"They have a strong tendency to use the number of vistors, the number of merchants, the volume of sales, number of posts and pictures, and such as sales points." Here's an interesting little equation to think about: Traffic=Money (Advertising dollars, marketplace purchases, etc.) Memberships=Money (the higher the membership number that can be claimed, the more cash one can demand for advertising in all it's many forms) Freestuff=Traffic+Memberships(people come here to find this gargantuan list of freebies and have to become members to download anything) Known Characters in Freestuff = tons of freestuff traffic/memberships If there is even a grain of question in anyone's mind as to why this has been a "relaxed" subject for so long, just consider the equation above. Judging from the swiftness of the actions seen in the last few days, I'd bet there is a lot more to this behind the scenes than anyone is willing to admit. I don't think it's just coincidence that this came about right around the same time as the Paypal debacle. Granted, it would be pulling teeth to get anyone here to give specifics on anything, because specifics would let the users and merchants here actually know what was really going on, and if people know what's really going on it becomes difficult to convince them of what you want them to think is going on. The corporate line being resounded here is that whole "we're enforcing something that's been in place" shpeel, but it doesn't answer the very interesting questions of why so rude about it and why such an abrupt ramp up on the issue? Of course, I don't expect an actual, meaningful answer to these questions. That would require specifics which we've all been shown already we are not going to recieve. -Les