Zero-posters Purged

[ez24]

I'd like the option to display the country name rather than the flag. For some reason I instantly associate flags with racism and jingoism.

+1

that way I would know if a black flag was ISIS  (the first time I saw the black flag I thought it was a ISIS flag, boy was I surprised).  Is there a chance of a white flag? 

[tautech]

While you're busy doing the housekeeping, why not make a country flag compulsory?

Anybody else second this?

Not only country flag , but region as well

Like FEMA region IX?

Even that is not a good indication:
Like FEMA region II - NY, NJ, PR and VI

Region can be catered for in Profile and under Location.

I'd like the option to display the country name rather than the flag. For some reason I instantly associate flags with racism and jingoism.

+1

that way I would know if a black flag was ISIS  (the first time I saw the black flag I thought it was a ISIS flag, boy was I surprised).  Is there a chance of a white flag? 

Black flag should still be retained as a valid option for those that NEED to remain anonymous.

The facts are it is bloody hard to give many relevant LOCAL advice when they won't disclose location when joining.
We've seen all sorts of  names added to location, and when I look and see this: some other sucker can help this plonker.

So Dave, please can you have another attempt at a compulsory flag requirement when joining up.

[EEVblog]

Doing another user purge now.
Anyone with zero posts, not a supporter, and hasn't logged in for a month gets the boot.
Most are obvious spam accounts that got through.

[Muttley Snickers]

Doing another user purge now.
Anyone with zero posts, not a supporter, and hasn't logged in for a month gets the boot.
Most are obvious spam accounts that got through.

As of about five minutes ago I counted 6824 members with zero posts in the members list,  68 pages of 100 plus 24 on page 69 some of which date back to 2012. I thought if purged they would disappear altogether thus freeing up some good user names, not the case apparently unless I'm missing something.

[wilfred]

It's over 12000 now. But that's not what I am curious about.
I was looking through the forum stats and noticed there are 52K members but the new members in the last 2 years is 3 time that. I think the stats are incorrect. Not sure when it happened though.

I was actually looking at where the TEA thread fits in the scheme of things. I wonder when the forum software will break. Just how big is it? You can't print it to see. It is way too big for that.

[EEVblog]

Just tried to purge a bunch and I get a database error.
gnif has been alerted

[EEVblog]

Purging now, but I'm getting tired and I'm still on the A's...

[EEVblog]

I'm onto the D's and have lost the will to live...

[EEVblog]

Someone registered Dave Is A Fool 

[taydin]

Are you doing the deletions manually? Running a carefully crafted SQL statement, after a database backup, would do it automatically.

[EEVblog]

So Dave, please can you have another attempt at a compulsory flag requirement when joining up.

The option is ticked, so it seems to be an SMF bug.
About the flags, I do find them rather hard to see, and of course for it to be useful you have to know what every flag is.

[EEVblog]

Well, I screwed that up, two flags are now displayed 

[tautech]

So Dave, please can you have another attempt at a compulsory flag requirement when joining up.

The option is ticked, so it seems to be an SMF bug.
About the flags, I do find them rather hard to see, and of course for it to be useful you have to know what every flag is.

Only on a tablet while on a PC you just hover the mouse pointer over flags and the country pops up.
I use it a fair bit to give posters relevant regional advice.

[EEVblog]

Anyway, I installed the latest version of CountryFlags and I think it's supposed to fix the login requirement.

[EEVblog]

Found out you can delete up to 999 members at once instead of 50, the purge is now much faster!

[Mr. Scram]

Compulsory flags only lead to people entering nonsense flags. Maybe I can whip up a script that randomizes it every post for giggles.

[wilfred]

Anyway, I installed the latest version of CountryFlags and I think it's supposed to fix the login requirement.

If you had CountryFlags (whatever that is, I assume some forum plugin)  installed before, could you still have the old one installed. Now both are running. Maybe a restart is required.

[EEVblog]

Anyway, I installed the latest version of CountryFlags and I think it's supposed to fix the login requirement.

If you had CountryFlags (whatever that is, I assume some forum plugin)  installed before, could you still have the old one installed. Now both are running. Maybe a restart is required.

Yes, I was dumb and didn't listen when SMF told me there was an error in the uninstall of the old version.

[Nusa]

Now if you want something useful, make one flag user-set and the other flag an IP to country lookup. Given the use of VPN's combined with users who try to be amusing they wouldn't always agree, but still useful.

[Gyro]

Compulsory flags only lead to people entering nonsense flags. Maybe I can whip up a script that randomizes it every post for giggles.

That's one that has never ceased to puzzle me, even after thread discussions in the past. I've never seen a convincing argument.

Unless somebody lives under the threat of a particularly sensitive or vindictive regime, I can't see any reason for not setting a country flag. It is so helpful in many aspects, from being able to provide relevant/realistic component sourcing advice, understanding local mains supply, climatic conditions and other issues, through to being more understanding and forgiving of potential issues in translation by non-native speakers.

Given that many people  leak their locations in posts, given enough time anyway, being that paranoid just strikes me as stupid. Countries are big places, even the small ones!

Nobody needs to know your birth nationality, just what country you are located in. 

[Mr. Scram]

Now if you want something useful, make one flag user-set and the other flag an IP to country lookup. Given the use of VPN's combined with users who try to be amusing they wouldn't always agree, but still useful.

Why on Earth would you want to do that? Not to mention you'd run afoul of all kinds of legislation. You already do when you force users to set a flag. Forcing users to set a flag isn't very useful but at least provide some generic flags like one for each continent as that's a high enough resolution to be useful. An EU flag wouldn't be less specific than a US flag.

[Mr. Scram]

That's one that has never ceased to puzzle me, even after thread discussions in the past. I've never seen a convincing argument.

Unless somebody lives under the threat of a particularly sensitive or vindictive regime, I can't see any reason for not setting a country flag. It is so helpful in many aspects, from being able to provide relevant/realistic component sourcing advice, understanding local mains supply, climatic conditions and other issues, through to being more understanding and forgiving of potential issues in translation by non-native speakers.

Given that many people  leak their locations in posts, given enough time anyway, being that paranoid just strikes me as stupid. Countries are big places, even the small ones!

Nobody needs to know your birth nationality, just what country you are located in. 

If you don't see a convincing argument you set a flag. If you don't see a reason for it you don't. I've never seen the need. If you ask a question which is location specific you obviously provide the information as is needed and that should be plenty. Some people can't resist pigeonholing others and not having a flag eliminates that. It's also obvious some people display their country of origin and some display their current location so it's ambiguous as it stands. Unless you want to crack down on this and start enforcing strict flag rules the situation won't change and I think we all agree this wouldn't befit the laid back nature of the forum.

[BBBbbb]

Anyway, I installed the latest version of CountryFlags and I think it's supposed to fix the login requirement.

Uninstalling the old one is possibly needed:

[Nusa]

Now if you want something useful, make one flag user-set and the other flag an IP to country lookup. Given the use of VPN's combined with users who try to be amusing they wouldn't always agree, but still useful.

Why on Earth would you want to do that? Not to mention you'd run afoul of all kinds of legislation. You already do when you force users to set a flag. Forcing users to set a flag isn't very useful but at least provide some generic flags like one for each continent as that's a high enough resolution to be useful. An EU flag wouldn't be less specific than a US flag.

a) I didn't say a single thing about FORCING someone to set it.
b) What legislation could possibly apply to a voluntarily set flag? Please point at at least one actual example of such legislation, preferably one that that has jurisdiction over this forum.
c) A generic flags based on IP is EXACTLY what I suggested. Although I pointed out that VPN's allow anyone to change what continent they appear to be in.

[Mr. Scram]

a) I didn't say a single thing about FORCING someone to set it.
b) What legislation could possibly apply to a voluntarily set flag? Please point at at least one actual example of such legislation, preferably one that that has jurisdiction over this forum.
c) A generic flags based on IP is EXACTLY what I suggested. Although I pointed out that VPN's allow anyone to change what continent they appear to be in.

Forcing users to set a flag is what this discussion is about. The legislation also applies to forcing users to set it. Making it voluntary or even encouraging it isn't an issue. IP addresses aren't the best way of determining someone's location for a number of reasons. By automating that you'll inevitably have a host of edge cases that'll cause a lot of confusion.