10,000 Strong

[GeneChing]

We just crossed 10,000 forum members. I guess Black Friday was good for our little forum here. Thanks for your support, everyone!

[MasterKiller]

Unfortunately, I would bet 33% or more of them are automated bots registering to get your mailing list.

[Chief Fox]

Unfortunately, I would bet 33% or more of them are automated bots registering to get your mailing list.

Your name is now "BuzzKiller".

[MasterKiller]

For example,
Take member 10,008: !Pharmacy!

I've seen hundreds of these obviously fake names in the last few months. Gene needs to use a "wildcard" ban on the email accounts these places use, like *@gawab.com, for example. That way, no one using a gawab.com account could register.

[GeneChing]

...if we let them in, I could have a thousand members in a week. Seriously. Easily. We get so many @gawab and .ru applicants, it's amazing. Fortunately, most of the bots aren't that intelligent yet, so they're pretty easy to screen. It's what I do every morning, as I'm waiting for my tea to brew. Right now, I'd say 70 to 90% of our applications are bots. My favorite this morning was SexySindy (she was an .ru). Sorry boys, had to kill her.

!Pharmacy! is not a member, just an applicant. The way our membership works, the last person (or bot) to apply is the one who is posted in that 'newest member' section. !Pharmacy! is applicant 10,009 or 10,010 or 10,011 or, well, you get the idea. Tomorrow, when I do membership approvals, !Pharmacy! will be banished into the void of deleted applications.

That being said, MK has a point. The vast bulk of our membership does not post. They just lurk. Now, you can lurk without becoming a member, but if you're a member, you have better access to our forum search engines. That's fair, as fair as anything is on a forum.

[David Jamieson]

don't forget all the multiple acount holders who simply can't remember their passwords.

you guys ever dash the inactive accounts?

[GeneChing]

This morning, our membership was 10,050-something. After reviewing the applications and deleting all the bots, we're back down to 10,008. I think I approved only 3 or 4. That's an average morning for me here nowadays.

As for deleting inactives, unfortunately there's no way to determine inactives. I can see if someone hasn't posted ever, but I can't see if that same person is just using their membership to surf the archives. Just because they don't post does not mean that they are inactive. Lurkers count. In fact, lurkers make up a surprising amount of our membership. If I'm in the deletion mode, I'd much rather spend time deleting old silly threads, especially upcoming workshops/seminars that have passed. Unfortunately, the pruning system is quite cumbersome. We just updated the forum (you might notice some slowness as things fall into place) and I'm hoping the new version has better pruning methods.

Nevertheless, I'm savoring the 10,000 members. It's a nice fat number and sounds really good when I'm trying to sell web ads or what have you...;)

[David Jamieson]

one gives birth to two and two gives birth to three and three gives birth to the ten thousand members... er...things.

pretty catchy in context I think!

old meets new and has a cup of advertising together! :p