Don't be alarmed if you find your rank is now listed as 'unapproved' and you can no longer read the private boards where as prior your rank was listed as 'member' or 'private contributor.

It does NOT mean you are banned or suspended or that I disapprove of you or find anything wrong with your posts. It's NOTHING personal.

It just means your account has EXPIRED due to a lack of active contributions (LOW post count) over the course of time for the type of membership you have.

The way to rectify that is to; 'write to Miss J for approval' so I can UPGRADE (or re-upgrade) your membership to 'private contributor' status.


Some examples;

a: Account is over 8 years old. No 'private contributor' status. Post count (posts/day) average is .03/day (very LOW). Account holder logs in to use the account but can't anymore. Long term passive use followed by log ins, can expire the account.
Poster needs to upgrade.

b: Account is 9 years old. No 'private contributor' status. Post count (posts/day) average is .8/day (which is very GOOD). However, account holder has not lodged an open post in over 2 years. Log ins to read only can expire the account.

c: Account holder has 'private contributor' status and uses it for about or over 2 years on a primarily 'read only' basis. So, in 2 years, the average post count will be very LOW and a re-upgrade or 'refresh' of private contributor status is needed to re-activate.


There are just a FEW examples. The GENERAL algorithm is a function of TIME being a member and active vs passive use, USE of the account. A log-in means the account holder is using the account. Passive use is basically, what ever the account holder uses the board for OTHER than actively contributing to open discourse. There is now about a 2 year limit on predominately passive use in which the user has the option of upgrading to private contributor status or 'refreshing' a past private contributor status that 'wore out' after a 2 year bout of predominately passive use. The PRIVATE CONTRIBUTOR status (a $20 contribution that helps defray the costs of running this board) allows for predominately passive use for about 2 years. LOW active use coupled with LOW Amazon sales coupled with HIGH VOLUME of passive use accounts and COSTS to me to run a PRIVATE non-commericial board necessitate this policy.

FAQ:

1: Q: Can someone have a non private contributor status for many years and not be asked to upgrade?

A: Yes. They can maintain thier membership for a LONG TIME with no requested upgrade. That's example of an account holder who contributes open posts on a somewhat frequent basis. For example; OVER .6 posts/day and WITHOUT an over 2 year time lapse where they have not openly posted at all. In that case, they are contributing posts. They are ACTIVELY using their membership. ACTIVE use CONTRIBUTES to the readership of the board, the other members. A membership, whether it be non private contributor status or private contributor status can last MANY years with no upgrade when the account holder is an active contributor of open posts.

2: Q: What is passive use?

A: Passive use, is use OTHER than open contributions. Use that is of sole to primary benefit to only the user but not the community as a whole. eg. writers of posts (active use) benefit readers of posts but someone who ONLY reads posts (passive use) doesn't benefit the readership as a whole. The ONLY way passive use is of benefit to the board as a whole is via a $ contribution of the passive user to help defray the expenses of KEEPING THE BOARD open. In that way, the active users have a venue to keep on being helpful to those who wish to read rather than to write.

3: Q: Can an account expire to someone who does not post, but who reads mostly but who gave a generous donation in the past?

A: If that happens, please tell me. So, I can re-activate your account (in absence of another contribution)

4: Q: How do I determine if my account is predominately active vs passive?

A: If your average posts per day has a 0 (zero) right after the decimal point but no number before the decimal point, eg. .01, .02, .03.... and your membership is over 2 years old or it has been 2 years since you last upgraded to private contributor status or 2 years since you've posted anything at all, even if your average post count does NOT have a 0 after the decimal point, you are in predominately passive territory.


5: Q: If I start posting a lot today after not posting for over 2 years or having predominately passive activity over the course of time, will that pre-empt the expiration and subsequent upgrade?

A: No, not really, because a good number of accounts have already been marked for expiration but if I change the rank to 'unapproved' all at ONE TIME to ALL of them, I'd get a SURGE OVERLOAD of people writing to me at the same time. So, I need to CYCLE, a few here and there so that all passive account holders don't all get expired at same time and also have chance to READ THIS notice. Hence some accounts MARKED for expiration can still be USED. However, a good proactive response for primarily passive account holders would simply be to request a 'private contributor' status upgrade BEFORE you log in and find the 'unapproved' status next to your screen name. Again, 'unapproved' is NOT a personal assessment. It just refers to a predominately passive use account that has defaulted to expiration in this situation.

---

When the board is VERY SLOW due to PASSIVE USE (few open posts but many log ins from those not posting), I need a way to determine IF this board is HELPFUL to to the passive or not so active users. It's a given that it is helpful to active users as there is intrinsic benefit in helping other people with insight and information. BUt the only way I have to determine IF the board is helpful to 'not so' active users is to ASK what I ask in EVERY second post of EACH new thread which is: 'If reading this stuff has been of any help to you, consider buying something from my AMAZON PORTAL. Now the 'answer' to that question has effectively been; 'NO'. Why? Because Amazon sales from my board are very LOW as in only a small fraction of what it costs me to keep this board up.

So, when there is a LARGE contingent of accounts of overly predominant PASSIVE use and a big 'NO' to the 'If this has been helpful, consider buying from my Amazon portal' (as in hardly any sales), THOSE analytics tell me the board is NOT helpful to the many passive or 'not so active' users.

The ONLY way left for me to determine IF it is is to ask the account holders of predominately passive activity to UPGRADE every few years to 'private contributor status'. IF they THINK the board is helpful, they will upgrade with a modest $ contribution. IF they DON'T, they WON'T.

There are a lot of instances where an active user (say a good info provider) lodges a post where the information in it would be helpful to a LOT MORE people than just the person who asked a question. Like there are MORE READERS who have benefited from the information given within a post. There's GOTTA BE! But when I DON'T see any of the passive users coming out of the woodwork to even acknowledge a post was helpful to them (by thanking the info provider), the INFORMATION I get as the board owner is that the board is NOT helpful to account holders of predominately passive use.

Hence, the account EXPIRES. So, if your account has EXPIRED (defaulted to 'unapproved' status) due to lack of active use (very LOW open post contributions), I am happy to UPGRADE to 'private contributor' status (or upgrade a second time of same after the last time I asked over 2 years ago) if you feel passive or not so active use eg. read only/mostly is/has been HELPFUL to you.

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

ETA: The upgrade or 'refresh' re-upgrade is $20 PayPal to: MissJ521@aol.com
Be sure to write; 'private contributor', your screen name and e mail address the account is under when submitting that so I know which account to upgrade or refresh.

Edited by user Sunday, June 11, 2017 11:02:19 PM(UTC)  | Reason: To change headline to 'EXPIRED ACCOUNTS'

UPDATE: RE: Unapproved: write to MissJ521@aol.com for approval

There are too many names in the expiration box to write each person individually.
I've done that with many in the past and got no acknowledgement of 'heads up' courtesy notice that account was going into expiration.

So, it will be a thing where people will just find they won't be able to access private boards and will write to ME in the event they have not read this OPEN post.

This is just a matter of upgrading to private contributor status or 'refreshing' that status due to LOW ave post count and/or NO posts in over 2 years.
Sorry expired accounts say 'unapproved' to them. It DOES NOT mean I don't approve of you and is NOTHING personal. It just means the software has changed such that I'm a loss for defining the status of 'expired account' and putting THOSE WORDS to it and no funds to hire tech guy to do that. So, when an account expires, there is no access to private/closed boards either to read or post but the 'SYSTEM' function to close access is named 'unapproved'.

Again, IF you see the the word 'unapproved' to your account, It is NEITHER a ban NOR a subjective assessment of the quality of your posts. it just means you need to UPGRADE.

Easily rectified via paypal $20 'Private Contributor' UPGRADE . Remember to list SCREEN NAME when you do so.

Thanx

Wow! For comparison purposes I got a really NICE response today from a very appreciative member (prior private client) who likes reading but kind of too 'shy' to post and was happy to donate more than 2X as much as suggested for the upgrade.

Quite a (nice) difference from the somewhat entitled and irate response of the prior person .



'Hi Miss J,

This is ------, hope all is very well with you.
I noticed I couldn't log into the forum ("The user name or password is incorrect. Please try again") and was glad to find the information you posted. I am really so sorry I haven't contributed at all to the community! I would love to but feel I just have so little to say that would be new or beneficial to this highly knowledgeable, sophisticated, witty group; I would be embarrassed to write something that sounds dopey just to contribute.

So I was delighted to put $50 into the Paypal account -- actually, for a long time I have meant to do that and always got sidetracked, so I'm glad this came up. (I would think there are others who have benefitted but don't post who will feel the same.) I can't say enough about how incredibly useful and interesting all the information (especially yours) has been, and I'm extremely grateful to have been able to read it. You're doing a great good deed by allowing people like me to learn so much through these forums.'

---

Thanx so much Greg for your NICE words. I think the irate account holder (of 8-9 years mind you without EVER being asked to upgrade) would just rather leave in a 'huff' than to make a modest occasional contribution. I 've only asked of this-like in MORE than 2 years--to those who simply would prefer to mostly read.

ETA: The last fund raiser for this site was about 5 years ago. 'Bug June' rustled up enough funds to keep it going for some time without having to do another one which got the basic expenses offset for that amount of time without having to directly ask those who had not contributed prior and/or were predominately readers. IF I try that myself, I get the irate entitled ones writing me 'not so nice' e mails and I kind of 'cower back'. But with her gone, I don't have the fund raisers anymore.

Expired accounts. Here are the screen names of some expired accounts.