I'm a bit busy for the next day or two so can't comment in detail on the proposed ideas yet, but I do welcome them. I want to encourage everyone to discuss these and any other ideas. It's 'your' board since you are the ones who use it. I'm just the poor bloke stuck trying to make everyone happy.

The funny thing is, I was just thinking of suggesting a few things to try to liven things up a bit and attract new people. In the four months I've been running the show, there have been ZERO new user registrations. (they've all been spam)

One idea not expressed by anyone yet is opening up the board to discussing more topics. However I think we need to stay within the Earth sciences. A few strays once in a while I don't think are bad as long as they don't cause problems.

RE concerns over storage space for pics - not a problem. My hosting account has unlimited storage space, currently holding just over 2 gigs of 'stuff'. Bandwidth is 15 TB per month, and I only use about 1% of that so I think we're OK there, too.

A solution for pics, rather than modifying the board code, is I could run a picture hosting service for EW users only. Then you can log in there, post your pics, and then use HTML embed code for posts (or just provide a link). It's not functionally any different than hosting your pics on another website and doing the same as we all do now, but it's the hosting location that I think makes a difference. Privacy. Security. No marketing analysis selling your info. No spam.

Brian