Ok, hear me out first before you say no to this. Its a fact that many sites have bloated membership numbers. Yes, they joined...but when was the last time they came back to the site? Someone who hasn't visited a site in 6+ months isn't a member...just a statistic. Yes it looks good when you have a big member database. Many of the older unactive accounts however don't even have legitimate emails anymore.

What I'm suggesting is an automated way that Eve would send out a custom message to members who haven't been to the site in X months that basically states their account will be closed for maintenance purposes due to inactivity. If they wish to keep the account open because they have just been busy etc. then all they need to do is login in the next few days, otherwise the account will be deleted one week from the date of the email. If they decide to come back to the site later then they can easily sign up again. Any bounced messages would obviously not be received so those accounts would automagically get removed as well.

I just think it best to have a lean community that is actively participating in the subject at hand. Many users will return because they have just forgotten about the site for one reason or another. Others have no interest because they were initially just looking for some info and/or no longer are interested in the subject.