>Not being a web expert I have no idea what would be involved, but one thing I think would be helpfull is to get the threads collapsed at first and expand the ones I want. That way if there is a is fox dead thread I wouldn't even know how many messages there were.

That was also suggested (by Vinod I think) about the whole category. If the user could save the default state of a category that could be another alternative to Nancy's suggestion.

Personally, I think every thread and message should get an equal shot at light, but I'm aware that people have better things to do then read through all my lame questions :-)