There are two reasons why it's important to log you out automatically when you're not actively using the connection.

FIRST: Whenever you are logged in, we have resources dedicated to your connection. If you're not using the connection, then you may be preventing someone else from getting something they need or at the very least slowing down other people's response. The web site is running with limited resources, so we need to keep things as clean as possible.

 SECOND: Everyone does not log on from a private computer. Some people log on through public access in a variety of locations or from a shared computer that other people have access to. If a shared or public computer is inadvertantly left connected to the site after you have logged in, then someone may be able to compromise your identity. Since we have no way to tell whether a computer is shared or not, we set a time limit on how long a session can be idle. While nothing critical is associated with your name at this point, as we add member-only services in the future, there is a possibility for compromise of information you may want to keep private.

At a later time, if our membership expands and we can afford to get dedicated services, then we'll be able to let people stay logged in longer, but there will always be a timeout to prevent compromise of your account, particularly as we add new services,