I'm not a regular, but I'll take the liberty anyway. I'm only doing this for fun, mind you, and because I've become quite attached to this forum. The forum manager can confirm or refute anything mentioned.
While trying to find out what the "Show" button was meant to show, I entered various things, then settled on the number 1. I thereby discovered that it was meant to show messages by numbers from the inception of the forum. As I checked out the early messages, I concluded that:
1. Message #1 was too unmentionable to retain.
2. Message #2 started a thread that lasted 5 years! and would have gone on into the 22nd century if not abruptly cut off by NWC support.
3. Another message had its next reply 2 YEARS later, and it started somehting like "and while we're still on fermatas"
4. NWC support often mumbled questions to itself.
5. Fred, Graham, and Marsu must be very ancient, faithful people :-).
It's my understanding that the phenomena you describe are rather typical of forums, and the like. Once in a while, while searching for information on something-or-other, the search engine leads me to a user forum for whatsit-software, and the result is similar.
I think it also shows how long Noteworthy Software are prepared to make old fora available. This is a two edged sword, as questions often become irrelevent as technology changes - and this IS software, after all!
And Fred, Graham, and Marsu ARE very ancient, faithful people. Well, ancient in the wise sense, anyway. :-)
A
btw: By Graham, I think you (we) meant Barry!
A
And of course, no mention of The Ancient Ones would be complete without Andrew and Richard... ;-)
Fred
Hmmph
A rare visit to the Forum & I find I'm an ancient one!
LOL
Rich.