I think you are getting Archives and Posts per Page confused..
How many Posts per Page do you have set in Admin ->Blog Settings ->General. ?

The number of posts shown per page can be adjusted, however pagination allows the viewer to move to the next page of posts without having to load one extremely long page of content.
That is not archiving, just flexibility.

Archives are just that, a lists of posts archived by whatever you select, month etc etc and is accesses by ?disp=arcdir

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, I understand what you said about posts, but that is not what I was referring to.

No matter what time period you set the archives to, posts get archived and no longer appear in the main part of the blog. You have to go into archives to see them.

But I want to make a directory, where the all posts are actually directory entries. The posts have to stay visible in the main blog area. They can't disappear into archives after whatever time period is set.

I need to find a way to either prevent all of my posts from being archived.

harmonyjim wrote:

No matter what time period you set the archives to, posts get archived and no longer appear in the main part of the blog. You have to go into archives to see them.

No, they work exactly the way John told you

¥

My apologies for my faulty perception of archiving.

I went to one of showcased blogs to confirm I was wrong. :)