It's over three years since Stewart asked, but this is indeed the longest-running thread, and always has been. I don't understand the math of all this, but somehow threads 1, 2, and 3 are more recent than this one, the immortal Thread #4 - which, coincidentally or not, begins with Message #4, which is the very first message in the very first thread.
There are no messages 1, 2, and 3.

14 years, hey? It's been a pretty good run. Let's hope for many more years. I was going to say that we should run at least until Max gets old and grey....but I think I noticed when I saw him a few weeks ago, that Max was already getting a bit of grey hair.

-Joe-