Yes, some of the email names seem suspect when someone requests to join. We cannot really tell if it is a real person or not, so we have to give the benefit of the doubt and temporarily approve their membership.
If they don't use their First and Last Name as their "Username" when they sign up, we email them and ask them for it. If they do not reply to that request, then we delete their temporary membership after 10 days.
It is weird because very often the new people that sign up never even log-in to the site after being approved. So, in those instances it must be some spam/trolls etc. And that makes little sense, as the forum here only has relevance, interest and meaning to film collectors.
As Eivind suggests, the recent "surge" in membership was likely 35mm film collectors wanting to see the titles that HM 'Michael' Bentley had posted.....