user_status in Table wp_users – what for?

Hi

For an external project I need to add a boolean field in the Users-Table of the WP-DB. Basically, it should allow an external script to easily distinguish between active and old users.

I know I could do this in wpuser_meta, but I’d like to have it in the main table. (I’m searching several blogs’ DBs with that script and would like to avoid any more queries than necessary).

It seems to me that the field “user_status” in wp_users isn’t used at all – can I use it, i.e. put 1 in that field for inactive users (i know it’s odd, but since the default is 0, this would keep me from changing the field for each new user).

Does anyone know what the field is/was used for, whether I can use it without interfering with something else and/or does somebody have advice for/against this?

Thx all.