There are 4494 members registered to this FORUM…but lets say only 100 are regular users…perhaps I am wrong…maybe SIATD or ben or matt could elaborate on that one…
But where have all these people gone? Do they sit quietly in the wings reading, wondering, laughing out loud, loving all the bad faith, loving all the faulty logic, love all the learned ignorance?
Where are the missing 4394?
They got too nosy. They asked the wrong sort of questions. 
Apparently there are a lot of people who come here every day and read the threads but never contribute. I’d love to meet some of them…
…Starbucks 
No! No! NO!
Not Starbucks! Starbucks is evil. 
(my first emoticon ever, that’s how bad) They run independently owned coffee shops out of business, much like WalMart does to independent retailers. I work at a drive-thru coffee shop and in the 10 years we’ve been open, 11 others have opened in our wake. Yes, Starbucks has brought us business because it has gotten people into the coffee drinking scene, but if I have to hear one more person order a “non-fat cara-mel mocchiato” I will scream! They make up drinks, burn all the deliciousness out of their beans and drive real baristas crazy.
Sorry for my rant. I will atone at a later date. I’ve just seen too many people here talk about going to Starbucks. Please, stop, I beg of you!
As for the 4394…I have ventured out of Mundane Babble, but I don’t think I’m well versed enough to interject in some of the more serious forums. Maybe those others feel the same and have only made one or two posts.
Okay, wait. Nope. There are 1857 members who have never posted, and 670 with only one. That’s quite a few.
Maybe they intended to post, and never did because of the intimidation factor. Philosophy is a daunting subject. I can’t totally blame them.
There are many, I suspect, who sit on the sidelines watching, reading, absorbing it all. One never knows when something one writes here will resonate with somebody…a total stranger who never even participates but listens just the same.
Kind of makes you feel a certain sense of responsibility when you post something.
Better make it count. They’re out there.
I only dreamed of coffee shops until Starbucks came; there weren’t any. The reason that I don’t go there is because bean juice should not cost 5 bucks, and coffee makes me poop.
A lot of people sign up and never post and a lot of those 4000 or so people signed up some time between now and 4 years ago and then left. We’re trying to think of ways of encouraging new people to post without you lot scaring them off!
Adlerian,
Your avatar is scary, I only just noticed what it does.
I don’t post very often.
My stats show 0.10 posts per day.
I don’t know where that puts me in the spectrum?
I guess I think about this website as frequently.
I might post a few little bits every other time I come here.
When I don’t post, I just do a bit of fairly lazy browsing.
I’m usually thinking something through - in my real life.
On the outside. That scary place filled with other people looking at you. And checking you out.
Hehe.
I suppose it feels like it’s not worth posting something (for me) if I don’t put at least a little thought into it. You know? And what that does, is constitutes an investment. Of myself. And with the clock ticking and this season shifting into the next - now, thank fux. There’s only so much expenditure to spread around.
I do love ILovePhilosophy.com. It’s a sanctuary. I have a busy life. I commute for a few hours a day and work deep inside The System. I’ve gone ‘Core’. When the typical Slacker was me. So. This sanctuary is harken-back to when I would have all the time in the world, living with peers.
I Love Philosophy dot Com is a sanctuary in which to live with peers.
How much of me do I have to invest in that?
About 1%
Peace
(What do you know ~ I just went up by 0.01 : D
Peers who also dare to believe that there just might be.
A single unifying thread interweaving through us all.
So the spectrum could very well show a scale of addictiveness to linearity?
Yeah, I saw that yesterday and couldn’t figure out what it was. It looks like Michel off of the Gilmore Girls when it morphs.
it morphs into worf’s wife if I’m not mistaken…
(I think cch pounder is married to michael dorn)
-Imp
In terms of history alone and sheer number, surely there were once people visting and posting on this site as frequently as ‘all of us’ - rare characters, intellectuals, writers, fools, fine ladies, curious ladies, odd men, and mad chiefs…what happened to them? Is there anyone here who still posts and has done since Creation?
Perhaps we too shall pass onto other forums or ‘real’ life will give us different priorities and we while no longer frequent this meta-net-establishment…
What jerry said hit the nail on the head - many readers, few contributors. If the situation was representated visually in a large hall or room, with the same number of people standing around and reading as you wrote a post, I think half of us would not post half of what we do!
They were all pre-destined to be ILPites! 
Actually, a lot of the newly registered members signed-up just to ask a single question. Some did it for school purposes. Others may have been slightly interested by philosophy — they signed-up, lost their interest, and never returned.
I think Rafarajar scared the rest of them away. Or at least, something like that. 
And speaking of Rafarajar, NO one would have ever gotten away with mutiple-posting-in-a-row if Rafa was still around. Man, he hated when people posted mutiple time times instead of using the EDIT button.
I love expoiting other people’s pet-peeves.
Wow! I didn’t know that!
Ben,
Thank you.
I originally had it timed to morph every four minutes but it was too long.
Well, since this thread is directed slightly at me, I might as well post.
I read these forums (excluding announcements, natural sciences, and religion) once or twice a day. The actual philosophy (social sciences, psychology…) forums get a quick scan and a stop at any title that has the potential to yield an interesting read. The same applies for creative writing and the rant house. Mundane Babble, however, is like a sitcom. Or I don’t know. It’s bloody amusing, though.
[size=134]Starbucks…!![/size]
Nice Avatar, btw!