[imported_Carl]

i'd like to elaborate on my position. there have been many time over the years that being a member of a failed shard i've gone to the top 200 or 100 looking for a new home. starting at the top of the list i've worked my way down, there is always some shard with a high rating thats down, so i come back in a couple days and its still down. so i read thier forums and find it been down for 3 months hmmmm what would you do? i would move on and not look back.
if you start inviting people to a shard that doesn't exist (yet) one they can't join (yet) well thier gonna move on, just like you or i as a stranger would.
a better stratagy might be to wait till it opens then have the returning faithful flood the boards with votes.