Dear interested readers,

As you may have seen on our portal page, we only activate new forum members after we’ve briefly met them in person. The sole reason for this is to ensure that each profile corresponds to a real individual—no fake or multiple accounts. This helps us maintain a trustworthy and friendly atmosphere in our group.

I (Hajo) was part of a different forum for ten years before starting this leisure group. In that forum, the main goal was to attract as many members as possible, with little emphasis on how active they were. Unfortunately, this led to a variety of problems. Some users created multiple profiles, so they could simply rejoin under a new name after being removed. We hardly knew most members at all. The feeling of “anonymity” encouraged some people to say or do things they would never do in a face-to-face encounter—like signing up for a meet-up and then failing to show up without letting anyone know. That’s just one of the milder examples.

Since founding our leisure group, we’ve required a brief personal introduction before granting full forum access. The easiest way is to attend one of our regular after-work meetups in downtown Bremen, which take place every other Thursday at 6 p.m. An admin team member will wait outside the venue a few minutes early to greet any “newcomers.” You can introduce yourselves outside and then head in together, which also lets you meet some of the other members in a relaxed setting.

We understand that some people may be hesitant about a personal meet-up. However, because our focus is on shared leisure activities, we want everyone to feel comfortable and be able to rely on one another. While discussions or games in the forum are nice extras, the core of our community is spending time together in person.

Occasionally, it happens that someone comes to a meet-up, instantly connects with a few others, exchanges phone numbers, and decides they don’t really need the forum because they’ve already found new friends. It’s a shame for us, but our main goal is simply to help people connect. If this works without the forum, that’s perfectly fine.

We’ve noticed that this brief personal introduction greatly improves the overall atmosphere in the forum. Everyone knows that fellow members are real people who genuinely want to take part in activities. It also prevents fake profiles or multiple accounts under different names.

How does the introduction process work?

There are two options:

1. Register on our forum first.
   Simply click the “Create a new user account” button and follow the registration process (we’ll soon publish a more detailed guide on this). Afterward, you’ll receive a message from our admin team. We’ll invite you to the next after-work meetup or suggest a short meeting in downtown Bremen, in case you don’t have time on Thursdays or prefer a smaller gathering.
2. Contact us directly (email: team@freizeitgruppe-bremen.de or you can use our contact-page).
   We’ll get back to you promptly and invite you to either the next after-work meetup or a short get-together in Bremen’s city center.

As soon as we’ve met you briefly in person, we’ll activate your profile. You’ll then have full access to our leisure forum—enabling you to sign up for events, connect with others, and even organize your own meetups if you like.

We look forward to meeting you!

Warm regards,

Hajo + Heike (Administrator-Team of Freizeitgruppe-Bremen)