We are currently 18 members short of the 500 target for the end of 2006. With 22 days left (including today) we need just less than 1 lurker a day to come out of the closet and into the light
Come on guys, we know you are there because we keep seeing "Guests" showing up in the stats at the foot of the main forum index. There must be a few of you out there wishing you could ask "which port should I buy for Christmas?" Go on, register and give it a go and help put a big smile on Roy and Stewarts faces for all their hard work this year.
Wouldn't it br great if a few Port Shippers were amonst the group who push us past the 500 mark by registering and posting an end of 2006 growing and harvest report 8)
Derek
PS: Roy/Stewart, I know this should be in the Website section but I stuck it here for maximum exposure
Wouldn't it br great if a few Port Shippers were amonst the group who push us past the 500 mark by registering and posting an end of 2006 growing and harvest report
Indeed.
Now that the harvest is over, the wine has been fermented, fortified and run out of the lagares - is it too much to hope that someone out there might find the time to share their first thoughts about the vintage?
Stewart, can you confirm that this is not just a consequence of the re-registering exercise? Hopefully these are real new members and not just duplicate accounts for existing ones :?
Stewart is on a well-deserved break and traveling at the moment and will return here in 24-48 hours.
So let me do my best to answer your questions:
a. From the time we reached 470 members, every time a new member signed on, I did a basic authentication through our "back of the house" software. Those that looked to be fake, I deleted ... maybe 60 scammers in the past six weeks which for some reason were finally catching on to this website. Lots of folks here for pharmaceuticals, enlargement schemes and pornography. As Stewart was VERY busy with the new site, I was alone in trying to nip this in the bud.
b. My personal #1 priority for the new website, was to create a MUCH stricter registration system, doing our best to defeat those trying to put forth their nonsense on what for the better part of 1.5 years was a "spam free" zone. I also wanted to do our best to make this a "real names" FORUM.
c. I went back this evening and deleted 3 new members who were actually "testing" the website, aka Stewart, to show a more realistic number of real members.
d. There are only 2 members since I've been paying very close attention that ARE old members who have re-registered in the very recent past. They might have had issues with the conversion, so please forgive them. Otherwise, it looks like our count is correct.
I will add one more time, we have MANY people who have signed onto the website (new) or Forum (old) that have either done so to lurk ... or have never bothered to post. I am not a mind reader and don't know why so many folks lurk but won't post. In the scheme of life -- the quantity of total members really makes little difference. I am more concerned with how many NEW people are visiting the site, even if they don't post; how many times they will come back and even more importantly ... how many people are receiving the newsletter.
