Oh yeah, I forgot, everyone wants a quickie graduation to expert status. Explains why so many newbies want to argue with the experienced people round here.

Actually, I think the OP in the other thread was a stooge, a patsy, set up to create this sort of discussion and to allow the mods to wade in yet again with their perspectives (all of which I respect -- well, almost all).

Significant, I think, is that the active membership is hovering in the very, very, very low 16,000 range, and threatened to drop into the 15,000 range in the past week except for an odd surge of 50 or so new members. That has dropped active membership down to less than 12% of total. A worrying trend for the owners...