Well, being a member means you are given personal stats, which are useless unless you start posting...being a member is a choice (literally) between reading posts and writing them.

I'm honoured that people choose to register with the forum. If they post, that's great too, but neither is necessary.

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Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today - Free space news delivered by email every weekday.

Thank you for disagreeing with me once again, Fraser. <_<
It's nice to have a political opposition.

I post when i feel needed to.

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Earthquake plots

I can see what you're saying, but that's not necessarily true. By joining a forum, you're joining a community and as with any community, not everybody goes to the town meetings. That doesn't mean they don't have a right to be a member of the community. Their reasons for the joining the community may be many and varied, but there might even be some people who simply join to feel a part of that community. To discriminate against those who don't post or who don't post often enough would be to make those people feel unwelcome. Besides which, at what level would you set the minimum number of posts? Once a day, once a month or what? And how would you police that?

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"The stars are my home"
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."

Well, being a guest is not really that simple...take John....before becoming the Popular member John L, he was simply John....but at least he made an effort. I enjoy those members and guests who make a contribution, but what ****es me off is when a member makes one post and moves on...that isn't particularly fair, is it?

Well StarLab, I'm not going to go through all the reasons yet again as to why someone might join up and then not post for awhile... they've already been stated in previous replies.

I'm sorry you think it's "unfair" - and I can't see why you'd think that - but it really seems to be just your point of view. No one else seems to have a serious problem with it.

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"The stars are my home"
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched c-beams glitter in the dark, near the Tanhauser Gate... all those moments will be lost, in time... like tears in the rain..."

How is it unfair? Personally, I get tremendous benefit from all the people who show up briefly to visit the forums, even if they never come back. I'm the guy footing the bill for this, and I'm saying it's all good.

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Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today - Free space news delivered by email every weekday.

There you have it, straight from the boss! I have no probs with folks who post few or none at all, i am in contact with a few of them as well, a lot are just very busy or have a multitude of other interests as well.

What would be unfair is to expect many posts out of them, thus taking away from their other pursuits.

StarLab, listen to Dips, he has explained it to you in a suucinct and precise manner.

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Damien,
International Baccalaureate Physics teacher
Optics, Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing Instrumentation Major
Admin: Pacific Science and Art

Oh, well, that's good enough for me...Keep up the good work, Fraser!