Happy Birthday topics

[smp]

I saw recently that efforts will be made to cut down on server storage by having some of the ongoing topics in the Off-Topic Forum removed after their year is over. I have another suggestion:

I see the Happy Birthday topic posted today: viewtopic.php?t=28295

I have responded to that topic, as I try to do to all the Happy Birthdays that come up. However, today I checked the member after I posted. This member has a total of 11 posts here (not a problem by itself) but was last active here in July 2019. Perhaps, rather than automatically posting a Happy Birthday topic for a member, their last activity date should be checked, and if they haven't been into the forum for a couple of years, maybe skip that member? It would only save a small number of posts, but then again, if a significant fraction of the folks we wish Happy Birthday to have not actually been here for some years, there may be some storage savings to be had?

Just a thought. Please do not read anything negative into it.

smp

[Gordon]

I saw recently that efforts will be made to cut down on server storage by having some of the ongoing topics in the Off-Topic Forum removed after their year is over. I have another suggestion:

I see the Happy Birthday topic posted today: viewtopic.php?t=28295

I have responded to that topic, as I try to do to all the Happy Birthdays that come up. However, today I checked the member after I posted. This member has a total of 11 posts here (not a problem by itself) but was last active here in July 2019. Perhaps, rather than automatically posting a Happy Birthday topic for a member, their last activity date should be checked, and if they haven't been into the forum for a couple of years, maybe skip that member? It would only save a small number of posts, but then again, if a significant fraction of the folks we wish Happy Birthday to have not actually been here for some years, there may be some storage savings to be had?

Just a thought. Please do not read anything negative into it.

smp

Appreciate the input. We kinda leave it up to the person posting the Birthday wishes. She has been doing a great job and makes sure to catch as many as she has time to do. Hopefully at some point they will return and see we haven't forgotten them!

The purging is just an automatic way to remove "non-relevent" topics such as birthday wishes.

[Makuser]

Hi Gordon and all. Actually, there are three of us active in preparing the monthly Birthday party list. This would be helicon (Michael), Butterfly Maiden (Vanessa), and myself. And previously, this also included bladekeeper (Bryan) and KingClinton (Clinton) before they have now become somewhat dormant. Micheal and I have written records that go back several years (even to the AF.net forum), so we do not rely on just the current monthly portal window list. Also purging the thread topic to just the last year is not a problem for us. And we are aware of a few members who have not been active for awhile, but occasionally they do return on their Birthday to say hello and thanks for the Birthday party, and by doing this we do not overlook anybody. We work hard on this monthly list and also catch an "In Memorium" that we can post or also catch a member who has since been banned from the forum. This is a lot of work for us and Vanessa has done a superlative job in supporting this kindly effort for us on the TSS forum. She has even been updating an Excel spreadsheet to include brand new members to keep it up to date. We have just completed the December Birthday list this last Monday and feel confident that we have it under control. Thanks Gordon and the best of regards to all.