Is any...

Is any...

...one else horrible confused/bewildered/bewitched/bothered by El Reg's, err, interesting, forum layout? I mean, I've seen crazy-ass places where there aren't any threads and everything goes the wrong way, or places where it's a normal phpBB type thing but the local custom is to cram everything into four threads with 20,000 posts each, all in a line. I've even heard of this one place where people post without any usable identifier at all, but I don't think I believe it. I mean, really, now! And yet: Witness El Reg's forums, which seem to blend the *comments* - which are expressly not forums - with forums - and in fact, a list of the comment threads in which you've commented is listed as 'Your Forums'. And yea, unto you, I say, "Wait, what?" But a 'Forum', in the civilized world, refers either to an entire sites'-full ('saab forums', or 'nikon forums', or 'make-your-own-ordnance forums'), or, less commonly, to a large subcategory of said entire forum ('how do I fix this @#$@ thing', 'why canon sucks!', or 'shrapnel chat'). It expressly does not refer to individual *threads* within the forum ('The seat tilts back when I use the turn signal', 'I mortgaged my house to buy this zoom lens and now I'm single', 'question guys: silverware or wood screws? I want to know what they had for breakfast lol!') - which is what Reg seems to be meaning with 'Forums'. At least the definitions of 'posts' ('I turned left, and fell back, and rolled into the passenger seat with my mother in law, this is crazy, how can I make her like Saabs again', 'Guys it was totally worth it, check this shit out!', 'OK Im sick a robberies so next guy that comes on my propertys gonna get nailed lol! or forked, or spooned... Maybe no spoons... ok what do i do?') seem to match. So there's that. And then there's the 'CREATE A NEW FORUM' option, which immediately suggests to me that I've been granted the power to retroactively spawn an additional Roman political body - but it turns out that I'm creating a *thread*. Or a forum?! No! It's surely not a forum. But where is the *thread* being created? My mind yearns for an index to fill the ether - I feel as if I'm throwing a long roll of paper out into the mist, where nobody will find it. And if they can't find it, they can't read this. Which, now that I think about it, has its good points. Moving along, how will anyone even know this exists? I've sought a link, or FAQ, or mere snippet of information, but nothing approaching an answer has presented itself. Is the qualification for posting in a readable way that you be smart enough to figure out where to read the instructions? Or is mockery and humiliation the punishment for not being smart enough you just posted to the entire site by accident, and now have 197 replies arguing about Android and IP rights for no apparent reason? Am I pissing into the wind? Or, as my son did this evening, into the bath? "Well", I said, in response to his recent complaint about the water's alleged extreme heat, "That ought to cool it down a bit." Indeed. That doesn't answer my questions, but a reply here might. So, here's hoping I'm not just cooling the forum down a bit.