CompuServe Messages

Anne…about thread creep… I'm on the other side of the thread creep issue…I agree that it costs a little and results in an occasional meaningless DL and perhaps here where the message traffic is slow it could even work for the sysops to change headers. In the Motorcycle section of the Racing forum we about went nuts trying to keep up with threads if the sysops changed headers. What happens is this…a thread creeps; 30 interested forum members have it downloaded and start to reply to four different "creepy" messages. A sysop move the third and fourth of these thinking the time has come to "fix" thread creep. Of the 30 incoming replies, 15 hit the first or second message and stay in the original thread, and 15 appear under the new header. That's not all, because next, 30 more members come along who download the whole board and half of them want to say something to the first 15 above replies. They then post under the original header, but they have also gotten the second header and have something to say there as well. Before you know it, there are twin threads running and half the members are tearing their hair out trying to decide which creepy thread to post in next. Some solve their dilemma by posting in BOTH to make sure noone misses what they want to share and…voila…you now have DOUBLE the message traffic and nothing more being said than in the original thread. Stepping off soap box and segue to the topic… FWIW, I am quite interested in archeology (a passion since 4th grade) but have no formal background beyond a little geology. My currrent and it looks like probably lifetime obsession now is opals. This possibility of dino embryos is fascinating, and yeah I tend mostly to lurk lately while I am trying to harness my new diamond wheel lapidary unit. -Russ