Recommendation to remove signatures from abandoned accounts

[Webdongle]

Example: A user has been so unsuccessful that they have not posted for seven years. Yet their signature is still showing.

If users fail to support our forum by not posting for 12 months why should we support them by allowing their sig to be seen?

[sozzled]

I cannot support the recommendation to remove (by any means) forum signatures belonging to forum users on the basis that those users have not been active on the forum for a certain length of time.

I agree with the forum rules that state:

Signatures

• Must ... not [be] manually added to ... messages.
• May NOT contain any images.
• May not contain any commercial advertising details such as pricing, sales, product etc. details.
• May contain a maximum of two smilies. Or one animated smiley.
• May include two clickable links. URL's or mailto: - No duplicate links
• [May only contain exact, literal] URLs ... [e.g.] not LOOK HERE [, "tiny URLs] affiliate links etc.
• May include two colors. Hyperlink color is set by the forum and is not counted as a color.
• Maximum font size cannot be larger than normal.
• Must be kept to a maximum of four lines (at 1024 resolution).
• May not contain links to other threads or posts for the purpose of self promotion
• [Cannot be] for sale or rent.
• [Must not be] offensive or insulting to either us, our members, or our staff.
• [May be added if the user has] than 25 [forum posts] ... [and]
• [The forum moderators] reserve the right to ask you to change and/or remove your signature or avatar at any time, for any reason.

I would go a little further and add

• Should relate to Joomla or reference websites created with Joomla. References to websites that are not created with Joomla may be disallowed if their purpose is not related to Joomla in some way.
• URLs must point to active websites; broken links must be fixed or removed.

There may be legitimate reasons why forum users abandon the forum and we should not question the right for old posts (and signatures) created by those accounts to remain on the forum simply because of their "abandonment". There may be other reasons to remove forum signatures but forum inactivity should not be one of them. In cases where any forum member believes that another forum user's signature violates the forum rules, anyone can report those cases to the moderators who can intervene if they so choose. A failure by the moderators to intervene (i.e. to remove someone's signature) should not be inferred as endorsement of another user's signature by the forum moderators.

I do not accept the argument that abandonment implies a "lack of support" towards the current, active forum membership nor should we return the favour by not "supporting" contributions to this forum made at one time or another.

I would, however, suggest that in some abandoned forum categories (e.g. some of the language-specific forums) where forum signatures were created at a time before the forum rules—as they now exist—were adopted, it may be appropriate to review some forum signatures in the light of the current rules and the couple of recommendations I made above (if my recommendations are acceptable). Alternatively, some of those abandoned forum categories could simply be locked/archived and there probably wouldn't be an issue, either. That's not my call; it's only an observation.

You win some, you lose some. C'est la vie.