Am I right in thinking we won't get our actual coins till next month?

That is actually not the worst idea.
I would most definetely not go for a year though. A few extra months at most.
I'll talk the the rest about it.

Knee jerk ideas, which have been done in other alternates and had negative results, are neither welcomed from veterans or newbies.  Especially if it got shot down 3 times before, mentioning it a 4th time is rather pointless.

Actually it is a bad idea from a legality point of view.  UP went through a lot of effort to make sure NEM wasn't a security IPO.  Now you are trying to make it into an expiring gift card.

Granted an illegal gift card is not as bad as an illegal security but in many countries gift cards cannot expire or lose value anymore, which this proposition is exactly.   You are theoretically opening yourself up to a lawsuit down the road where someone could take you to court over this NEM 'gift card' and this is a predictable court ruling.  Common law is based on past precedent ruling and prior judges have ruled that you can't revoke gift cards.

Dont worry, the launch will be squeaky clean and the so- called Nemsters that didnt bother to claim will have nothing. Thats the way of the world guys .Maybe if some of you guys had been around more on the forums and contributed to discussions more over the last 9 months rather than the last 9 days then you would be listened to more.........on second thoughts , probably not as the comments dont make sense.

Wise comment from Wiser!!!!

I think the core team has to set a specific date for when all ideas on how to handle the unclaimed stakes have to be put on the table. After that date the core team will either have to:

(1) Put up a public vote (although this will enable anyone to vote not just the stake holders) with the most popular (and viable) suggestions (you have to be able to vote for more than one thing for it to be democratic though, or you have to only have two options).

(2) Decide themselfves what is best for the entire community and NEM itself. If we go with this path I think it's really important that the final decision is extremely well motivated.

Either one of these two options is fine for me but I think it's important to give clear statement and that we all have a straight path to follow. It's not good if we just let this discussion go on forever. We need someone to make final decisions, if that is the team or the community I don't know, but someone has to do it and it has to go fast!

I choked up from laughter   

Apologies @ Kodtycoon if i new you were on the A list of Marketers-volunteers i would not have accused you of sounding like a banker.

Does any one have the link to when the original discussion regarding unclaimed stakes took place.
There is a considerable amount of info to sift through before i conclude to invest more or not.

The one thing the niggles me is the staggering amount of unclaimed stakes. I tend to think these belong to Chinese accounts. It was decided by the owners of nem that i month was it so i suppose thats it then.

A major irritant is what happens to those stakes now that we know the scale of the problem.
Is this open for discussion or has it been decided behind closed doors.
What i am trying to say is. The owners already have a reasonable amount of stakes for there work and on going work. They also have the sockpuppet stakes and all these unclaimed stakes coming.

Imagine offering a new shito coin to a community and saying " there maybe a pre mine of around
30/40/50 % or so but dont fret it will all be used to make shito coin fantastic" Dont think there would be a long line of eager investors.

This sounds more appealing

Completely Fair Distribution - Equal Shares for ALL
No arbitrary distribution. Decentralized. The most egalitarian coin. Show your love to NEM.

There is no blame for this situation and Nemsters should be proud of the success achieved to date.
But it may appear to some that the lions share of wealth seems to be centralized.

Well whats done is done, i guess its stakeholders responsibility too to check NEM forum and this thread for some information from time to time.