Actually Mac, sometime before your arrival here, we had a classification for thread creep not unsimilar to yours.

Thread Drift..A natural occuring situation where other subjectsrelating to, but not specific to, the original post.

Thread Creep, Phase I..Postings begin to wander off the original topic and into areas of personal interest.

Thread Creep, Phase II..Several members are talking about the original subject while others are talking about the "Creep" subject.

Thread Creep, Phase III..Some are taliking on the original subject while two or more other groups are talking about "Creep" subjects.

Thread Blown All To Hell..Several groups are rambling on about a variety of things, none of which are in the slightest way related to the original posting.

Thread Hyperzap..Occurs when someone (like myself) is triggered by the original or subsequent postings into a train of thought that results in a post completely "out of the blue" and has nothing that anyone can see to do with anything. This generally slows the progress of the thread until someone retrieves the ball from deep left field.

Sybill Creep..A strange form of thread creep that happens when someone alludes to someone or something on another thread that may be running. I have seen this phenomenom happen generally in Phase II or Phase III which helps the Creep to move on to the next phase more quickly.

Spaw