Question for people running surfer forums
 

What % of the people who sign up for your forum never click their confirmation link in the email sent to them?

In my case its roughly 10% and thats a lot of people.
I know there are a few reasons like people giving fake emails and emails ending up in spam folders but is there any i can do to reduce this number?

I also have a big fat text saying they should check their spam folder but i think some people are so fucking stupid they just ignore it.

I suspect it is higher than that, but I don't really care because I figure they are just spammers anyway

:2 cents:

A good bunch can be malfunctioning spam bots but i'm pretty sure there's also a % of surfers who just want to access the forum.

And its not higher, its 10 - 12% max...in my case.

Well, as I recall, your surfer forum is a lot bigger than mine, so you probably pay closer attention than I do. I have never really checked percentages.

I actually put up the email confirm to discourage people from posting. :1orglaugh

Any more input?

I have about 30% who do confirm. I give them 7 days and after that the records are deleted form database. About 3 times as many get deleted as are confirmed.

Any poster who doesn't confirm their email is a spam bot. Any poster who does confirm their email is a well-coded spambot.

Seriously though, I have checked into it a little bit myself and found that a forum I run (non-adult) has closer to 15% that weren't confirming. I tried looking for a technical reason for it happening like a network problem or a problem with sendmail but decided it was probably user error or giving a fake address.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Thank you Full Metal Jacket

About 20%.

As others say, what is the point of going through the signup process and then NOT confirming? They are either lazy spammers or bots...or just idiots - and I want neither of those 3 hanging round my site like a bad smell.

Wow, I didn't think anyone would get that. :thumbsup

That is one of my all time favorite movies.