Just curious,  why does the number of members fluctuate so much?  I understand that people join and some will drop out, but it seems like it drops more than just people leaving.  One day I noticed that the number of members was over two thousand and the next time I looked it was a couple hundred below that number.

are you looking at the number on the top right of the screen?  If so, that is the number of members Online not the number of members.

Megan, I wonder if what you're looking at is actually the number of members on-line at any given point in time? PBS actually has over 45,000 members! Click on "Community", then scroll down to 'Pulse of PBS' for lots more interesting facts about the membership here!

Happy, Reading,

Claire 

I don't right off know the total member count, but you can go to the "Community" tab at the top of the screen, go to "Pulse of PBS"...

http://www.paperbackswap.com/pulse/index.php

And that'll give you some stats. Even there, the number is just members with profiles.

You mean the Members Online at the top of the page?  I think it changes in small leaps and bounds because it's not "real time", meaning it doesn't just move up by one every time someone signs on, it checks every so often.  If you go to the Community menu at the top and check Pulse of PBS you'll get even more statistics, such as "Members Logged in Today: 10,476".  Considering it's only 2:43pm eastern, that's a lot of people on and off, and I don't think can begrudge the counter for dropping a paltry few hundred.

edited to add: Claire, that's only 45,000 members with profiles, I'm not sure there's a way to find out how many members there are without.

James,

Thanks for that reminder! I tend to forget that not everyone has a public profile!

Claire

Yes, I was looking at the number on the top of the screen.  I didn't realize that that only meant members who were online.  Thank you to everyone who answered my question.

Wow! Didn't realize there were that many actual members.  Can you imagine if we were all on-line at that same time!  Talk about a major slow down especially for us dial up users.

Many members just trade books and nothing else.  They only come on when they have an email telling them they have a WL offer or a book request to handle.  I think everyone should be required to set up at least a minimal profile and a nickname so they can be found if needed w/a book mixup or something.   

The number online always seems to be around 1200-1600.  But it seems to be mostly the same small percentage using the message boards.  Half those people are probably only on to process a transaction or look up books.  Plus many people read the message boards but never participate.