[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

This morning I ran a small study of our membership breakdown. Here are the results:

TOTAL MEMBERS................ 3021
NON-POSTING MEMBERS.... 2734
ACTIVE MEMBERS............... 1287

Non-posting members are all those who have zero posts; this includes approximately 400 on the latest ban list (the ones I've not deleted) as well as about 150 who are not banned but whose applications have not been approved due to suspect IDs and/or suspect email addresses. Normally some of these last will inevitably contact me to clarify their status, but few of these have in recent months. They may be spammers who just gave up (they're not on any spam list I use though) or they may be people who just thought it 'cool' to join but never intended to participate.

Of the Active Members, the following applies:

1 - 10 POSTS.................... 741
10 - 50 POSTS.................. 306
OVER 50 POSTS................ 240

Obviously, the ones above with more than 50 posts are our dyed-in-the-wool core, but I'd also include a great many of the 1 - 50 group there as well; many of them are newly-arrived and have demonstrated great interest but just haven't had the chance to be more chatty.

In the 1 - 10 group, many of the higher numbers are also new to the forum, but also haven't had a chance yet to become more mainstream. All are obviously interested, else they wouldn't have posted at all.

What I haven't got the time (or inclination) to do right now is run a study of last posting vs last activity dates in order to determine how often they jump onto the forum; having said that, I know for a fact that there's a significant number of folks who often come on here to lurk without signing in. It's impossible to say how many of these 'Visitors' we see everyday are actually members who simply don't log in, vs Outsiders who are reading and/or scarfing our copy and pics. These unfortunately we can't do anything about without making MLU a Members Only forum, something I've been loathe to do up to now. It may be necessary down the road.

Last point. Since I posted my appeal last Tuesday I have received a sum total of six (6) donations. You gentlemen know who you are and I thank you.

I believe that at least two more donations are on the way via snail mail. I will acknowledge receipt privately when I receive them, but thank you in advance.

Gentlemen, I truly hope that your 4.28% response to-date (of active members - if you include ALL members, the figure is actually 2.66%) is not indicative of how you see MLU and the Forum. Not much to show for twelve years' work, is it?

I simply ask you to place a value upon what you continue to experience here, and exercise your options accordingly.

Thank you,

Geoff