JohnInKansas....brilliant analysis! ;-) You have pretty well covered it, I think.

There is one more thing that happens, though. Some people are attracted to the longer, more serious posts...such as yours...and read them carefully while skipping over or barely glancing at a whole bunch of shorter posts. That happened to me on this thread when I saw your post.

Nevertheless, you have caught the essence of what tends most often to happen on Mudcat threads, and this is one reason why the wording of a thread title is quite crucial. With good wording in the title, a thread may go far. Without good wording in the title it may die an early and undeserved death.