Why? Why do you even bother to check?

This is my first post in prob. about 6 months (I DIDN'T bother checking). I look in from time to time and post from time to time. If someone hasn't posted in 2 to 3 years, chances are they're not coming back. But 3 months is way to short (in my opinion). Personally, I find the birthday function in a BDSM forum - or in just about any forum for that matter - relatively useless. And, unless some poor soul has to go through the DB of names by hand regularly, or the list of poss nick's is running short, I have to ask again: why?