If you periodically prune your neighbors...

I spreadsheet-track visitors to my town. I used a pseudo-tiered criteria to delete them.

Note though, these aren't hard and fast rules, but rather the general guidelines I have settled into.

- 5 consecutive days without visiting gets you the boot.
<> Exception 1: Long term neighbors get more of a grace period.
<> Exception 2: Newly added neighbors get fewer days. About 3. (This keeps long term visitation rates up.)
<> Exception 3: If you've gone on vacation but informed me when you will return to playing (written out in fences or bushes in your town is the most common I've seen), the entire absence is tolerated and forgiven.

- Anything under about 20% visitation rate will get noticed and get you deleted. This is a necessary second rule, because, well, skipping four days in between visits satisfies the 5 day rule, but it's significantly less than the effort I put in and desire in return.

Now then, why isn't it hard and fast? Well, during events it is, particularly when receiving visits directly translate into more goodies faster. Neighbors that don't understand their own value to other players are not neighbors that need to be rewarded by me.

Outside of event time, I'll wait until there are 5 or 6 people to delete, just to minimize overhead of list maintenance.

I never delete neighbors based on lack of items to tap in their town. This allows me to be generous to new players to the game who are still at a very low achievement level. Some of my newest neighbors only have 5 or 6 buildings, and I've not been able to tap on anything in their towns all week. However, I know they are still playing because they visit me. These are the valuable players over the long term.

I don't really delete neighbors unless they had nothing to tap for a very long time. However, I did sort of keep track during a four day period near the end of the Stonecutter's event. My criteria was:

1) If a neighbor tapped anything other than the lodge (even once), then I was going to keep them.
2) If a neighbor tapped on the lodge more than 3 times during the 4 days, then I was going to keep them.
3) If I recognized the neighbor cause they visited often enough during the earlier days of the event, then I was going to keep them.

Long story short. I deleted 30+ neighbors. Down to a very manageable 65 now and couldn't be happier.

Pinpal00 wrote:
Just to follow up: there's something to be said about keeping neighbors hidden for long periods. One neighbor from the old tile-tapping thread went dark right after Christmas. Came back for the Stonecutter's event and has been a daily visitor since. Things happen in people's lives, and I figure a onetime good neighbor can become a good neighbor again.

I don't disagree on any particular point. If one of my former good neighbors sent me a PM, I would do my utmost to add them again. But I get very active people asking to be my neighbor on a regular basis, so I also do my utmost to add them, and sometimes that necessitates dropping someone who hasn't logged in for awhile.

I only delete based on activity. If they haven't been on in a week, then I delete. During events, I generally only give three days. I don't really pay attention to who visits me and who doesn't as long as I have enough people visiting during an event to be successful. I only look at when a person has been on when I can't find something to tap. At first, I was deleting people daily but now I have rarely deleted people. I do have a couple spots open which I will add to once an event starts.

During events I'll drop people who don't appear to be playing it, especially if I have invites waiting from people who are. I usually give them about a week from the start. If they haven't updated by then I drop them.

Between events I'm not as strict. People sometimes take time off, go on vacations, etc. when the next big event comes I'll go through my list, see if there's people who look like they've dropped out.

The spreadsheet approach makes the NSA look tame. A little extreme for me

IRL friends I give a lot of leeway to. Other than that, if I can't collect from your town, chances are I will delete you.
I visit for free donuts, the more people I can collect from, the better my chances.
I'm currently getting frustrated with a couple of low level players who completely clear their SF regularly. I know they will be worth it later but having nothing to collect from now is frustrating.
I think I am going to extend my nothing to collect from to include them soon. Getting higher level players with a lot of buildings leaves me with a better chance to collect.
During an event I will monitor friend visits to ensure I have enough active friends for the event. If you don't visit at least 3 times in a week, you're gone.
I'm not a fan of town bunching but some of the town bunchers I have are good active, visiting friends. Same goes with house farming. I may not be a fan but if you are a good friend, I will keep you.
I have had some of my friends for a long time. I feel somewhat sad when I see long term players just stop with their SF's though and usually give them at least 1-2 weeks, just in case.

lee67628 wrote:
I only accept players at max level. After each level up, if a player still haven't upgraded within a week, I'd delete the player from my neighborhood, to make room for other players in my waiting list.

I don't have time to track who visited me, and I don't bother if they are house farmers. What matter most is that they must be active daily players like myself, so that I can rely on them when big event comes.

My first neighbor (who wasn't my husband, daughter, son-in-law) found me somehow - no idea how it worked in December 2013. I was probably at level 15 or lower. I played enough that he always had something to tap on, but I will not forget the kindness of a player at a higher level than I. I try to do the same for other new players who send me a friend request. To stay a neighbor, they must visit my town, event or not, so I know they are interested, and have something to tap on some of the times I visit (which shows they don't have too high of a friend:building ratio).

I just reread my sentimental post - I might be taking this too seriously! Meh!

wildminion wrote:
I tend to go by activity. If there's something to tap when I visit, then all is well. When there's nothing to tap I make a mental note.....

After a while of getting nothing to tap at a given neighbour, I then check how long it's been since they last logged in. If that's a week or more, then I delete them.

I think a lot of players do this.

Same here. If I don't have anything to tap, I'm not a happy tapper. After repeated visits with nothing, I check their last login. Over a week and I will probably delete unless it's a friend from the forum. I like to stick with my forum buddies through good times and bad :P Aside from that, I like at least one visit every few days and event tapping is crucial. My neighbors were exceptionally awesome during the SC event and I still have a lot of neighbors who tap me daily. I personally tap everyone, everyday, because I like to be a good neighbor, like to see others' designs, and I cant pass up the triple cash and random donuts.

On a side note, I thought everyone liked graffiti since it raises righteousness when you clean it up?!? If this is not true, I'm sorry to all my friends! I always look for at least one building to tag up while visiting each town.

Since I like the chance of donuts, I delete players who have nothing for me to tap on after 3-4 days in a row.