As a last note (I read this ENTIRE THREAD, good heavens!), I think the whole value of message boards over email lists IS their archives. It's the ability of people in 2006 to join a conversation with their thoughts, that began in 2002, regardless of whether half the people in the early part of the thread are now gone.

Message boards don't assume everybody is talking to the initial poster, they exist so that people can share their thoughts "with others" in general, and often on the topic "in general".

Any thread that stimulates conversation is a good thread for an active forum. Forums where everyone has to be polite, and avoid threads that are contentious, tend to have a lot less discussion on them... and much of that discussion lost is good discussion.

I've always said, since I began on the internet in the early 90's, that the best thing someone could provide me on a forum was a flame of some sort; the opportunity to explain and educate then avails itself. (Aside from which, then, the more reasonable you are, the more they look like a jerk. haha)

The thread is so long in size and time because it's a question most of us have asked ourselves at some point, and because many of the responses on the thread have been reasonable, insightful, and sometimes heartbreaking sharing from locals. I don't think folks should try to kill it. I just think it would be nice if people read the end of a real long thread rather than only the beginning, since it is rare that any thread over a few pages, is still on the precise subject at the end as it was in the beginning. (This may be one of the few threads that kind-of is!)
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