Because you obviously got caught unawares by the odd convention we have here at Fairfield Life of limiting the number of posts anyone can make to 50 per week, I thought I'd explain -- for your benefit and for that of any other newbies, lurkers, or people who have forgotten WHY they were established.
Back in the "Bad Old Days," a few posters at FFL tended to get...uh...carried away with regard to the sheer number of posts that they made to the forum. It was not uncommon for these individuals to make hundreds of posts a week, effectively "drowning out" other posters and using volume and quantity to replace quality. I and others got tired of it, especially after the need to wade through literally thousands of posts per month began to drive many people off of the forum. As I pointed out in a post about the month of October, 2006: > Total posts: 4672 > > shempmcgurk -- 541 (11.6% of total posts made) > sparaig -- 533 (11.4%) > authfriend -- 482 (10.3%) > new.morning -- 265 (5.7%) > off_world_beings -- 253 (5.4%) > turquoiseb -- 218 (4.7%) > > Again, the "top three" account for a third > of all posts. And again, they'll take no > notice of this. So far in November, they > account for 47% of all posts made. As you can see, I was one of the offenders myself, although my numbers were not much higher than the current 50 per week. So in his infinite wisdom, Saint Rick Archer created the Posting Limits, which initially limited us to 35 per week, and then were expanded to 50. And at first even they didn't solve the problem, because a few of the people listed above continued to violate the new guidelines, going over the limit each week, until Saint Rick finally put some "teeth" into the rule by declaring, "If thou overposteth, thou shalt sit silent on the Overposters Bench for a week whilst the rest of us haveth all the fun." And it's been a resounding success. The Posting Limits are "fair and balanced" in that everyone is limited to the same number. No one can get so carried away in trying to "win" an argument over mere opinion or "get" their "enemies" and use sheer numbers to accom- plish either of these questionable goals. Yes, it's somewhat silly, and wouldn't be necessary if everyone here was an adult, and thus had some sense of balance in their lives. But the Posting Limits clearly ARE still necessary, as evidenced by the fact that at least one of the posters on the above list made 40 posts in two days this past week. In the Bad Old Days, if she had been allowed to continue at that rate, we would have had to wade through 140 of her posts this past week. As it is, she has had to resort lately to "concatenating" her posts at the end of each week, squishing replies to several different posts into one, hoping beyond hope that someone -- anyone -- will actually read them, and that she'll be able to get the "last word" in. Saint Rick be praised. His wisdom hath made this cybersaloon a much nicer place, one in which most of us have no problem squeezing everything we want to say into 50 or fewer posts per week. Those who don't have the self-discipline to do this wind up being largely silent and frustrated at the end of each "Posting Week," and I for one don't feel sorry for them, especially when they seem to do this to them- selves week after week after week.
