker 3 (21:1/130)

Hello Alonzo!

On 24 Mar 2024, Alonzo said the following...

some of them never were. Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months? I could write my own, if I knew

MUTIL has this available -- check out the PurgeUserBase setting and the [PurgeUserBase] stanza in mutil.ini.

Hope this helps!

Best regards
Zip

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Star Collision BBS, Uppsala, Sweden (21:1/202)

On 24 Mar 2024, Alonzo said the following...

Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months? I could write my own, if I knew
which file to update. Where is the list of users kept in
Mystic?

Yes, have a look in mutil.ini:

[General]
PurgeUserBase = true


[PurgeUserBase]

; Mark users for deletion that haven't called in days.
; This value cannot be less than 7

days = 180


Jay

... Raining Cats and Dogs? Don't step in any poodles!

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2023/04/30 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Northern Realms (21:3/110)

On 24 Mar 2024, Warpslide said the following...

On 24 Mar 2024, Alonzo said the following...

Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months? I could write my own, if I knew
which file to update. Where is the list of users kept in
Mystic?

Yes, have a look in mutil.ini:

[General]
PurgeUserBase = true

[PurgeUserBase]

; Mark users for deletion that haven't called in days.
; This value cannot be less than 7

days = 180

that being said.. and i guess this doesn't apply to everyone but.. there are boards i used to call once a year, and ones i still do call with that sort of frequency. on one i politely asked to be made permanent because i don't call that frequently but sure-as-sh*t every so often they'll pop into my head. i think the answer was just basically "call more frequently so you don't get deleted." the next time a year or so later when i called my account was gone and then i just didn't ever call back. the board's probably been gone for years by now but i still think to call lol.

i guess the point is .. don't be in a rush to save a few kilobytes of space in your user database .. somebody might show up again.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A47 2021/12/25 (Windows/32)
* Origin: cold fusion - cfbbs.net - grand rapids, mi (21:1/616)

Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months?

MUTIL has this available -- check out the PurgeUserBase setting and the [PurgeUserBase] stanza in mutil.ini.

Thanks a lot. I will give that a try.

... Message encrypted: Press ALT-F4 to read encoded message

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: From the depths of Bunker 3 (21:1/130)

Is there a script or something that
will delete inactive users - maybe users who have not logged
on in several months? I could write my own, if I knew

Yes, have a look in mutil.ini:
[General]
PurgeUserBase = true
; Mark users for deletion that haven't called in days.
; This value cannot be less than 7
days = 180

Thanks a lot.

... This virus requires Microsoft Windows 3.x

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Windows/64)
* Origin: From the depths of Bunker 3 (21:1/130)

that being said.. and i guess this doesn't apply to everyone but.. there are boards i used to call once a year, and ones i still do call with
that sort of frequency. on one i politely asked to be made permanent because i don't call that frequently but sure-as-sh*t every so often they'll pop into my head. i think the answer was just basically "call
more frequently so you don't get deleted." the next time a year or so later when i called my account was gone and then i just didn't ever call back. the board's probably been gone for years by now but i still think
to call lol.

I think there is an important point here to take by sysops of truly niche and almost zero traffic boards. We all who come back to BBS scene as users like to see places we visit vidid! When we're triggered by your doors opened.. fascinated, we come back mostly next day.. or few only to check nothing really happens... so we give a week or two... and if nothing happens it's just saved in SyncTerm or whatever client used and next is checked.

Then the list of visited BBSes grows to 20-30 but maybe 3-6 are visited on daily/weekly basis... all other are basically a dead list, unless as a user with a "BBS day" attitude I'm willing to discover new or rediscover what I kept skipping for a longer time.

Deleting a user after 3 months.. even a year may be a bad tactics if you haven't won a heart in first week or two. It costs nothing to keep us dormant I believe... luckily hoping we still remember the password.

I think more important fact is to understand what makes you less niche as a board. The most interesting boards I visit on daily basis is always about local discussions + FTN. Some reason the same for online gaming.... whatever the porn is about... I'd rather stay focused on engaging users than deleting them if I was personally a sysop.

-h1

... Xerox Alto was the thing. Anything after we use is just a mere copy.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)