I know other people have said this in a variety of different ways already, but I think it bears repeating. Posting links to previous threads, cetainly when I do it, is in no way meant as a criticism of the person starting the new thread. It is simply cross-referencing, not only for the benefit of that person, but for future researchers. As Jon Freeman has pointed out, some of us perceive Mudcat as a valuable resource for researchers in the future on a variety of subjects and levels, and this sort of simple cross-referencing of information will be invaluable to them and save them huge amounts of time.

Generally speaking, unless someone makes it flagrantly obvious that they are trying to be rude, it is a good idea to assume no offence was intended.