If one uses Window's time sharing, (Cyrix?, where one machine with software is shared by dozens of remote terminals) one ends up with an ungodly number of typos in one's post - it is almost enough to make one suspect a keystroke recovery program is running as well, or to suspect outright sabotage of one's posts, but then that certainly would not happen here now, would it?

Ed,

I'd like to get a better handle on "typos"; could you point me to messages where this has occurred? I looked around the Space board, and found several posts timestamped after your message here, and saw very few typos at all. The only message I could find timestamped earlier was a couple of days ago (which led me whimsically to wonder if you possess a time machine!).

In the meantime, some general thoughts:

If typos are being deliberately introduced into your posts it's because some foreign element (something I didn't build into the user interface) is intruding. Logically something like a keystroke-logging Trojan Horse could do it (a malfunctioning Trojan Horse, since they don't want to draw attention to themselves). Or, in a time sharing environment, it may be a timing problem that's causing characters to be dropped or garbled at your end if the system's under heavy load. Transmission errors are possible, too. Since you're using IE, a copy of your post will be saved on the clipboard by default, which would let you compare what you typed at your end (after pasting it into Notepad or a similar text program) against what appears on the HabitableZone.

Keystroke-logging is only a possibility, and will have to be investigated at your end. I can only assure you that I've built nothing remotely like that into the user interface, nor do I even see how the UI could be perverted to be used for that nefarious purpose. Similarly, nothing in the software running on the server is designed to introduce typos; my goal has been the opposite, of course, high fidelity recording of messages.

I still don't know why you abandoned the earlier system, as it worked quite well - technical exercise?

The earlier system was good as far as it went, but it couldn't go any farther. The new software has let me add a few new features, and will make it easier to add features in the future. Also, it performs better (or, I should say in light of the problems discussed below on this board, it's intended to) and will let me run many more discussion forums on my server. A final reason has to do with conformance with standards. The new system stores messages in an internationally-blessed standard format called XML, which will allow interchange of messages with other systems.

In closing, thanks for allowing me to continue to confront the Mars Nuts with certain uncomfortable truths -

I won't bite on that one. I neither let you, nor forbid you, from participating here; and your participation does not imply (or deny) any endorsement on my part.