# Why is the member list disabled? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [August 2, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191 "2007-08-02T21:52:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/1 "2007-08-02T21:52:25Z")
…? ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/2 "2007-08-02T22:15:51Z")
Members only. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/3 "2007-08-02T22:19:01Z")
There’s members, and then there’s _members_. I probably shouldn’t say this, but it depends on how much Single Malt and / or chocolate you’ve sent a certain admin. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/4 "2007-08-02T22:41:14Z")
Aaaaaaand for a serious (if not 100% guaranteed accurate) answer… Probably bandwidth, like just about everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/5 "2007-08-03T01:00:45Z")
[QUOTE=Garfield226] Aaaaaaand for a serious (if not 100% guaranteed accurate) answer… Probably bandwidth, like just about everything else. [/QUOTE] I find that very hard to believe. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/6 "2007-08-03T12:40:17Z")
Not so much band width as server stress. ANYTHING that can be done to make it easier on the server and the system to do the simple tasks that are imperative for the Board to function is done, short of disabling the search function (don’t laugh, I participate on a meassage board where that’s exactly what they have done to avoid having to expend significant money to upgrade servers). :eek: ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/7 "2007-08-03T12:52:05Z")
Wow, that seems such a petty measure to save bandwidth. Like turning off your car stereo to save gas. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/8 "2007-08-03T14:42:57Z")
Somewhere there was a prior question or 3 on this subject. I thought the lack of a list was for privacy reasons. The member list was on briefly when we went live on the new server this year. I cannot locate my thank you thread on it at the time, but there was a brief explanation on why they quickly turned it off at the time. Jim ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-member-list-disabled/414191/9 "2007-08-03T17:09:32Z")
We have kept the member directory turned off for a lot of years now, as it was felt that personal privacy was the issue; we didn’t want the member list to be harvested by spammers, that sort of thing. We also wished to give people privacy; not everyone wants to chat with folks online. This was also our first consideration when we decided not to activate the “Who’s Online” feature; again, to give people privacy. Bandwidth was a secondary issue but we have tended to run as lean as possible to facilitate reading and writing of posts, that’s first on the list.