This is so true. I frequent a wide variety of online communities and the same can be said of any of them. Any increase in the rate of new posts always leads to

This is so true. I frequent a wide variety of online communities and the same can be said of any of them. Any increase in the rate of new posts always leads to a degradation in post quality until 'stream rate' is reached and people are posting without the expectation of their posts even being read. Maintaining a healthy post rate is crucial but, as you say, quality also needs to be enforced by some form of moderation with unambiguous rules. Evolutions of a community can be tied strongly to post-rate fluctuations over time and most long term users are well aware of these iterations. On forums, large communities can be splintered for the benefit of quality and discussion.