I have been doing nothing but acquiring information for the last 2 months.
Just to reiterate wk's point using your own posts:
Newby question. I've been mining with Eligius for a month now. How come it went from a 3-1/2 day payout, fairly consistently, to now a 5-1/2 day payout? Is that just the luck of the pool for now or is there another explanation. I noticed it happened around the time of this last difficulty increase.
And since we theoretically have the same amount of miners hashing away, makes no sense that it should take now 2-1/2 days longer?
It's not "completely out of line" to point out that if you missed how difficulty increases will affect earnings which will of course certainly affect payout frequency assuming payout amount remains constant, then wk is right. You haven't been very diligent in your research. The bold part of your posts above illustrate that very plainly.
Everyone does have to start somewhere. There's nothing wrong with not knowing.
But accusing someone of somehow "stealing" from you when you're largely ignorant of what's going on isn't very wise.