Your 6x6 World Member Number

[Mike]

I have been asked several times about the number of members on the site and why it is different than your member numbers so I thought I would answer here for everyone to see.

Currently if you look on the main page of the forum you will see that we have 4,916 members however if you click on the newest member's user name (currently "wagon") and look at the link's address (the URL) you will see that he is actually member number 10,616. So why is there a difference?

10,616 people have signed up for an account here. When you sign up I have to manually verify your account and before I do that, I do a search for your username, IP address, etc. to see if you pop up on a known spammers list. If you do then I delete the account. It's the only way to really cut down on SPAM. Since I started doing this after several Spammers posted on the site three years ago it has eliminated 99% of the SPAM.

Also, if a user doesn't verify their email within address by following the link that is sent to everyone when they sign up, after several weeks the site is set to automatically delete the account. This also is a SPAM / Robot prevention measure.

A lot of forums don't delete accounts but rather just delete the SPAM and ban the users. Either way accomplishes the same thing but this way the SPAM doesn't show up in the first place. The downside is that it is labor intensive and of course if I didn't do this we would currently be at 10,616 members.

[jerseybigfoot]

Mike you operate a first class board. Thanks

[hydromike]

I'll second that with a huge "Bravo!" in keeping this board in a state that many, MANY others aspire to be. I'm a member of a few different boards, and spam/bots have been a plaguing problem. I don't think a lot of people realize the level of commitment it takes to keep this place the incredible resource it is. Most boards have more than one moderator, and it's a task for them to collectively operate a board efficiently. Often a thankless task. Thanks to our #1 (and only) moderator...

Thanks Mike...

~m

[JoeMeg]

I allways assumed there was a significant amount of maint to keep this site up but honestly had no idea...... Thank You Mike! Joe.

[Don]

I'll second that with a huge "Bravo!" in keeping this board in a state that many, MANY others aspire to be. I'm a member of a few different boards, and spam/bots have been a plaguing problem. I don't think a lot of people realize the level of commitment it takes to keep this place the incredible resource it is. Most boards have more than one moderator, and it's a task for them to collectively operate a board efficiently. Often a thankless task. Thanks to our #1 (and only) moderator...

Thanks Mike...

~m

Truedat.

Quickly approaching 5,000 (real) members, Mike. Congratulations!

[Jeff t-boss]

MIke; Put yourself in for a raise and two extra weeks of vacation!!!! You are doing one helluva job and we all greatly appreciate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LarryW]

Thanks Mike for all the work you put into the site to keep it as clean as it is!

[amphibious drew]

Great Job Mike!!! Its hard to believe that more than half the people that sign up for the site are bots. Thanks for keeping it clean.

[UncleMushie]

I am a new member from va. thanks for a site i can relate to and have fun with.