If all you're looking at is the bare number of registered members...that number in and of itself doesn't mean much. But...it IS a measure of growth and if we start "kicking people off" that haven't logged on in a while then we lose the ability to objectively see how far we've come in that one area.

Also...EVERYthing at this site is archived and a part of its history. Even if someone only made one post...that is now a part of the site's history. There's no reason to go deleting all that stuff just because it's old.

In the show last night, I was able to touch on a little bit of the site's statistics, but not go into great depth about them. So allow me to take this opportunity to show you guys some interesting stuff:

Average New Registrations Per Month for each year:

'03 -- 20
'04 -- 50
'05 -- 90
'06 -- 180
'07 -- 200
Jan '08 -- 158 so far -- projected 272!

New Threads Created Daily Average:

Jan '04 -- 11
Jan '08 -- 58

New Posts Added Daily Average:

Jan '04 -- 128
Jan '08 -- 718

If one believes the same 20 people are the only ones active on this site...that would mean they are posting an average of 36 posts each per day. Not even the most prolific posters we have come anywhere close to that number....much less sustain it on a daily basis.

Healthy growth never comes easily. Every single plant and creature on this planet needs the proper environment, nutrients, and tremendous amounts of energy to grow and thrive. Growing is HARD WORK. But also rewarding beyond words.

I for one, relish our growth. And if there are those who wish to deny it.... ....it doesn't really bother me, nor does it change the reality the staff deals with on a daily basis.