Well i can certainly understand things being too busy in RL. I've definitely cut back on the amount of time i spend in-game in the last year as well. I've tried to stay as active as possible, even though it's often only to throw some stuff into the holdings, or to see if anyone's up for promotion. But not everyone has made the time to log in regularly.
I admit that i've been putting off the roster cleanup. I intended to do it shortly after the fleet mail went out, but i just never felt that i had the time. I'm now planning to get it done by this weekend.
As per the original announcement, all members, including senior officers will be demoted if they exceed the inactive period, with one exception...
Baha and myself, the fleet commandants, will always remain at that rank, regardless of any other factors, and we will always be the only ones at that rank. This is for the security and stability/peace of mind of the entire fleet. It's a lesson we learned the hard way, and we believe that this policy ensures the stability of the fleet by eliminating the potential for a dramatic power struggle, like what happened before.
As for kicking inactive members, we can do that to a certain extent, but i'll need to discuss it more with mark and baha. To start with, i think we can certainly kick any Enlisted that haven't logged in in a year, and probably Lieutenants too. I'm referring to their true rank though, as defined by role and contribution level. I mention that because there are some members that held higher ranks that have already been reduced to Lieutenant. There are certain members that are friends of ours that we may also decide not to kick, but we'll decide on a threshold for kicking regular members that are inactive for extended periods.
So as i said, my plan is to clean up the roster this week/weekend. I'll also post an invitation to the fleet as the MOTD on the fed side. Callu you can certainly recruit people as soon as you like. I'll continue to keep up on promotions, and i'll try to start spending more time on my klingon, and try to encourage the other senior officers to do the same..
Qapla'