Well, I've been wondering recently. The 5-days exclusion rule is supposed to keep the game from becoming a 2-players one. And it works for that. But it does not keep the game from becoming a 3-persons one: lately, except for one correct answer by Blackwing, James, you and I were the only ones in three weeks. A five day limit may be excessive, since it does not make a difference between the last person to answer and the one before. But what about a three days limit for the question after the one after the one a player has asked? ThusSPetty wrote:(...) Perhaps I should self impose the 5 day limit even when it wasn't just me. I just noticed how many of the last ones were my guesses.
A asks , B answers.
B asks, A cannot answer for 5 days.
- if C answers, the first three days after C asks a new question, neither B nor A can answer; then for 2 more days, A can, but not yet B.
- if after 5 days, A answers, then of course A can never answer her/his own question and only the old rule applies, B has to wait 5 days from the time A posts a new question.
This would be simpler than counting how long since one own's question one has to wait, which is not important if a lot of different players are involved: such a rule would slow down the game uselessly. But it would give three days to other players to break a three-players game as it has turned recently (we could make it four days instead of three, but there should still be some amount of time where A can answer C's question but B cannot).
Do we add this 3-days exclusion for the questio after the question after?
Which means in the present case that I would have to wait three days after you ask your question, (of course your answer is correct though the etiquette is to wait for James to confirm) but there would still be two more days for me to answer before James can. I will self-impose it to me this time. (Only three days! Beware! unless there is a concensus to make it four. I really think it should not be five, that would contradict the entire idea of the five-days rule itself.)
Edit: Ahem.... it took me so long to write this that James has confirmed in the meantime, and this post changed the page, to boot... You can post a new one any time, Suzette!
I'm kind of tempted to post a useless hint, like, "it's not from the Sharing Knife series." At least, I don't recall any spasms in the SK series. 
I suppose an expansion is in order:
But I'm going to wait a little bit more for some fourth party to join us.
The first one is a little familiar, but I'm not placing it at the moment. (However, I definitely have a waiting period, so I'll just check back in a few days. ) 