I don't know who posted about searching the archives of 40,000 posts, but I know I had kinda the same reaction to some of the insinuations earlier in the past week's maelstrom. Yes, on the surface the yahoo archives can be very handy at times, but there are plenty of huge obstacles to reading them, and to actually finding what you need if you do. I'm able to read these posts in my email while being offline. However, if I go to the archives I have to stay online for very long periods of time, which I can't do for several reasons. The posts take forever to come up (yeah, sorry, I don't have the latest fastest computer), and when they do it can be nearly impossible to follow the threads even if they are what I might need. For instance, a bunch of the posts entitled "Lemony Snicket" and "And then There were None" mostly had nothing to do with either of those titles. When I suggested earlier mentioning states in the subject, I wasn't trying to be smart or elitist or lazy or make some edict that everyone has to follow. But I sure do thank the people who do think it's a helpful idea, because that's all I hoped for.. to be helpful. One other reason it is practical is that lots of states have landmarks with similar or identical names and I have often been mistaken about what state was being mentioned. Peace Valley Park. Licking Run. The Falls Trail. Letterboxing mysteries are awesome, but that doesn't seem the right kind of mystery, because it is not intended to be a mystery. If someone is trying to be informative, why turn it into a mystery?

All I know is that if I'm going to search archives of 40,000 messages and can't stay online long to do it (and I imagine plenty of others have this dilemma), I'd like to make it a somewhat worthwhile activity precisely so I and everyone else can go out and get exercise and do real searches rather than cyber ones. I spent eons one day before I joined this list trying to figure out what the original thing about "April Fools" was, so I could understand all the subsequent posts. I never was able to find it and had to give up. I still wish I knew what it was, if anyone wants to enlighten me. Sure, I'm very curious and tenacious and will search and search like many others, especially if it has to do with searching for actual clues. And I read FAQs diligently. But if it's useless and non-productive, and I have 4 others to share this machine with and a telephone as well, forget it. All those ancient posts is more than I can deal with. Some, yes... 40,000, no. The question of whether to include examples of carving on the LbNA site is a similar one to me. If it's so easy to click on a link to some other website that has some samples, but at the same time we all admit that carving is at the very core of letterboxing, why not just simply have some on the site? It's not as if it's exactly more mysterious, just because we make newbies click on some links to find some samples instead of having some there on the best-known Lb site. The site should have all parts of the core letterboxing stuff, then send people on from there to the less crucial parts and to all the other lovely links. Otherwise newbies are just always going to wonder why sample stamps are missing, when it's such an excellent site. Also, we will continue to get repeated questions (starting more wars) about where to find samples. The simple fact is that people who don't surf much don't always take notice of links or may worry about clicking on them. Don't get me wrong, I do love the mystery though and agree that there are boxes for everyone. Heck, I agree with Mark... let's just get out there and box. Thanks to all who have been creative and are trying some new solutions. --lunaryakketyact

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]