Hearing the crickets

[budoka]

Trying to get an issue with the board resolved, i just went through and deactivated the accounts of all the members who joined more than 2 years ago and were last active more than 2 years ago, or have never posted, or have never logged in.

after that, we now have 89 members. of those, maybe 5 to 10 post with any kind of regularity. in order to make this board just a bit more accessible, i'm considering removing the long-standing rule around here that no one is approved without using an ISP provided email addy or similar (in fact i've already approved a few accounts that don't fit this rule just because of the intro they wrote).

heck, i don't even know if anyone will even read this, but i'm gonna listen to opinions for about a week. if no one convinces me otherwise, i'm going to start basing account approval on the intro and no longer deny gmail, yahoo, and other freemail addresses.

what saith the board members (if anyone is out there?)?

-dan

[gearhead1951]

I never understood the reason for the freemail ban in the first place !

[Dusty-Dave]

I would think that your requirement for an coherent introduction would foil all but a few spammers and all spambots.
Dusty

[budoka]

i totally understand your feeling gearhead. when the freemail ban was first being used it actually made good sense. it ensured we had someone's "real" email addy in case something ever went wrong. the technology has moved on quite a bit since then, both in the forum software as well as in the degree that the big freemail providers are connected to our devices.

but the introduction itself is a huge PITA that deters all but those most determined to be a member here. i know it actually turns a lot of people away from here, and that's ok as far as i'm concerned, but i just think the reason for the "no freemail" thing has just been kind of negated over time.

i don't want to sound as if i care about how many members this place has, because as far as i'm concerned, i'd rather have 3 people who actually build stuff sharing their knowledge than 20,000 people talking about what they had for dinner on a motorcycle fabrication forum. i just want to stay as true as i can to Gary's original idea of a grassroots site where people share their knowledge in regards to fabricating custom motorcycles (and other fabrication related stuff too).

thanks for your thoughts guys, and for still coming here!

-dan

[curt]

i know i haven't posted much lately but i am here a lot and i really like this place . nobody here looks down on someone because their skills aren't up to par with someone else's or their monetary situation or attitude . says a lot about the administration here . if your willing to try new things i guess we can

[Jim Sawyer]

I dont post much, but I do check in on a regular basis, I used to post more while I was building My bike.

[budoka]

i'm as guilty as anyone else when it comes to not posting much about what i'm doing, but i'm going to try to post more often. this place has always tended to get really slow in the summer and then pick back up as the weather gets colder.

i'd just hate to turn away good people and potentially good members because of their email addy.

keep the opinions coming friends!

-dan

[friday]

for some reason facebook is thee place . I dont get it

forums are having problems at the mo crashing . I check in here for a look see fairly regular .

shovelhead forum is one man set up and kinda limits membership (?)