www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Welcome GG, thanks for taking the time to say "hi", and more.
My initial post on this thread was directed to people who
have never posted, and aren't a VIP.
By being a VIP, you have given something back to the board,
even if you never did post. The money that you paid to become
a VIP helps keep the site up and running. That was the point I was
trying to make. We do have members that give a lot to this board
who aren't VIPs, which is great, they are making a contribution
to the board as well.
Again welcome, perhaps we will run into each other on your
next trip in May, if your in town during the last two weeks.
ShyOne

Thank you ShyGuy. My buddies and I will be in CR during the first two weeks of May, so we might miss each other. But if we do cross paths, look for a small group at the BM in the evenings with a somewhat muscular Asian guy in it (I lift weights on occasion). My Spanish sucks but my buddies tell me the chicas would refer to me as "El Chino". I haven't run into many other Asian persuasion mongerers in my past trips so I guess I tend to stand out! I tend to resist fitting the Asian stereotype whenever I can while still being proud of my heritage. For instance, I'm terrible in math, I don't know squat about computers, I listen to country music, I played football and ran track in school, I've never worn glasses, and I'm a helluva good driver!

Hope to meet you and some other CRT legends!

First of all, GG11219, you have ABSOLUTELY no reason to apologize for anything. At least you are a VIP Member, which means you've PAID for the right not to post if you don't want to. What irks some of the other VIP's is not so much other VIPers who lurk in the shadows but NON-VIP members who don't contribute to the board in ANY way and who basically just use the rest of us for free info.Shy, I can appreciate that sentiment too, but ID does raise a good point. If nothing else their sheer numbers raise the marketing influence of the board, which has got to count for something. BTW, as long as we're going to be talking about pet peeves, you've been a regularly posting member of this board since 2003. When are you going to finally figure out that you don't have to hit return when you get to the edge of the text box? The sentences will wrap automatically and you won't end up with a 2 inch wide paragraph. Don't worry too much sbout that though, nobody is going to ban you for it.VB, why in the world would you be sorry to disagree with ID? He probably disagrees with others here more regularly than just about anyone and you can bet that he's never sorry about it. Besides, why quibble about 297 or 298? I'm sure there is also more than a few others with alternate handles (like that dickhead "The MAN"). Regardless of the exact numbers his basic point is still valid - a huge number of members never or very rarely post.

The real question here is what IF ANYTHING should be done about it. Frankly that is really solely Admin1's call. But here are a few more thoughts.

How do we define a "real" member? There are several possible criteria.

First, do they support the site with a paid membership? Obviously VIP's should be able to retain their membership priveleges for as long as their term of memberhsip is in effect, REGARDLESS of whether they post or not.

Secondly, even if they haven't signed up and supported the site as a paid member, do they post? If they do, I'm sure we're all happy to have them whether they are VIP or not. But if they DON'T, even if their e-mail address is valid, WHAT DO they contribute. Not much as far as I can see. They're just "users" and I wouldn't be at all heartbroken to see them just taken off the rolls EXCEPT for 2 very good points. VB raised one of them. What about those who don't join right away but do so eventually after trying out the site for a while? If we prematurely purged members for not posting maybe it would lead to kicking out guys who might have eventually become supporting members. I don't know if the forum software can automatically be set this way, but maybe CRT should regularly purge free members after a set period of time, in effect make it more like a free trial membership (w/o the automatic conversion to a paid one). But even taking members off after a month or 3 or whatever the trial term has a possible drawback and that is thepoint that ID raised that I mentioned earlier. By adding to our rolls, at least these phantom members are helping to increase our marketing clout and ability of Admin to secure special discounts (discounts that non-VIP's aren't SUPPOSED to be able to benefit from).

And the final criteria, beyond simply not posting, what about those who haven't even visited the site in months or even years. They may have provided a valid address at some point long ago but never came back here after they got whatever it was they wanted and possibly made their one trip to CR?

Ultimately, I don't think Admin1 should be too hasty about trimming the member rolls for the reason ID suggested if for nothing else. Eliminating those with invalid email address is a modest but reasonable compromise that probably won't reduce the rolls that substantially but will eliminate some who really should be taken off. As for the rest, well ID's analysis is all well and good but I'd be curious to see a somewhat different breakdown even if we don't purge membership based on those criteria. In addition to how many post vs. those that don't (evidentally 3/4 or more), how about a breakdown between how many of those that do and don't are VIP's? Do VIP's post and not post in the same proportions? and though there may be no easy way to find out, how many members lurk vs. those who have completely disappeared from the scene and never even visit?