...

Whether *I* respond to a post or not has got nothing

to do with whoever posted it, but with the content of the post; whether it's said something that I want to respond to.<<

I have already had this pointed out to me and I have now considered it. I have also explained how this has never happened elsewhere, which is why I got it wrong here. I didn't want to bring stats into this, simply because I loathe stats - they can be manipulated or quoted(as in this case)to highlight just one point of many, however; as the stats have been mentioned a few times now, I feel I have to in my own defense, state, that I belong to a list that generates on average 3,000 posts a month, I have belonged to it pretty much since its inception and I can guarantee you that no newcomer has ever been left unnoticed, either through a plethora of other posts or simply because their posts weren't interesting enough to warrant a response - they were at least welcomed and I myself have made a point of answering their initial posts just to help them settle in. I'm really beginning to wish that this was one of those posts that got lost in the multitudes - I'm beginning to dread, opening up my mailbox and seeing 'Was it something I said :-)' in the posts. I hope this doesn't come across as harsh - not my intention - I'm just a tad weary of saying the same thing.