Did you care about your post count?
Interview questions:
In your early days, did you care about your own post count and user title? Did you check them regularly? Did you hope to move up in the rankings or user titles? How has that attitude changed over time?
My comments:
Some top posters say that they've never cared about their post count (despite my efforts to make it a constant source of attention.) Others note that the avatar milestone (500 posts) was an important goal for them. Earning an avatar was once a rare achievement, whereas these days there are about 1000 members with avatars.
Climbing the ranks of user titles has given some members satisfaction. arn has never revealed the numbers of posts required for the higher user titles, and members have had to discover them as other members reached them. When a member has a paid membership, their special title (e.g., macrumors Demi-God) replaces their user title, so you can't tell what title they'd otherwise have except by comparing their post count to those of other members). The "macrumors 604" user title was first revealed when wdlove's membership expired.
In the earlier years of the forums, post counts were displayed next to posts, but that was found to encourage spamming to reach post count levels. User titles may still have that effect, but to a much smaller degree.
Note: For those who didn't notice it, jsw was using an automated signature as mad jew approached and became the #1 poster. The signature predicted when the big moment would happen and mad jew would pass Mr. Anderson. mad jew mentions it in his interview answers below.
Interview answers:
Backtothemac:
[Care about post count?] No. [Check post count regularly?] Yes, I did. [Did you hope to move up?] It developed into that. It isn't important any longer. I realized that just being here was the most important thing.
bousozoku:
I couldn't have cared less about my post count, other than being able to upload screenshots to illustrate a point here and there and that wasn't available right away. Most of the time, I didn't notice the number at all. I was quite shocked to find myself within the top 10.
Doctor Q:
I've always enjoyed following the numbers and titles, for me and for everyone else. I was more interested in determining the cutoff values for each title through observation (watching when other members changed) than in reaching any particular rank myself. Back then, the cutoffs for "68040" and "601" weren't known, but I figured them out with a program I wrote that regularly checked user titles for members nearing a suspected cutoff point. I was actually sorry to lose my processor title when I became a moderator, and to learn from arn the actual cutoffs, because it spoiled my project. Of course I continue to track the ranks for my Top Posters Extrapolated threads.
edesignuk:
I, like everyone else wanted that avatar. As soon as that past it mattered less. Now of course I don't care at all!
eyelikeart:
I didn't really care about how much I had, but it was always whenever a new user title was coming up. In my early days, jefhatfield used to "cheer" me on & there would be bets as to what the next title would be.
jelloshotsrule:
[Care about post count?] Not really. I mean, there was a bit of thought about when I could put up an avatar, but I didn't even have one waiting or anything, I just saw/see it as an identifying device and I could always tell who was who from it. [Check post count regularly?] I checked it occasionally, but haven't checked it in a good long while.
jsw:
Early on, I knew I wanted an avatar, simply because I thought it'd make it easier for people to recognize my posts. I recall trying to be very careful with each post to make sure it didn't come across as spamming. Since then, though, I haven't really cared where I was ranked. I notice on occasion, especially during the "Top 50 Posters" threads, but otherwise don't really care.
mad jew:
[Care about post count?] I did before I reached 6502. [Check post count regularly?] Only via jsw's sig. Now I don't really. It seems like I reach some sort of milestone every few months, but that's not why I come here.
mkrishnan:
I never really cared about that. I guess, now, I'm just embarrassed about it, because I feel like it's an indicator of an Internet addiction. I liked getting a "title" the first time, though. That's about it. Some really good advice comes from relatively new MR members, and some of the members with high post counts aren't necessarily helpful (although most of them are fun!). So I try not to judge, don't want to be judged, and try to ignore any status symbol aspect.
Mr. Anderson:
At first I didn't even know post count got you a tar. Then as I became more active. When I got close to getting a tar I kept track - because i had some ideas on what I wanted to do that hadn't been done before. After that it didn't really matter. Eventually
eyelikeart started getting closer and closer and we talked about me passing him, etc. Once I became a Demi-god, titles didn't matter - there weren't any options then either and only a few Demis anyway. I've always said that I've never been concerned about post count and that's mostly true. Your stats every 6 months make me more aware of them - especially since arn removed post count from under the member names and tars. And now it's not important at all - if it did matter I'd have tried to hold off
mad jew for the lead a little longer.

Rower_CPU:
Sure, everybody who sticks around wants to get an avatar to express themselves a bit more, and back then there were very few users who actually had one. It was fun watching people like Mr. Anderson move up and get new user titles and hit HUGE post numbers like 5,000 (an amazing feat at the time). I had fun moving up through the ranks to my peak at 3rd/4th (not sure which), but it was never a goal to be number 1 or anything - I hope that most of my posts were on the quality end of the spectrum rather than the quantity end.
shadowfax:
Yeah, definitely. I remember being rather disappointed when that "Geek Sex Thread" that Janey ("übergeek" at the time as I recall) started ended up in the Wasteland, where posts do not count towards your total count. I think I was always interested in my status until I became a Demi-God... it wasn't too long after that that I lost a lot of interest in post count.
~Shard~:
[Care about post count?] Absolutely. At first I didn't care, as I was simply asking questions and the like, but once I became more involved in the community, I wanted to be more and more active and to this end, move up the ranks. The first milestone was receiving my avatar, and from there, becoming a 601! Over time though, even if posting rates have increased, I've cared less and less about the actual post counts. It's not a competition for me, and in the end, it is what it is. If I post a lot, fine, if I don't, fine - I'm just going to be as active as I normally would be, and I'm fine with whatever the outcome is from a post count perspective. And plus, when you get to this level, it honestly doesn't matter anymore, does it?

vniow:
I only cared until I reached 500 for avatar privileges. After that it wasn't such a big deal, the other major milestone after that was when I reached four digits but it wasn't the same as 500. After that I didn't really care where I was on the list.
wdlove:
Yes, I checked my post count regularly.