Treewind, I think your suggestion is a good one. I don't often use the paged format because I don't read from the main threads page and that's the only place the link exists. I use "Messages Since Last Visit." I also don't want to load the first page if I've been following the thread.

I don't believe any features of Mudcat design yet exist to force people to do what someone thinks they ought to do. It's designed so people can access threads as easily as possible.

It also doesn't matter if people read threads from start to finish because they still post according to their own personal agendas. There's also no guarantee that people will read the thread and be able to figure out what the topic is, let alone stick to it.