All,
I don't feel too different than the thoughts below but I do have a few opinions:

1. I am in favor of burn-in games for newbies. A method I have seen work before is say that a newbie can only start with one game or two and must play in those "newbie-only" games until they become a "standard" player. My opinion is that we should have "standard" games where all players have proven themselves and thus have a lower likelihood of dropping out. Hey, NMR's happen BUT standard-only games may create more serious games with less disruption.

2. I agree that GM encouragement could help. I should know; I am probably the worst of us in that regard [sending reminders, etc.]. The hard thing to remember is that we are all also playing games simultaneously AND balancing real-life with our slave, er, volunteer duty as GM's. But we do it for the love of the game.

3. To me, the NMR's are the most concerning. A lack of communication, although bad, usually leads to that player being eliminated anyway and the good players take advantage of it. Plus, as seasoned players, we probably should go out of our way to do more communicating. As a side note, I had never played variants before coming to this site. While they are fun, I find that the prospect of soooo many players in some variants also hinders communication when compared to standard games.

4. Maybe a way to increase the quality of players is to offer a mentoring type of program? If a new player has questions about strategy or specific tactics/moves, there is a pot of people available to email with those questions. We obviously can't help with "should I attack so and so" or "do you think I can trust them" because those are opinion questions. BUT, we could answer a question like "I am considering a stab like X. What would be the implications?" or "I have to retreat or retreat OTB. Should I retreat OTB?". I am just thinking that there are still a lot of questions where an advisory panel [in confidence] could help a newbie evaluate their options [not make the decision] and give them pros/cons of certain actions.

Just some thoughts. I have long since shifted all of my play to this site and I want to make it succeed as well. I think we have a great core group and can only get better as we find a smooth on-boarding/grooming for more enthusiasts.

garry