I suffered uselessly, through all the hyperbole, misinformation and opinionation of a thread here, just so I could set everyone straight!

Not really sure what you have in mind Steve, but if you don't want to waste time reading closed threads then look at the icon next to the topic in the index. If it's closed it will show a padlock. You will also see a "closed" icon in place of the usual "reply" button. But if people would take a moment to refresh themselves on DVinfo policy then it would save everyone a lot of trouble: http://www.dvinfo.net/network/policy.php

The topics are media and the tools of media. Please stay on topic! DVinfo.Net Community discussions will remain focused on DV and many other types of media; as well as the general categories of media production and consumption. Comments, statements, remarks, etc. about religion, politics, race, sex, gender, lifestyle and other obviously sensitive topics are strictly prohibited and will be removed without delay or explanation.

I've done that before too. You want to add your 2 cents and you get to the end. THREAD CLOSED. Sometimes I think they get closed to soon. But I've also seen some of these threads really get nasty. So probably it is a good idea.