New members do receive a Welcome email when we accept their application and they are invited to introduce themselves in the "Welcome to our forum" thread. Not one ever has. 
I never got one. 
Are you sure it works? Might explain a lot. . . .
Serious answer .....
Being one of the "originals" you wouldn't have received a "welcome" email. That was something we introduced a couple of years ago in an attempt to overcome the lack of posts from new members.
As for whether it works in getting them to post ...... obviously not.
Admin check each attempt to sign up (you'd be surprised how many are in Russia) and if they look genuine simply click on the "accept with email" button ~ we are not omnipresent and cannot see what arrives with them nor can we see their reaction unless they post.
A great many people who join do so under specially created email accounts with the likes of Google Mail, Hotmail etc rather than their normal email address and I suspect they never go back to the inbox so our welcome is never read.
Some forums refuse all applications to join from anyone who uses Yahoo Mail, Google Mail, Hotmail etc as they know that many who create email accounts with these free providers are simply signing up with every forum they come across and then never contribute or they use it to get in and then start spamming or trolling like crazy, safe in the knowledge that they are all but untraceable. BM and I did discuss putting in place a similar policy but decided against it as we felt it could possible prevent some worthwhile people from joining us.
Some who do join are known to us from elsewhere, either personally or from other forums and arrive by personal invitation. In those cases we simply click the "Accept" button.
Hope that explains matters to everyone.
