I'll just back up Bob here by saying that he's correct in every detail, and will amplify further by providing the explanation I was given when I first asked about this.
What it comes down to, in the end, is the fundamental difference in providing the energy to the strings by using a bow or by using a plectrum or fingers. The plectrum and/or fingers provide that energy in essentially staccato bursts every time they strike the strings, but with a bow the energy delivery is much more continuous. Bowing is actually a considerably more efficient way to deliver that energy, or so I've been told. In any event, soundposts work with the continuous energy provided by a bow, but don't work with the staccato attack of a pick or fingers.
Hope that makes sense.
Wade Hampton Miller
PS I have heard some fretted instruments that had soundposts in them: a couple of dulcimers and a mandolin. They were abject failures as musical instruments in each case, though one eager dulcimer-builder who trying to sell me a soundpost-equipped dulcimer kept telling me: "You're just playing it wrong!" Naturally, when I handed it back to him to show me where I was screwing up and how my technique might be improved, he couldn't do any better.
No sale....
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