Hi Paul.
To keep one's membership live, all we ask is that folk visit the forum at least once every few months or so. As administrators, if we see that a member has not visited us for a period of 6 months, then we delete that membership until that member reapplies to join us. All past comments from that member remain in place but upon rejoining us those comments do not re-attribute themselves to that member.

Visiting the forum in itself, shows that membership is still live. Folk do not necessarily have to post anything. If you click on "Members" at the bottom of the page, you'll see that each member has the "number of posts" and "the last date visited" listed against their name.

Probably what has happened in your case Paul is although you've never logged out of the forum, the connection is broken automatically by the server a short time after your visit, until you next come online. It shouldn't be necessary to physically log out and log in on your visits.

Many other folk don't log in and out daily, myself included and as an example, there are only 7 members listed as being on line as I type this. Your name is not one of them as according to the members list you left the forum at 5:29pm this evening.

Randa

It's a matter of personal preference, but I opt to log in and out every time I visit and leave the forum even though this is several times per day.

That way, if my name appears in the 'who is online' list at the bottom of the page then you can tell if I am currently active - unless, as occasionally happens, I forget to log off when using my smartphone.