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IMO you'll never get anywhere near the number of members, as people may create more than one account; one person having N accounts is just one member.
The best you can try and achieve I guess is some number of live accounts, you'd still have to define those of course. Deleting all accounts that have never published an article/question/answer/tip, never have voted, and haven't downloaded anything the last 12 months, could be a first step.
There may be reasons not to try though.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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You could also go by last login date. A person that hasn't logged in for let's say 1 year will not be likely to do so again, and IF he tries, it's always possible to create a new account. In conjunction with your suggestions, that should be quite safe, I think...
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So, maybe a de-activate opption rather than delete. (I see a referential integrity issue if they had previously posted) De-Activate would knock out all newsletters, emails from post links etc in one shot, rather than having to go through individually. More of a 'do not contact me ever again' option. Probably capturing the reason, such as 'Created a new account' etc.
Maybe even some way to email in and say 'Forgotten my password and not interested any more'. This could then ask for confirmation before de-activating. For example, I still have a 'Friends Reunited' account that I set up before they made you pay. I get the occasional email, but I can't access the account to dis-able it as I forgot the password, and anyway they want to charge me a sign-up fee just to access my 'free' account to dis-able it!
How about not logged on in the last 12 months as an active marker? That must be tracked now for the Reputation Graph.
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I think it would be a bad idea.
Having, ostensibly, 7,000,000+ members gives a better advertising income than "A few saddos who come here repeatedly rather than getting a life, plus a few hundred one off posters every week looking for homework questions"
(Please note, I count myself amongst the saddos!)
So, whilst some may be annoyed, it is better that there are all these members counting toward that rather impressive total.
------------------------------------
I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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Does there need to be a link between the number of members (or better to say, people registered) and the number of active members?
If someone de-activated their account, it would not affect the total count of members, just reduce the load on the Code Project servers, churning out unwanted emails, and the amount of spam received from those who don't want it. Unless of course the number of emails sent out effects the advertising revenues somewhere down the line.
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There is in the email sent to you when you sign up, and if you've lost that then there is always the option of just not bothering to use your account anymore (the vast majority) or emailing us to actively disable your account.
We used to have a big shiny "remove your account" button on the settings page but (and this worries and saddens me equally) the number of "Why can't I log in" emails we received from members made us rethink this.
As to newsletters: you can unsubscribe from any of them using the link at the end of them, and if you haven't reconfirmed your email after a certain period of time then you drop off the list.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. wrote: It would also give a more accurate count of the number of members, not just a count of everyone who ever registered to download one bit of code
This is the $64,000 question, though: define a Member. Someone who signs up but makes no posts, answers no questions? What if they read every article every week religiously? Or a member who has posted 100 articles but hasn't answered or posted a question in 2 years? Is he a member? What happens when he comes to update his stuff for VS 2012?
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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That makes perfect sense.
As someone who initialed posted a few articles, posted a bit, then didn't even hit the site for more that a year, before returning to activity with a vengance I guess I would be a prime example of someone who skews the figures if you try to assess active membership.
Thanks Chris
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Chris Maunder wrote: This is the $64,000 question
I always like to attempt and answer those. 
How about this: award participation points for fetching an article page; deactivate accounts that have constant total rep over some period of time (say 1 year); and omit them from the members count.
So your read-only account gets deactivated unless he (occasionally) logs in for reading; if he does not, he has to reactivate his account or create a new one. You could even send an e-mail that his account is going to be deactivated as it seems unused, giving him the opportunity to still rectify the situation.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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I second that motion. That seems like a good solution. The old programming forum VBIP (closed down now) used that technique (awarding points for viewing articles)
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I'm not going to deactivate someone's account simply because they haven't read an article in a year. That's arbitrary and punitive.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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I see you want to hold on to those 64K$.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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As this is a programming site, how about a programming style solution? Treat the accounts like they are weak references - if somebody doesn't perform any site activity for a period of time then "garbage collect" their accounts. When they eventually do log back in then the account gets resurrected. This way you get a more accurate count of users.
"WPF has many lovers. It's a veritable porn star!" - Josh Smith As Braveheart once said, "You can take our freedom but you'll never take our Hobnobs!" - Martin Hughes.
My blog | My articles | MoXAML PowerToys | Onyx
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Nah. Calling all those alter ego's garbage, I can't appreciate that.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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Just found one here[^]. I've deleted it but thought I'd make you aware that it's happening again.
Two more here[^].
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Why do programmers often confuse Halloween and Christmas?
Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.
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There are lots of them spamming through QA.
It's time for a new signature.
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They keep Popping Up!
------------------------------------
I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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I very nearly put that in my OP.
Henry Minute
Do not read medical books! You could die of a misprint. - Mark Twain
Girl: (staring) "Why do you need an icy cucumber?"
“I want to report a fraud. The government is lying to us all.”
Why do programmers often confuse Halloween and Christmas?
Because 31 Oct = 25 Dec.
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This is never ending list....  I don't know who and why they are doing this. . And why Q&A
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They are intelligent. Last time they created ID's with viagra/cialis/levitra in them.
Now since that has been taken care of, they are here with random_charaters@random_characters.com
I am curious how this is handled. 
*minor edit
..Go Green..
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I've reported on one of the answers by this user [^], but it appears that he has posted a few others.
Chris Meech
I am Canadian. [heard in a local bar]
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. [Yogi Berra]
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I've put a cork in it for now.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project | Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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See Here[^]
Dave Auld had given a good reply to the question, and I tried to comment on it.
The comment box opened and I typed a 'good tip, I might try it' sort of comment.
On hitting the post button below it the box evaporated into the ether and the comment was glaringly absent.
Dunno if it is just me, just that page or something deeper and perhaps more malevolent.
------------------------------------
I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
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This problem was there sometime back and has been solved.
Hit Ctrl+F5 and try again (hey I am serious this time). 
..Go Green..
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was your comment sufficiently substantial? in order to evaporate in ether, I suspect it was really volatile.
Luc Pattyn [Forum Guidelines] [Why QA sucks] [My Articles]
I only read formatted code with indentation, so please use PRE tags for code snippets.
I'm not participating in frackin' Q&A, so if you want my opinion, ask away in a real forum (or on my profile page).
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