Birthdays? How to handle them?

[sensei]

When this forum was busier, it used to be normal, when a member had a birthday, for some friend of his/hers to start a thread wishing the friend many happy returns. People would chime in, and I made a little hobby out of taking scans of mine and adapting them into birthday cards, often with a whimsical edge.

Then the chatter started to fade, and I could see that no one was starting these threads any more. So I made it a habit of mine, when I'd stop by, to check on the birthday notice (at the bottom of the board index). If I recognized a name of a person who was currently active, I'd start a birthday thread. It was, admittedly, hit-or-miss, and sometimes someone else would start such a thread, which was perfectly fine with me.

Now I'm a dreaded admin-in-training/mod and so the job takes on more formal importance. So lately I've been sending out more and more of these as PMs, particularly to people whom I can see were very active in the past, but who have not been online for a couple of years. I got a couple of surprised and pleased replies to these, which I found a good opportunity to send back a message encouraging them to lurk around more in the "new" environment.

Then I began adding "On behalf of Beta's administrators and mods" to them, which (I'd guess) makes the message look like it's computer generated, even though it isn't. Anyhow, people opened them, but stopped responding. So I've stopped putting this tag in the message. (None of the other admins or mods asked me to continue or expand this practice, so I guess it's misleading.)

I do still start a public thread when I see someone (like today's birthday-child GuyverIII) who has been active in events like the recent cel contest. And I don't send a PM when I see someone who made six posts in 2006, all about selling his/her collection. And generally I don't send one either when I click on the gallery link and find that it has been taken down. And it is useful to keep tabs of who opens the greetings (even silently) for the mods who are trying to encourage older members to get active again. (Though I admit that this may just mean that the member's email link is no longer valid.)

But I thought I should come clean to the forum about what I'm doing, as it is, on some level, a personal thing I've come to do. Does this seem OK to people? Or creepy? (Some people don't like publicizing their birth dates, though on Beta you can just lie and pick a random date and year, so it can't be used for identity theft.) Or could it be made more effective in recognizing and encouraging members who have become passive or go into lurk mode?

Or anything else?

[Jadeduo]

I for one don't have a problem with it! ^_^ And any other way to drive more traffic our way is to be encouraged! So Kudos to you! ^_^

JD

[majinuub]

I applaud you Sensei for your reasons for the B-Day threads and I'll honestly say that I'm glad that some people here are still keeping this Beta tradition active. I'm in agreement that these threads should be for people who are still active here. Not that the inactive members don't deserve a birthday shout out, but the chances of them being here to read them are, at best, minimal. I was a bit of a lurker for some time as well so I wasn't sad or upset over the lack of these threads for me. I wouldn't get out of lurk mode to reply to them either.

[Kasi]

I think they're great personally

[kathpatty]

I always look forward to your birthday pictures.....missed your last post, oops.

I think it is wonderful of you and lets us add our wishes to yours

[sensei]

Thanks for the responses. I certainly plan to keep up starting public birthday threads for people who are the active voices here.

But do most people feel like majinuub about using them to give a private poke to less active members or members who have become inactive? I'm willing to continue sending out more greetings as PMs (it's not a big investment in time). But if you feel that it's unlikely to make a difference, then I'll stop.

A member also asked, privately, if this means that the administrative team is planning to "purge the rolls" of inactive members, deleting their accounts from the forum? Briefly, no.

So far as I know, there is no expense or operating capability cost to simply leaving these accounts active. Even if some members are gone for good (and may no longer have any way of retrieving their passwords, as their email accounts are also gone), this would involve more work than it's worth. All I've been trying out is a simple, work-efficient "poke-poke" to people who might still be collecting, or still interested in the collecting scene, but who haven't been on the forum in a while.

But I'm not committed to it, and so I can stop at any time if you think it's pointless.

[kathpatty]

Since the mods are putting in the effort to increase the voices here on A beta....giving them a Birthday poke is a wonderful way to do it.

Even if they don't post often they could be encouraged to do so again with a little Birthday wish...

Always a possibility it could bring people back- poke , poke and poke some more, they may be ticklish

[Jadeduo]

I don't think it's pointless, it's great that you have the time and energy to do this!

Plus I agree with Kathpatty! Maybe they are ticklish! ^_^

JD

[Rekka Alexiel]

Sorry I'm so slow getting to this topic. I kinda feel bad about it because... I don't always have time to post HB messages... and when I do, it's not fair to the people that I couldn't say anything to. orz It's this cycle that keeps me from adding to those posts when I see them.