Paid memberships expire...but what about free memberships?

Paid memberships expire, and you have to pay again to renew.

...but what about free memberships? Is there a point in which they expire? Is there a set time or years that if someone does not post that their membership expires?

The reason that I ask is that my mother mentioned she wanted to join. So we were trying to come up with a cute membername for her. One of the membernames that was an option was taken, but the member has not ever paid to subscribe, and the person has not posted in over 5 YEARS.

I would think that the particular name should be "recycled", since it is not in use, and was never a paid subscriber, but then again, maybe that is just because we want that name, lol...

but still! 5 years?

Seems odd that paid memberships expire, but the free ones don't :0)
-T

A lot of people are members and never post. I didn't post for like 2 years...they're members mostly for the plant files, etc...

thanks for your reply

... so plantfiles is available for free?

Seems it is one of the features that should be a paid perk,... but then I guess that is the carrot to get people to bite, and then want to join, for the other features?

As far as I know memberships never expire, but subscriptions do. When a subscription lapses, the member still has access to all of the member areas, but not the subscriber areas. Whether a username can be recycled would be a question for Dave or Terry. I'm thinking that one of them will be along to answer that.

Subscribers have unlimited access to PlantFiles, but non paying members are limited to 10 searches a day. We do have a lot of non-subscribing members that contribute quite heavily to PlantFiles in the way of photos and details.

The Garden Watchdog is free as well, and some folks simply use it to check on a vendor before making a purchase. They may never leave feedback, especially if the transaction was uneventful.

We've had members (not subscribers) who signed up way back in 2001, suddenly appear and actually login, many many years later. It's strange, but that's the way it works for some of them.

I am a member of a few other websites out there that I know I often go a few years between logins, and I'm always pleased when my login still works. :)

ok,...guess we'll just pick something else.
thanks!

Take the username you picked for your Mother...then add a 1...or any number after it...that way you can use it...OPPPS...now we might have to put up with a Roadrunner2!! Perish the thought!! LOL Jo

You got it right when you said that Plant Files is the carrot that gets some people to bite. I googled a gazillion different plants and kept coming up with the link to Plant Files being the most succinct. I joined to use all of the other stuff after getting addicted to the bird forum.

I didn't realize that you could look at a paid members blog/want/trade list pages if you yourself wasn't a paid member. I thought only paid subscribers could see it, I didn't know EVERYONE could.
I recently wrote something in my blog about some DL's needing new homes soon. I was approached my someone who has nothing to trade, is not a paid subscriber but is looking for daylilies.

Pixie-while the non-subscribing members may not agree, I do. I feel some of their freedoms should be only available to paying members.
-T

This is what I wrote at the very top of my trade Have list in bold letters but it still doesn't work if folks are accessing the available for trade from an individual PF. I am trying to deter those just signing up for a day and immediately asking for plants.

***TRADES WITH SUBSCRIBERS ONLY PLEASE***

Thank you both for your input. I was not upset as much as shocked....thought what I was writing could only be viewed by members.

good idea, Sue
thanks :)

As far as the blogs, you can choose to mark individual entries private if you want. If they're private then nobody can see them except you, and if they're public then everyone (including non-subscribers) can see them.

ONe of the pluses for being
a paid member is that you
can view fotos in enlarged or zzoom mode. This is crtical for seeing certain details specially in small fotos, and is also needed for bloind or nearly blind members.

One benefit of allowing open access to anyone on all of
the "files" os that you can get many more people participating and
sharing fotos and inormation.

When wanting more internationaization o DG, many times people in other counties
cannot afford the membership fee or do not have a credit card to join with.

I could be wrong, but I don't think that enlarging photos is limited to paid subscribers, everyone can do that as far as I know.