[AnnieG]

Someone I recommended should join India Mike because they are thinking of moving from Denver to Goa and has lots of questions that I don't have time to answer, found that they could not become a member of India Mike.

This may be a FAQ, but is there a freeze on new members, and if so, why? and how long will it last?

Many TIA, AnnieG

[cyberhippie]

Hi Annie,
Yep we are having a month long period where we are taking no new members. This is to give us a bit of breathing space as the new memberships were going though the roof.
This gives us time to do a bit of tidying up on the site, and for some of the more experienced Mods time to enjoy their IM experience for a change!
This is a temporary measure and we will be allowing new members to join again in the future!
So tell your friend to hang on, I've also got a mate waiting in the wings!

[skell]

I feel so exclusive now!

[crvlvr]

This is to give us a bit of breathing space as the new memberships were going though the roof.

Is there any benefit to canceling memberships of those who have no posts and have not visitied IM for long time. There appears there are ton of those types..

[camelgirl]

Did not know this....feeling very lucky to be here. It's keeping me sane until I can actually travel again (to India, of course).

[DoDi]

Could I sell my membership on ebay?

[sadhuji]

Originally Posted by crvlvr

Is there any benefit to canceling memberships of those who have no posts and have not visitied IM for long time. There appears there are ton of those types..

not a bad idea. i do not know how many members fall in this category but, they could be approached and their memnberships cancelled by mutual consent.

[sadhuji]

the number of members on 6/11/2004 was 4037 - today it is 5928. approx addition of 2000 odd within a period of 8 months.

[AvidTrekker]

Some members have NIL posts and also [maybe?] do not logon ..... ever!

Could we not at least send them an e-mail.... if they do not reply in say 60 days, then "suspend" the account or something.

[Merchant]

A freeze on new members? That's bizarre. Good thing you guys are not trying to run a business . . .

[Nick-H]

I had a hobby once that turned into a business. Suddenly there were deadlines and committments instead of fun.

Maybe for Mike and the team it is a bit like keeping open house, and the just want to stop being in the kitchen making tea and snacks for everyone all the time.

[steven_ber]

Originally Posted by AvidTrekker

Some members have NIL posts and also [maybe?] do not logon ..... ever!

Could we not at least send them an e-mail.... if they do not reply in say 60 days, then "suspend" the account or something.

Mike has already done exactly that a few times, sending out hundreds of e-mails, then deleting loads of unused accounts.

I don't think that the number of members is a problem though.

Originally Posted by Merchant

A freeze on new members? That's bizarre. Good thing you guys are not trying to run a business . . .

You wouldn't believe how much of a relief it is to not have any of the problems associated with new members.

About 55 new members a week,

Probably 5 of them send e-mail’s to mike asking 'how to.......(add any subject)......',

Maybe 5 of the new members will be travel agents trying their luck.

A few lonely Indian men join to say a couple of words in each thread and then start sending PM's to female members.

Then there are the people who join just to add a comment to a particular post (not always a nice comment)

There are new members who (not intentionally) break forum rules (so then starts a few days worth of PM's being exchanged).

Then there are the banned members trying to re-join with new ID's and e-mail addresses.

Then lots of new members post in the wrong forums

There is so much more, I just can't remember at the moment.

ALL the forum leaders are happy for the break, but most of all, Mike has found his daily e-mails have dropped down to single figures, which has got to be good news for the site.

[crvlvr]

Kudos to the IM Moderators for a job well done. The new member willjust have to wait while you take your much deserved break. Steven_ber has given a great explanation of all (or may be its juts some) that the moderators have to handle behind the scenes, expecially the zero tolerance toward new members, which has resulted in IM.com becomming such a great site.

[skell]

Thank you Steven for that information. I think it is an eye-opener for a lot of us on how much work you guys actually do on this site.

Is there any way to set an automatic time-limit from a person's last post to being dropped from membership? You know - use it or lose it!

[steven_ber]

Originally Posted by skell

Is there any way to set an automatic time-limit from a person's last post to being dropped from membership? You know - use it or lose it!

I know nothing about the technical stuff.

But the number of members could be 50,000, the number is not a problem.

The main problem is how busy the site had become and the amount of new members that were joining. (Well, the two combined)

This had been a problem for a while, so we were tinkering around with a few things, but it was not enough in the end.

We changed the 'travel agents' section so that the new threads/posts wouldn't appear on the front page, this slowed down the number of travel agents trying their luck (which was never fair on the good travel agents on this site).

We then (well, Mike) created the 'off topic' forum, also not visible on the front page (or if you have less than 50 posts), this stopped a lot of the political nutters joining the site.

But still we were spending too much time moderating and virtually no time enjoying the site.

So a break from new members seemed the only way.