Thad: I actually agree - I think that once a person starts a pond, they should be allowed to complete it even if their membership turns to a pawn. I seem to remember that Fencer also was thinking of changing that at some point...... but my memory is not the best, so I could be mistaken.

But for the history of the ponds on this site - they were introduced as a "premium" for paid members. That is as pawns, they were able to play all the same games as paid members - so for the first (more than 2 player) game, it was introduced as something special for the paid members.... as I understand it.