I don't know Jerry got the idea that copycat threads "push the more interesting threads off the bottom of the page". A thread falls off the page when it hasn't been posted to or refreshed within the last 24 hours. It has nothing to do with how many other threads appear on the screen.

And as for copycat threads being a pain in the ass because of the reasons Susan stated above, I could make the same case for the pain-in-the-assedness of all threads with links to videos or Flash animations. Since I'm on dial-up, a video would have to be extremely compelling before I'd be interested in downloading it. For the minor chuckle most of them provide, it's just not worth it. So, yes, they're a pain in the ass for me. I have to wait a few seconds for the thread to open and sometimes I don't realize it's a video until I've actually clicked on the link and the linked page opens up.

And what about the folks who seemingly don't have the ability to give their threads meaningful titles that might actually give a potential reader a bit of a clue as to what the subject is? Ask me how many times I've opened a cryptically entitled thread to find that it was about something about which I couldn't possibly care less.

But do you hear me bitching about it? No. I just figure it comes with the territory; that having to open an occasional useless-to-me thread is just part of being at this cyber-place. Just like the rest of life, this place is going to be peppered by dead-ends that turn out to be wastes of time, but to expect to be able to identify them in advance is as fruitless as trying to guess which check-out line at the grocery store is going to move the fastest.