I've got into the habit now of opening mudcat in 3 or more windows right from the beginning - I use the third one for tracing threads or looking at messages since last visit, and sometimes open a fourth one for chat. The first two I alternate between, so while a thread is opening in the first window, I click on the next one I want to look at in the second window, then while it is opening, I go back to the first one, and so on. It saves a lot of time when mudcat is slow.