Vikings: Excuse me, I didn't know it was forbidden.

Mélusine: no worries, it's just that usually leads to flame wars, and it's been good here for quite a while, knock on wood

Vikings: Ah yes, I see. But a board too quiet doesn't interest people. I don't want to strike the match, I just say something true.

Mélusine: I love the way you put things! That's why it's impossible to get mad at you. You make me smile. BTW, I think I've been behind that moral dilemma you speak of (more than once).

Here's another thought on having so many games that you time out. I know there are some players that jump in any tourney posted. Some tourneys have limited participants and when one joins, and then times out, they may as well not played at all. And they used up a slot someone else otherwise might have wanted. So for me, as a rule of thumb, if you are timing out in your games, play fewer games. Also, if you are committed to playing over 500 games, be sure you move many times a day out of courtesy to other players. One person dragging out a tourney is bad form and ought to be avoided.

But that's just me thinking out loud on the subject.

Artful Dodger & others: From my experience, playing 500 games and staying ahead of things takes about 4-8 hours playing time a day. Every day.
Of course that depends a bit on how much you think about each move, but it doesn't get much faster than that.
I have managed to play 1400 games for a month or two, but it took its toll on my work live, and I got a yellow card from my wife. So now I'm working to get it down to less than 250, which will be nicely doable in the evening hours.

I think there should be a limit for everybody (no matter what membership level), for example to not be able to have more than 500 games running, until you have more than 400 running for a month without timeouts, etc. If you can handle, the limit goes up. If you time out, the limit goes down again.

But maybe it just takes a grown-up mind to control yourself. And a lot of players are not grown up, and behave like a kid in the candy store. We all know how that ends...