I appreciate where you're coming from Alf but this board is not a democracy where each and every user gets a say in every decision. In fact, there are very few (if any) message boards that subscribe to that method of operation. No decision would ever be arrived at if that were the case and in the meantime, mayhem would rule. This board was in that very situation once upon a time and almost resulted in the demise of it completely. We are very fortunate that the board admin has allowed the group as a whole (at least those willing to participate) in some of the decisions that were made but it cannot be an ongoing thing each and every time a decision must be made. The rules are here for the good of all users. Those who cannot abide by them do not last long. In fact, most are given a fairly long leash before they are removed for good.
The creators of this thread are frustrated, annoyed and fed up with the redundancy of threads posted by new users who cannot seem to find the time to read board rules, those who join to post fake threads because they had an idea and felt like it would be a good idea and those who join solely to troll the regular board members ie: fans of other teams. You haven't been here during a playoff run...it would curl your hair to see the stuff they drag in here to our board.This board does it's best to be proactive instead of reactive and have a huge mess to clean up when users such as those referenced choose to run amok. This board has been there, done that, seen the damage done and doesn't want to go back there again.
I am a member of other boards with the minimum post count limit and it does work as it stops those who join solely to troll or make an incendiary post and lets them think on it awhile. The downside is, those intent on causing havoc will spam their way up thread creation level just to do so. That is also a problem. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Regarding the insulting behavior toward you - the report button is there for a reason and if you feel that the personal attack rule has been violated against you, use it. If you feel the trolling rule is being broken, use the report button. The moderators cannot be everywhere 24/7 so unless you report such behavior, they won't know about it or be able to deal with it.
There are plenty of people here who do not fit into 'politically correct' circles...that's what keeps the board interesting. And every user here gets consideration.
Let me give you an example of trolling - I was reading Sinead O'Connor's page last night. She is unwell, having some mental health issues. There are people posting on her page asking if she's committed suicide yet.......asking how her kids are knowing she's involved with custody issues regarding her youngest son.....openly acknowledging that their only reason to be there is to troll her as a source of amusement for themselves. People telling her to get on with it and stop wasting people's time.......calling her names....people posting with the sole purpose to torture her, hurt her, get their jabs in from behind a keyboard, things they would never say to her face. Thousands of redundant posts all saying the same thing
THAT does not happen here because there are rules against trolling, rules against personal attacks, rules against redundancy, rules against posting fake information about the team. That is why this board runs as well as it does....because of users who are respectful and understand that the rules are here for them as much as they are for those who abuse them..... and because of an admin and moderators who allow users the freedom to express an opinion about minimum post counts in a forum created specifically for them to do so.
The posited reason for a limited post count prior to creating a thread has nothing to do with deeming a thread worthy or not..the threads that are in question are those in violation of existing board rules ie: spamming, trolling, or starting redundant threads.