Oz, you are an ordinal chap, a temperament trait that undoubtedly is a requirement for being a stamp collector. How many people went to Duesseldorf; How quickly over a hundred responded to the “Queen” thread (mentioned at least twice, see “take it easy folks”); how many times that you had dinner with Randy (I know only once, but you’ve name-dropped so many times it seems like more).

Numerology is just one way to approach the universe. Is the quality of a topic singularly based on the number of responses? Is the success of an event wholly dependent on the number of participants? Living in a glass house perhaps I shouldn’t throw stones, but if 100 people banter back and forth on, say, “how to clean a snake’s teeth”, does that thread automatically have more intrinsic value than if only 40 people participate in, say, “how to survive a hotel fire”?

Here’s the meat: I’m pretty laissez-faire, and I’ve never made any kind of suggestion on Board structure. But I think that it would be best if the number of posts were not shown or even tracked. I can see the point of designating new, journeyman (journeyperson), and veteran members since this may impact how you approach someone in a response. However, IMHO, cutting out post body counts will reduce posting for posting's sake.

Hey, I threw myself a tongue-in-cheek on-line party when I hit 100 posts. So clearly I’m not above the cult of numbers. I’d just prefer that folks write for the joy of writing and for the spirit of community and leave numbers to bean counters (apologies to any flying bean counters).

BTW, the “Queen” thread was pretty funny.




[This message has been edited by Jailer (edited 11-25-2000).]