I just tried to go onto POOP and post a reply to the Military Service thread but it said that "only users granted special privelages may post to this forum". Since when has that been in effect? I don't think it's a result of my getting three strikes there, either--I've never posted there before. If this is a mistake, can one of the mods enable me?

Actually, it has to be Wile E; but if you send her a note asking to be activated in POOP, she'll probably do so fairly quickly.

As for why, well, it was thought that it would be easier to keep things down there reasonably orderly if we made folks go through the formality of asking. Less chance of drive-by trolling that way.

No, do not send Wile E a note. You have to click on the link for POOP Usergroup under the POOP forum and then request to join. I check the requests every so often and will add you. Unless you are a new user who had never posted or a new user who has only one post to their name. The reason for this is as Weremensh said, to keep out people who join just to troll.