I am just a few days short of my one year anniversary. What this qualifies me as, well, that is up to you. In my humble opinion, the post counter is a tool that needs to be used in certain situations. I am able to check the board every few days, but sometimes have to go a month or so between logging on, due to work taking up much of my free time.
I have on occasion, logged in to find a new name, with an old "join date". This could be one of two senerios.
1. This member for whatever reason, was and is a respected member of the community, and in considering a trade with such person, I would do less snooping to ensure they are on the up and up. They just haven't been able to log in for quite a while, hence, the name is new to me.
2. I have come across a couple members in the B/S/T forum that have early join dates, however, have contributed very little to the board. Whether they read more, post less, or they joined long ago, but want to jump in with a pass or sale of premium sticks without knowing board etiquite, the post counter helps me gauge how deep to investigate before agreeing to the deal.
I understand that there is much post padding that occurs, and that the number in it self does not make one trustworthy, but I find it valuable nonetheless.
I even use it so far as to know if the member is just an attention whore. i.e tick tock with 2000 post in two months.
Oh, and I wouldn't say that I read more, post less with my low post count after a year, but sincerely wish that others would follow my way of thinking, and not shoot off with their dribble from the mouth because they have been here for a total of 40 days, 39 days more than the new guy. emoticon to draw attention to me ----------> :whistling: