[Stephan Whelan]

Wishbone is right - the reason for the 60 second rule is to protect the forum from malicious people. Believe it or not our server is under almost constant attack from people - now a lot of it is what is known as "script kiddies" (14 year olds playing on their computers at home - trying to be a cracker/hacker) however on occasion we get a more serious attempt at hitting the server.

We have several measures in place to protect the server and we (including our hosting company) keeps a close eye on what goes on to spot for signs of intrusion. One of the weakest areas on a site is the scripts (like this forum) where flaws in the software allow people to take advantage.

We implemented the 60 second rule right from the start and it has protected us from several flooding attacks.