>I have not used the Universal Thread before. If I disconnect and log back on say tommorrow, will I then get everything I missed from the time I logged off till the time I logged back in? or do I just get the current days messages or what?!

Welcome, Steve,

In addition to what John and Vlad said, note the 'Recover my last session' checkbox under your name/password on the Entry page. If you click that, then you will see all the messages that were visible at your last entry PLUS any new ones. If you leave it blank, you will see ONLY the new ones. This is useful if you log on briefly, answer a couple of messages and then log off. All the 'new' messages from that logon will still be available next time.

HTH
Barbara