People who rushed to use eBay in the first flush of excitement when the site was launched, but have not returned in years, are to be asked whether they still need their accounts.

The company has sent emails to many thousands who fall into this category, warning them that their accounts will be deleted if they aren't reactivated within 30 days.

Existing, regular site users have been calling for this action for some time, saying that it would free up some valuable user IDs to be allocated to people who can make more productive use of them.

Regular eBay commentator Chris Dawson of Tamebay.com said he'd never heard of eBay taking such action before, and added that, until now, even when accounts had been deleted for trust or safety reasons, they had still remained visible on the site.

He continued: "We don't know how old the accounts are [which are] scheduled for deletion and we don't know how long an account has to be left unused before eBay considers it dormant."

And he concluded that some possibly valuable user IDs for businesses might be among those becoming available, so regular site users should keep their eyes peeled over the next month for any news of possible reallocations.



Article Added: 06/02/2012 16:51:00