Empty and Disused Covens

This may be a really daft question, but why are there groups (not yet reached coven status) that still accept applications despite their priestess and priest no longer being members of this site, or that have not been online for over twelve months?
If an application cannot be accepted till you have been approved by the priestess and priest surely it is impossible to join one of the smaller groups (not yet reaching coven status) till their priestess and priest return to the site.

That is not completely true, groups/covens both have the same settings, they have the ability to make their coven open so anyone is accepted upon request or they could do an application process, or they can prohibit even applications by closing the application process. Some groups have their group open to new members, where they are automatically accepted in the coven without sending an application.

There is an option to auto-accept applications. Aside from Black Cross, most of the major covens are auto-accepting applications. There is another setting that closes and opens the ability to put in an application. Being that the coven leaders who are inactive most likely weren't planning on being inactive, their coven settings would have been set to allow applications.

But I am not talking about auto accepting covens, I am talking about the groups that have not yet reached coven status, that specifically state that if they are not accepted by the priestess or priest then your application will not be accepted.

Those are people who didn't plan on being inactive that ended up so anyway.

Most people who spend any kind of real time on this website don't plan to be inactive for more than a week at the most. Most leaders, during a vacation time, will inform their members and their co-leader or council will temporarily take over (if this is a council member, they will go through applications, but will not see their status change).

Should unforeseen things happen, coven leaders go inactive. We are people too, after all, and we do have lives outside of the net. My co-leader, Conviction, is one of those leaders that had to step away due to real life making an online presence difficult. My coven founder is also one of the leaders that randomly went inactive for months; this was due to a real life injury.

Assuming that people plan everything that goes on in their lives when they take a position in an online coven is a bit much; especially when many of the current leaders are adults. This means we have to work for a living. When you consider that a fair number of us are (in our own ways) the priests and priestesses for our deities, spirits, etc, or otherwise have a healthy spiritual practice that takes up time. Even more so when you consider the various incidents and accidents that can happen when one is actually living their lives.

I'd consider it more curious if a leader never went inactive without warning even once. Not even the most active members can claim that.

I feel I am coming across wrong with my query, what I mean to say is that, some of the groups have no members, and both the priest and priestess of the coven are no longer on the website. If you have to contact either the priest, priestess or the person they have passed leadership onto, but none of them are members of the site anymore, how are you meant to be able to join even if they are still accepting members.

I understand that everyone is human, I am not questioning that I was just curious about the process of accepting members if no leaders are members of the site to accept the application.

There are two settings in terms of accepting membership. The first is to allow people to apply in the first place and the second is whether or not a coven wants the applications automatically accepted or manually accepted or rejected.

Covens like Practical Witches where there is no membership is simply due to there no longer being membership. There wasn't any messing with the settings, so applications are allowed and have to manually be accepted or rejected. In order for anyone to do anything with those applications, someone needs to apply to take over the coven provided that they are able to apply to take them over and Petrarca approves.

Thank you so much, that is all I needed to know. I have spent years wondering about the accepting applications process for empty covens, this answers it.

Hello, I've joined the coven "Natural Magick" with the intent that someone was going to guide me through the process of casting a spell so to say, but I haven't heard from anyone in the coven since I've joined. I recently emailed the priest and I hope to hear back from someone soon because I don't know what to do it's been over a month or so.