A surveying of members listed by (or sorted by) date of last check in or visit to the forum shows that if you take the first page only then the last person on that firsts page checked in no sooner than October of 2020. It's the fact that so few, anymore, ever visit these forums that I have become somewhat disenchanted with the urgency of being here and posting questionable at best.
I enjoy these forums, or used to, and thought that it was a good place to exchange and debate ideas but when I began to see what limited quantity of member actually visit and routinely show up on here it seemed more than ever that we were playing to our own desires and opinions.
I remember the days when such vivid debates raged in the Religion forum among certain members all of whom now seem to have completely disappeared, died, or have been "lifetime" banned. It seems you never see Jennifer (aka "BestWorking") any longer and a sorting of the member list by "Member Rank" whatever that is or however it's calculated, indicates that at least 75% of the top 12 forum members, members who used to be frequent if not constant visitors and contributors, but their last visit was 8 to 10 years ago. It seems many have either totally given up on participation in the forum or possibly have left all together, or been banned by the exclusive and elusive moderators that govern the forum community, the forum god's if you will. Forum purgetory is not even a possibility for some members rather a lifetime, condemning ban upon some meant that some of the most active, interesting, and frustrating (also opinionated) members stand no chance of returning or ever contributing again yet their forum position is eternally cemented and held although there is no chance of them being overtaken or even caught by existing members as no one seems to be able to explain how "Member Rank" is achieved or calculated or even gained. "Bill Gray" is the most prominent of those seemingly with a lifetime ban, that continues to hold rank within the forum.
Is there ever going to be a purging of the member list to remove those whom have ever completely left or certainly abandoned the forum? Maybe a purging would create an incentive for some of them to return if but to only maintain a ranking that seems arbitrary at best but surely one totally vague in how it is ultimately achieved. Then again it could be that the most antagonist and controversal are those whose community rank is exponentially boosted in count as there is no way someone achieves such lofty ranks if the calculations of that rank is uniform and constant. It's really impossible to get even the answers to how rank is achieved, maintained, or held because I never could even get a forum moderator to answer that question when I ask it of them.
So here we are a very select few, so it seems, that are debating and talking among ourselves, a very select few indeed, who comprise the Time's Daily Opinion Forums. Could there even be a chance of future growth if some of the bans were eliminated allowing some of the more controversial members to return? Then of the top three forum members, in "Member Rank" alone two of the top three is the same person joining within a year of each Forum screen name and yet the most contemporary sign in of the top three is 2018 and one of the top three is one supposedly occupying a "lifetime ban" making it impossible to return. Based upon likelihood of return and contribution it would seem that Direstraits should occupy the #1 forum position but then maybe it's all arbitrary in the first place and like our current government situation we are in Bazarroland where up is down and down is up, right is left and the white rabbit will never be caught.
Tea time all!