Steve,
I have been a member for almost a year now. I've watched the registered member number grow from 16,000 to the current 21,000. What I find interesting is that no matter when I log on there still only seems to be a range of between 50 to 95 people currently browsing the Café. I would think that as membership goes up, so would the number of current browsers. Any thoughts about this?

By the way, I think this is a fantastic web site. I've met a couple of the people who are regulars here and that was really a lot of fun. Thanks for putting this place all together.

Remember that the Café is an international site. That means there is a time difference and at any given time, the only ones you see on line are the members in the US or in a close time zone to yours. For example, if you are on the east coast and log in at 8 AM, chances are that you won't see the members from the west coast since it's only 5 AM there.

Also, many people join to have a look around and then never come back. If you click on the browsing the Café tab, you'll usually see the same members logged in. These are the regular users the visit often.

Note, too, that the number shown reflects only logged-in members. It does not include casual visitors who choose not to log in. We don't really know how many more that would be. I would guess somewhere between 10%-20% - perhaps a bit more, but I really have nothing to base that on.

Ditto Dave's point about people who register and don't come back. Total registered members also includes people who use the Café primarily for PM contacts and/or the search engine, which is available only to logged-in members.

Total number of members on any board doesn't really mean much when it comes right down to it though. You can have a million members posting all the time, but if there's no real content ... well, then who cares?