I have been informed possibly incorrectly that the Thai goverment is intending to change the tourist visa rules next month whereby a foreigner is only allowed to stay within the kingdom for six months total duration in any given year regardless of how many times they go in and out of the country to renew.

Does anyone know anything about this?

I haven't heard anything like this yet.Just might be a gossip.

This question or a variant thereof gets posed here every couple of weeks or so. Sometimes the question revolves around the number of consectutive thirty-day visa-free entries that will be allowed. It's all unsubtantiated rumour at this point but this being Thailand, one never knows what the future may have in store...

i "heard" something like that, too. but then again, nothing official. i also heard that an immigration officer denied that rule, but then again thats also a rumor.

Not an unusual approach to sop "tourists" staying too long.