People don't have to register to lurk though, do they?

People have to register to lurk easily, because the board won't "mark as read" if you're not logged in.

I don't know about announcing new members names as they register, but it might be cool to have just a counter.

Would a complete, publically accessible list of all members solve the problem? If it was ranked from oldest to newest, you could just take a quick look and see who was new. It would also be easy, I think, as they'd just be by id number.

Would a complete, publically accessible list of all members solve the problem?

No. It would still violate user's privacy.

OK, yeah, it's a bad idea.

Oh- by public I meant visible to all registered members. But I guess you're right, that is still a violation.

I'm against exposing lurkers, and even more against exposing lurking VIPs -- I know that I tend to register at any community when I decide it's a place I'd like to post at some point, not when I'm about to make my first post.

For ordinary users, I don't want to see the spotlight turned on them before they want to post. Or if they don't plan to post at all, but have registered in order to be able to manage subscriptions and the like.

And for VIPs, there's the added factor of people spreading the word of "Hey, Alyson Hannigan just registered at Buffistas.org! Go leave shoutouts to her there!" If AH (or whomever) wasn't even planning to post, or wasn't ready to.

Anyway, I'm very uncomfortable with having VIPs singled out officially as a separate class of Buffista. Yes, we all get excited when, say, Tim comes by, but we don't make his posts blink bright red or anything like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if we get the VIP posts we do in part because we treat them like Buffistas and not like aliens.

Anyway, I'm very uncomfortable with having VIPs singled out officially as a separate class of Buffista. Yes, we all get excited when, say, Tim comes by, but we don't make his posts blink bright red or anything like that. And I wouldn't be surprised if we get the VIP posts we do in part because we treat them like Buffistas and not like aliens.

Couldn't agree more.

That's what I meant, Amy. I don't think anyone above disagrees with you.

You're right. It sounds good, but it's actually a bad idea.

Private message: Are you getting anywhere betaing the epic? Reply in Bitches or e-mail, please?.

Edited for missed ".

That's what I meant, Amy. I don't think anyone above disagrees with you.

Uh, yeah... I took so long blowharding that a bunch of other people hit all the same points much more neatly before I managed to hit "post". Please ignore.

Edit: Am? Message received, and I'll email you when I get home tonight, but it's not really the thing to be discussing in this thread.