Mousetrap: Well if he were to ever sell, i would think the current memberships would be part of the sell. So currently a black rook is worth 5 years of rook membership - so if you think you will still be playing of the site in 5 years, then it is a good deal.

MadMonkey: The only problem with that is lets say i'm going to take a 5 day vacation - ponds are about the only non-vacation games I will play. Plus I always try to join 4 day+ ponds. Which if I move on day one of a pond, then the last day of the next move - it is really 8 days (giving me enough time for vacations). If the ponds started to automatically go when all moves done, then some sort of vacation would then need to be applied to the ponds also. (in my opinion)