I've been getting letters about letters. The public editor regularly receives complaints from readers who say they can't get their letters to the editor published in The News & Observer. What's the secret code, they ask, that allows you to have your letter printed in The People's Forum, as the letters page is called?

"I'm just trying to find out who picks what articles go into the People's Forum because I send a lot and they seem like they never get in there," said reader John Bartimac of Raleigh. "But then again, I walk straight, I don't lean to the left. Maybe that's my problem. Maybe I should get my left leg shorter than my right leg."

"I mistakenly assumed that The People's Forum published opposing viewpoints when both were submitted on a given issue," wrote reader Mary Williford of Cary, who submitted a response to letters published in The People's Forum. "I expect a good, balanced newspaper to publish both sides of an issue. Is that asking too much?"

Lynnie Sullivan of Holly Springs saw several letters printed in response to an editorial, but not hers. "Therefore, I conclude that my opinion was unworthy of timely display, and I wondered why. ... How are opinions determined to be not ready for prime time?"

Fair questions, all. I'll introduce you to the paper's opinion gatekeeper in a moment, to let him supply answers. But first a little background on The People's Forum. The N&O last year received more than 14,000 letters to the editor, and 3,400 were published. Maybe you'll be as surprised as I am to learn that those numbers are up from about 6,300 in 1995, with 2,700 published. The Forum is on pace to set a new record this year. And those numbers don't count the separate communications published each week in the Q section and sports section, which may add another 15 a week.

The letters are some of the best reading in the paper -- informative, well-reasoned, often clever, sometimes provocative. Those who have followed the stream of letters launched by Russell Capps' Sept. 17 letter suggesting that Hurricane Katrina was God's visitation upon New Orleans for its sinful ways can testify to that. (In case you missed it: "Will we come to realize that the groanings of the earth are God's reminders of His calling of mankind to return to Him through repentance before it is eternally too late?")

Steve Ford, The N&O's editorial page editor, attributes the surge in letters since the mid-1990s in part to the growth of e-mail, which allows readers to respond quickly to an article or editorial. But the growth also is fed, he says, by the letters themselves, which usually make grade-A reading. "I think publishing high-quality letters breeds high-quality letter submissions," he said.

Charged with the task of sorting through this ever-growing cascade of reader polemic is Allen Torrey, who wears the dual hats of People's Forum editor and op-ed editor. I'll let him tell you, from an e-mail to me, how he makes the selections:

"In general, I try to give the highest priorities to letters from people who believe they have been wronged by the paper, either in a news story or opinion piece; letters that disagree with our editorials; letters that comment directly on recent articles in the paper; and letters that are short and bright, no matter their subject or view. Letters that take the form of essays or are on the long side or comment on, for example, TV shows or magazine articles rank low on the priority scale and have a hard time seeing print."

Other kinds of letters that don't make it: anonymous or form letters, copies of letters to a third party, letters that are part of an obviously orchestrated campaign on behalf of a political candidate or cause. Writers are limited to one published letter every 30 days. The normal length limit is 250 words. See the note on the page next door for instructions on how to submit a letter.

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