I don't know anyone I'd say is "racing to VIP". I think a few comment on the number of posts left to VIP in a fun manner, and honestly, I think that comes from Heathcliffe's joking about his VIP status. I think it's all humor, I don't think anyone aggressively posts enough to get to 1000 posts! Certainly wasn't my goal, I was just here having fun and there was lots to comment on. Took me and several others to get there in 5 months, which is about the same amount it took Mojo to get there. I don't think the new visitor was racing to VIP, just being a turd and trying to rattle. Though I wondered at times if they were really just a lonely soul ... until the end when it became a nonsensical attack. And the off topics are by and large just part of a community building itself and adding more people. It does make it a huge challenge to catch up, that's for sure. I'm mostly excited when I see a new poster, people coming in who are searching for open conversation and some truth. I am wary of them at first too, but not paranoid about them.
You asked what the differences were from the early threads. This has nothing to do with Heathcliffe joking about his VIP status. It becomes apparent quite quickly those who are posting for the sake of posting.
I didn't identify anyone in my post other than the new visitor who has already attracted enough negative attention in their short stay. I don't feel that it was fair to point to any individuals and so I won't comment on another individual.
I am not necessarily referring to existing VIPs either - in fact many of the "sprinters" seem to burn out and eventually disappear, before hitting their target, as I said in my original post.
I agree that some off-topic posting is beneficial for building the community but this sometimes goes on and on, just filling up the thread. This is frequently the same few posters, usually just 1 or 2. What we don't want is the kind of thing we have tried to escape from in the CD comments. "Hello.my love...., how are you..... have you moved, Where is...., are they here? and so on.). That is not to say that we aren't interested in a fellow Tattler and concerned for their wellbeing and when we suddenly notice that someone seems to have disappeared. There are other threads on Tattle for general Chitchat though and perhaps they could be utilised better for protracted off topic chatter.) So many people are joining us and finding it hard to navigate their way through irrelevant posts and I feel that this discourages our community from growing.
Many of us clocked up posts while we were in lockdown and working from home. I only passed that milestone because I was at home, after around
6 1/2 months posting (although I had been lurking from Thread 1 and posting from Thread 2 I think )
I'm not sure if some people think there are perks or privileges that go hand in hand with VIP - for the record there are not and I would prefer the whole "status" thing to be removed.
I don’t know, but at this point, I wouldn’t put anything past any of them.
Also, it’s just a gossip site at the end of the day. As the moderator said “There’s no hierarchy” 
