"A few times I have suggested that we take a day or two in which nobody who has posted in the last two weeks can contribute anything. Only new voices. My suggestion never met with enthusiasm."
I think it would be an interesting experiment on either lbo or pen-l. Neither list would suffer all that much even if there were absolute silence for say two days out of every 6 weeks. I think the technology exists for enforcing it even, though I'm not sure whether it would cost additional fees or something.
Carrol