I have to confess that I am surprised and disappointed with the low up-take of membership thus far at creative i world. I've been pondering on why this might be and have a few ideas:

1. The site had a "soft launch". That is, I did not advertise creative i world apart from linking from AbleStable when the site was set live as there are a few relatively minor corrections that are being made to the underlying code and I want to iron these out before promoting the site more widely. For example, the dates that are shown when profiles are updated are sometimes displayed incorrectly. Many problems have already been resolved, and I hope the last of these will be fixed in the next month.

2. People do not want to join a site that only has a few members. Well, those who do join at this early stage can count themselves as pioneering members. There are real advantages to joining early, not least bagging the best name before it gets eaten up. What's more, the sign-up takes no more than five minutes.

3. Potential members do not want to sign-up using their email address. I understand potential members might be concerned about Spam. I am too which is why creative i world requires a double opt-in. That means only the owner of an email address will be able to sign up. This stops Spam dead in its tracks as no one can sign others up. All emails are kept completely out of reach on a secure server environment which is hosted on a premium account, and no one has access to the administrative area at creative i world except me.

4. Trust and skepticism. Visitors want to know why the site exists. What is the owner of the site getting out of it? How do they make money? What's the catch? The site is exists because I have a positive vision of what the Internet and creativity can achieve, and I believe the exchange of creativity and ideas is of profound importance. I do not make a dime from the site and there is not, nor ever will be, advertising that generates revenue. The pay back I hope to receive is the pleasure in providing a significant destination where others share the products of their creative efforts.

I've no doubt creative i world has great potential and with your encouragement and interest I'll continue to provide the means for people to share their creativity freely on a website that remains outside the confines of commercialism.