Why do my members have to register?

Good question - you can join other services by sending an e-mail with a request to join, or even send an e-mail to <group>-...

Aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot by not making it easier for people to join?

The fact is that in time, all mailing lists and group services will require some registration details, in particular of age.

In the US, there is the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, which places strict limits on what information you can collect from children under 13 (but  you need to know that, of course).

Then you have the problem of people who want to join Adult Spaces (they're always going to be out there) - We need to make sure that we have some sort of age verification regime in place.

And that's not the half of it - Many advertisers insist that they know that their adverts can only be seen by people over the age of 18 (and if you are carrying alcohol related advertising, which you might for certain sorts of communities, over 21 for US residents)

And it will go on and on - So we thought we would bite the bullet, and do it properly from day one.