Speaking for myself, I know my contribution #s (across all the wikis I've joined, not just here) are artificially inflated because I've learned to "save early, save often" to avoid losing content when I screw something up. Especially when I'm working in tables, I save my work repeatedly, with the consequence of having what is really one contribution being counted maybe six or seven times.

That's just a flaw inherent to the system, so like all numeric stats, you have to take it with a grain of salt. Fortunately, on wikis and other true community sites, the numbers aren't what's really important -- the community at large comes to know which members are making substantial, quality contributions.

This is why the Top Contributors cloud takes both total contribs and recent contribs into account -- you can "blitz" your way in with post-spreeing, but you'll have to keep at it if you want to hold your spot. It's also why on a member's profile page you can see their contribs broken down by page edits and by threads.

It's almost impossible to tell whether someone is actually post-spreeing, or if they're just overcautious savers (on page edits, like me) or just chatty (in discussion threads). The bottom line really is, what are they really CONTRIBUTING to the site? Is it positive and constructive?

I still "believe" in the Top Contributors cloud -- a few rogues may come and go, but over time, on most sites the faces you see there are in fact the site's most engaged and active members.

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While on EasyEdit screen, the alignment/spacing looks different than after you save. The "vertical spacing" isn't too good on wetpaint.

I have a friend on the lost wiki (imalostie) that was accused of post spreeing, and I thought, "nah, she couldn't have done that". But, after I checked her contributions, I realized that she would make about 4-5 edits on the same page within 1-2 minutes.

When I comfronted the user, she totally explained herself, and I understood completely. The story is: She just started wetpaint, after hearing there was a LOST Fansite that you can not only view, but add to. She was interested, but was kinda off on her own. She did not know that you could edit more than one thing in a single edit. Now I didn't buy this story, thinking "well how could other people add hundreds of words, huh?!" And she genuinely did not know what to do at all.

Since then, I've offered to kind of hold her hand through the whole wetpaint process, and she's learned a lot. She now only edits pages like twice in a row, maybe, and adds many valuable comments.

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