Have you ever lost a valuable member? How?

Let's face it, not all members are equal, despite the fact that we try to treat them as such. Sometimes one member will stand out as an authority on a subject or just a friendly personality who everyone likes. Sometimes they're the glue holding your forum together. If you've ever had one of those golden members and lost them, how did it happen? Was there anything you could have done to prevent it, or was it completely out of your hands (death, etc.)? How did your forum respond to the loss?

 

I have lost several wonderful members, all three of which were moderators when they left.

It was nothing we did at all; they all left because of personal matters. One is in school and decided to take a full course load from when she left 'til Fall of 2010, so no Summers off for her or anything.
Another was diagnosed with a disease that forced her to give up her hobby (the niche my forum is in) and completely restructure her life. She doesn't like to visit the forum because it reminds her of what she lost by having to give it up.
And the third got in a car wreck, experienced minor injuries, but got caught up in a thing called "life" and hasn't been back since.

All three of these people were moderators - amazing ones, at that - and were some of the best members I've ever had. They were always the ones posting articles and informative threads all around the forum. Most of our sticky threads to this day are informative threads from these very members, and everybody always wonders where the people that created them are.

 

I lost a dedicated member when a nub mod banned him for no reason. The was then a uproar for the mod to be removed. Mod was removed but the user never came bacl. A great loss that wass.

 

Yes, Pisoga did lose many valuable members due to the previous admin. It was sad...

 

I've lost people for different reasons. One that stands out in my mind is one of my top posters that suddenly just vanished and was never seen or heard from again. No idea why.

 

To add to my original post, we have also lost another member because they decided to scam one of our members during our first-ever Secret Santa Gift Exchange. They received their gift, but didn't send one to their assigned recipient. I had to cover the costs (and gladly did), but the staff decided to ban this member for 3 months. Their ban expired in April, but they made it clear on some Yahoo Groups that they won't be coming back.
They knew that they shouldn't have signed up for the SSGE if they couldn't fulfill their duties, so a ban was reasonable.

 

One of my senior members - he was even a super moderator - would stay up late at night, drink, then post all kinds of trash. While he was sober he was a great member.

While on one of these drinking and posting sprees, he posted some threats towards another member. After that I had to ban him.

 

I lost a few good members about a year ago - we've recovered now.

I split with my husband, who then came online posting to everyone that i cheated on him *sigh* After all this shit, they left, claiming i was a whore. Lovely people eh?

 

Yes, yes. They sound like they're absolutely lovely people - that's horrible.

Unfortunately, I have indeed lost a few good members over the years - the majority of them for personal reasons and/or life events. There is one member that quite simply disappeared, however. After years of being a reputable and dedicated staff member on one of my community's, he suddenly left - without notice. I have not talked to him since.

 

Yes, i was quite pleased they left LOL I had to pretend to be sad about it online though

 

Oh, I know the feeling.