"It's probably narcissistic of me, but I get the feeling this thread is directed toward me -- the person new to cycling and new to cycling bulletin boards."

Nah, Christine, it's probably at me; an old cyclist, relatively old hand on the net...heck, just old ;-)

"I agree that proper organization of threads is essential to a user-friendly board."

Here was my thinking hapahazard, creative, unconventional, dissorganised, coloring outside the lines as it oten is:

Why do we buy new bikes?

1) they're beautiful (see thread "can you have too many bikes?")
2)all things being equal (my legs vs yours) with a better bike I can dust you (see race threads)
3) specific ride or need (see "ode to commuter bikes")
4) because the bike is worn out (see "uprade vs new" thread)
5) crashed/broken (endo threads)
5) sometimes because some &^%$ peice of &^% has stollen your bike. couldnt' find a thread just jumped in 'cause I'm really just missing my bike, shopping, can I make my beater mountain bike suitable to commute on etc? Will it be a mountain bike after...etc. Sorry for any confusion I have caused.

"To that end, I made a mental note (before posting) that the posts I was responding to regarding stolen bikes were recent (they were posted this month)."

And I'll read everything on the board find the most current/applicable before saying word one and not go off the "properly marked trail" as it were

"As for playing nice . . . I was attacked by someone else who wouldn't play nice. Prior to that, I thought all I did was join (an admittedly off-topic) dialogue on stolen bikes. I've apologized in the earlier thread, and I apologize again. It was wrong of me to respond to rude comments in kind, but I honestly don't see how my initially joining an existing conversation was itself poor netiquette."

Apology accepted as is I hope mine. I think women apologize too much (see self defense thread in "other sports" section) but may be needed in this instance ;-)

Bet it's in the "netiquette" link (great link!) humor, sarcasm, warmth, kidding vs serious, all these things that make us like each other don't come off at all on the net. Always good to use lots of emoticons and explain stuff. Friendly folks can sound harsh without meaning too easily, up to this time I've found this group very friendly. Hope that continues with or without me.

TREK420 (soon probably renamed Mondonico)