The comment about people being able to view but not comment because they haven't joined the board is very likely. When I've done searches about quilting topics in a search engine(Google etc) links to posts on this board are almost always in the Search results. I'm not sure if clicking on the link that leads to a posting on this board goes into the count, but it seems logical that it would. "Only the Webmaster Knows". I will say if I'm in the pictures area and a posting has pages of comments, I know anything I would say has already been said-so unless I'm just bowled over by the project I don't respond-I definitely do if there haven't been many responses. Unless the Thumper principal is involved ( if you can't say something nice...) not everything appeals to everyone-that's reality. What we can do is keep quilting-because we all have like minded quilters and I'm very grateful for that!