ANSWERED:Implement Deletion of Old Scrolls

[Xythus]

I was thinking, with all the lag and such recently happening, and TJ constantly in a struggle to make the game work more smoothly for all of us, perhaps we can cut down on this lag by eliminating some of the inactive users scrolls.

 

By eliminating, yes, I mean deleting the old scrolls that has been LONG abandoned, (like in 2009) all dragons are nameless, the person has not logged on for YEARS, the scroll is like an abandoned village...

 

To the best of my knowledge, these scrolls stay there forever in the system, and may take up server space.

 

 

Hence, why today I'm suggesting a system in DC where if you're inactive for too long, your scroll will get deleted. Of course, you're thinking, "What if you want to come back?" or "What if that person comes back and is disturbed to find their scroll completely gone?"

 

Well, when I say "inactive" here, I mean, GONE, not just on hiatus.

 

What I was thinking:

 

If you're inactive for one year (Not just a small amount of time like a few weeks), then you will get a message in your email (the one you registered with) saying:

 

Your DC account will be deleted in Insert Allotted time here (30 days? Half a year?) due to inactivity. However, if you do not wish for it to be deleted, and hope to come back, simply log into your account again. If you accept that it will be deleted, just leave it alone and it will disappear.

 

A year (356 days) is a long time in my eyes to be inactive, and is more than enough time to get back. My thinking behind this is that someone who leaves due to the game not appealing enough to them, or have moved on with real life would most likely not come back if they've already disappeared for a few YEARS. And if they don't want to be deleted, its simple. A automated email sent to your own address is enough to catch your attention and can be seen and something done immediately if you still cared about your DC account.

 

Still not quite sure if this is neccessary in terms of LAG or SERVER SPACE, as I'm not technology smart, so if theres anyone out there who can clarify this, it would help. I welcome all your opinions and criticism!

Edited May 14, 2012 by Xythus

[Pokemonfan13]

I'm neutral on this suggestion. If old accounts were clogging things up I'd expect TJ would have already done something like this.

[Zaxian]

A year (256 days) is a long time in my eyes to be inactive, and is more than enough time to get back.

Last time I looked a year was 365 days

 

Not really keen on such a system unless it results in significant performance gains. Problems I can see:

1) I'm not sure a year is long enough - I've been inactive for over a year before and come back again, as I'm sure some other people have.

2) It increases the number of dead dragons in lineages (if the scrolls are deleted, then presumably no genealogy information will be kept, much like with burned scrolls).

3) If it relies on email notification, if won't be much use to anyone who's got it linked to an old or unused email account. Not sure how you could get round that though.

 

On a tangent, I'd certainly advocate some sort of email-notification for imminent dragon-name loss!

[Xythus]

Last time I looked a year was 365 days

 

Not really keen on such a system unless it results in significant performance gains. Problems I can see:

1) I'm not sure a year is long enough - I've been inactive for over a year before and come back again, as I'm sure some other people have.

2) It increases the number of dead dragons in lineages (if the scrolls are deleted, then presumably no genealogy information will be kept, much like with burned scrolls).

3) If it relies on email notification, if won't be much use to anyone who's got it linked to an old or unused email account. Not sure how you could get round that though.

 

On a tangent, I'd certainly advocate some sort of email-notification for imminent dragon-name loss!

Derp, sorry, spur of the moment typing. I fixed it.

 

Well, the "year" thing was just a random integer, it can be 2 years or 3 years, or maybe even five years??? Anything to indicated a VERY long inactivity time.

 

Also, I didn't know TJ killed them, I thought they just become wild dragons. Don't they die ONLY if they were burned due to TOS violation?

 

 

[RainDear]

I don't really think the storing of this information puts a strain on the server, and if it does keeping the information for wild dragons would use nearly the same amount of resources as keeping the scroll info anyway, so killing the dragons would be the only way to free up space. I think it works in the same way that having programs I am not using stored on my computer doesn't slow up my computer, but having too many programs open at once, does. So, I think the strain on the servers is having 100++ people on a cave page refreshing constantly to find the dragon they are looking for, rather than having whatever information is stored but not in use, if that makes sense.

[Ashywolf]

I don't think there are enough users from 2009 for this to be an issue.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Ashywolf

[Xythus]

I don't really think the storing of this information puts a strain on the server, and if it does keeping the information for wild dragons would use nearly the same amount of resources as keeping the scroll info anyway, so killing the dragons would be the only way to free up space. I think it works in the same way that having programs I am not using stored on my computer doesn't slow up my computer, but having too many programs open at once, does. So, I think the strain on the servers is having 100++ people on a cave page refreshing constantly to find the dragon they are looking for, rather than having whatever information is stored but not in use, if that makes sense.

That does make a lot of sense, thanks so much!

 

Perhaps this idea can be used when dragcave gets like 100,000 users or something.

[Pokemonfan13]

We already have 100,000 scrolls, in fact over 800,000. You can look by using the /user/username url but with numbers instead of the name. All scrolls used to be reached with numbers instead of a name and the system is still in place.

[Dolphinsong]

How can deleating old scrolls reduce the lag? Lag is caused by CURRENT activity (mostly ppl in the cave refreshing) and host problems, not inactivity.

 

Also, I recall TJ stating several years ago that space is not an issue for the cave.

Edited May 14, 2012 by Dolphinsong

[WraithZephyr]

How can deleating old scrolls reduce the lag? Lag is caused by CURRENT activity (mostly ppl in the cave refreshing) and host problems, not inactivity.

 

Also, I recall TJ stating several years ago that space is not an issue for the cave.

Agreed, Lag is caused by those ACTIVELY Playing the game. The only way to stop the lag is to stop people from playing the game... or find where the internet breakdown is occurring and tell the people there to fix it. People access the site from all over the world.. some people have lag issues while others do not.. it has to do with how the internet routes the traffic from one location to another... if a particular hub/region is having problems then anyone whose connection goes through that area is going to have problems while people whose connection doesn't won't see any problem at all.

[catmosphere]

i agree with everyone else saying that scrolls aren't exactly an issue.

 

however, i can imagine the idea of being able to delete a scroll manually would be appealing to some users who want to quit dragon cave for good. maybe a way like on many other websites where you may delete your account for good, if you're no longer interested? i think that would be a better recommendation than a notification email regarding inactivity and the consequence of said inactivity being account deletion.

[KageSora]

I'm against this.

 

I have, at times, come back to a site over a year or even over two--or, in the case of one, probably three or even four years after I originally left it because I regained interest in it. It would have made me very sad that all of the hard work I put in to my account was just gone--especially since I had a number of things that were no longer available.

 

Also, I know I've seen a few topics in help where people have said "Hey, I'm back after a year+ break, why did my dragon names go away?" So, there are in this game alone several people who have returned after a long time.

 

And what if, during that time, you change your e-mail address? You wouldn't get the warning e-mail if you no longer used/had access to that account.

 

 

However, I wouldn't be opposed to scrolls being removed after a certain amount of time if they have no dragons/badges that cannot be regained on them. Or an option that you could check that says "If I do not log in for X amount of time, I agree that my scroll may be deleted at the discretion of the administrator regardless of the number of dragons I have", or better yet a self-delete option if you know you aren't going to come back.

 

But, like others have said, the scrolls aren't what's causing lag, so I see no reason why we'd need this at all.

[flip1254]

See I sometimes tend to go off for about a year at a time but then I come back and resume on my old scroll

[Obscure_Trash]

I came back after almost a year's inactivity. D: I don't think an e-mail would have made me come back earlier, though the deletion of my scroll probably would have dissuaded me from coming back again.

 

If this helped something that was needed, then I'd be okay with deletion of years old scrolls or something, but since I don't think it will really effect much, not really for this. ^^

[Xythus]

Well, sorry :x I mentioned before, I'm not quite internet smart, so I didn't know about the lag cause thing. Thanks, for reiterating it many times, I understand now.

 

I do really like catmosphere's idea of a self-giving up/deleting scroll. Although I would imagine the dragons become wild anyway, so I guess that doesn't help! I guess dragons really DO have unlimited life spans!

[tar.gzip]

Well, I am one of those persons that were away from 2009 till yesterday... And I was glad to find my dragons alive (but unnamed, alas!) We do exist

[Sylvan_Moon]

I have also been away quite long before. 2 years, in fact. I wouldn't have come back if my scroll was deleted.

 

Why not just clear out the wilderness and the nursery? At least no one owns those dragons.

[BlazingPhoenix]

Why not just clear out the wilderness and the nursery? At least no one owns those dragons.

Lineages would be broken. Lols would not be had. The nursery no longer exists, so I am talking about the wilderness.

[Sylvan_Moon]

Lineages would be broken. Lols would not be had. The nursery no longer exists, so I am talking about the wilderness.

oh, didn't realize the nursery was gone.

 

I can't really prove this but aren't wild dragons' lineages usually messy or inbred anyway? Usually, that's the reason they're released in the first place.

 

And TJ already fixed it so no old codes are reused (thereby eliminating weird egg ancestors), right?

 

Maybe we can treat wild dragons as essentially "dead" but have a different label for them (not the word deceased, obviously) Maybe lost dragons? Dragons never seen or heard from again.

 

Anyway, this is just a suggestion but I realize I might be going a tad off topic but I don't really agree with the deletion of old accounts.

[Fuzzbucket]

I didn't think the nursery was gone - in my experience it only shows up from time to time, but kind of randomly ?

 

I don't support deletion either. IF it ever came to pass it MUST be in a way that doesn't mess up lineages...

[Fran27]

They could send all the dragons to the wilderness, but then it wouldn't really help with lag.

 

I don't really like it though... I like being able to come back later if I feel like it (like, I took a 1.5 year break).

[sheltielover1]

not sure if I support this or not, it has good intentions but I was gone for like 3 years and just came back! If it was in place then I would want it to send out more than one email cause those can be missed or forgotten about.

[Ashes The Second]

I don't really think the storing of this information puts a strain on the server, and if it does keeping the information for wild dragons would use nearly the same amount of resources as keeping the scroll info anyway, so killing the dragons would be the only way to free up space. I think it works in the same way that having programs I am not using stored on my computer doesn't slow up my computer, but having too many programs open at once, does. So, I think the strain on the servers is having 100++ people on a cave page refreshing constantly to find the dragon they are looking for, rather than having whatever information is stored but not in use, if that makes sense.

Same. I honestly don't want to support this because i have been gone nearly that amount of time, and do not regularly check my emails anymore.

[TJ09]

This isn't really necessary for anything, so I'm just going to close this.