In my experience, this qualifies as an extra long downtime- that is, by the front door. But since we can come in by means of an alternate door, I don't see what the problem is. I understand that in using this entrance it is easy to forget to sign one's name- hey, I forget most of the time- and we don't have access to PMs and the Chatroom but we are in and communicating. In the past, I went through acute withdrawal pangs, obsessively checking to see if maybe, just maybe it had come back. Now I am sanguine.

I truly do think that those of us who cannot live with the Cat's vagaries should think of opening and maintaining their own forum. I would check it out routinely- as I do the Annexe- and I think a lot of us would.