Removing older and unactive members...

[Rubber314Chicken]

exactly. theres onlt 42k members overall. one forum i go on has over 750k members, then theres guests. it runs fine.
stats are quite important. if i see a site with few members i dont tend to stick around much. thats also the reason why its hard to make a new forum work.

I'm sure that the admin also has the income to afford a server that can handle the performance. CF doesn't have that server.

 

[dude_se]

its upto david how he makes his money. a lot of sites have several ads and premium options, etc.
anyway i dont think keeping a few extra members is exactly going to cost much.

 

[setishock]

The database can get bloated over time but the member part of it is just a fraction of it.
As for pruning the members base we have been over this time and time again. David likes to keep the numbers up for appearances. Large member and post/thread numbers makes it look good to search bots, ranking, and to those looking for a forum to be a part of.
The short answer from David has always been no.