Good evening,
I should now apologize to the list.
The post count drop wasn't due to nebulous "server issues". The admins were just providing me cover, and I'm tired of them taking the heat.
Over the last few days, I surreptitiously installed a predictive post engine that calculates the qualitative value of each post, working under the trade name "QUalitative Electronically Engineered Fulfillment". If a post provided little logic or used more than one emoticon, the post count was only moved a fractional amount. If a post was exceptionally well-written and mentioned the educational level of the poster, or how a poster's teacher or professor vetted the content of the post, then the post was assigned a leverage score of 1.1 to 7.0. General suck-up posts to the admins were assigned a value of 12, hence Tider 27's rapid rise in post count.
I've removed the engine from the website, returning its status to the constitutionally-mandated, "one man, one post."
Had I known the volume of hot air resulting from my QUalitative Electronically Engineered Fulfillment, I would have never introduced it to the list.
I so, so, apologize. Can you find it in your feart to forgive me?
RTR,
Tim