I was playing around with some of the stats on the new home page and checked out the referral bonus stats. Alienfb is still leading everyone and has 16 referrals listed as "active" that haven't logged on since the end of 2005. These include two users listed as deleted or banned, one user that didn't even create a character, and a number of others that didn't do much except fight for a bit and then leave. One of those hasn't logged on since Jan 10, 2005.
So, does the act of joining CB through a referral link exclude inactive accounts from being deleted after so many days of inactivity? If so, what other activities will also do the same? I've always suspected that getting a supportership or posting in forums would keep inactive accounts from being deleted. Any others?
Two things prompted my curiosity. First, there was a discussion sometime back on whether or not a player with an account that was deleted due to inactivity could return to cb, create a new account, get a NUB, and not be considered a multi. The administrative response was that it was not a problem to do so if the previous account was deleted due to inactivity. If some actions prevent accounts from being deleted due to inactivity, it would appear that those actions could carry the penalty of not being able to come back and create a NUB.
That isn't a slam against the admin actions or any NUBs who may have come back after their account was deleted due to inactivity. I'm more concerned about Player A coming back after two years and being forced to settle for the NCB because s/he clicked through a referral link and still has an active account, while Player B comes back after two years and can get the NUB because Player B's account was deleted.
The second thing that prompted my curiosity is whether the percent of users active in the past seven days is artificially lowered by users invulnerable to automatic deletion and, if so, by how much?
