I attribute a good portion of the early success of this site due to those email notifications. Many boards don't take the time to customize the default settings for new users, and the default settings don't subscribe people to threads they've posted in, and don't email those people about their subscribed threads.
With those settings as the default here, once people start posting at all they are immediately given feedback to return as people respond to their posts, and it builds on itself. For very frequent posters, it can get a little intrusive and that's why the settings are configurable and anyone can choose whichever preference they like. And if they're frequent posters, they may not need that little kick to come back anyway. But the vast majority of ninjette.org users keep things at the default setting, which allows for the most encouragement to
waste time come back and post often.
