I wanted to shed a little bit of light on this part of it, if I may. Normally, when a thread is started that is extremely similar to another-it is common practice by the moderator of the area to either merge the two threads together, or to close one of them, and direct the posters to the thread that is left open. This basically keeps the place neat and tidy, and easy to navigate.

This is so you don't end up with 3 Slim Fast threads, and 2 Volumetrics chat threads, and so forth.

The second thread was started just about a year ago, in Feb. 2006. There are a few of you who know my situation at the time, but for those of you who do not, I'll give a brief rundown. :)

My husband got a new job about a year and a few months ago, and we were involved in a company overseen relocation. The company basically had my husband leave our home, and stay in the city where his new job was. I was in our old city (we were hours away from each other) with our two small children. The company basically had us house hunting halfway across the state, while I was trying to sell our old home, take care of the kids, and all of the other relocation things...it was a REAL pain. Because the company was doing it-we had numerous home inspections, showings of the home we were trying to sell, weekend trips to the new city looking for a new home-and everything went through a third party relocation company...and my husband and I were separated for over 4 months.

During that time, I also discovered that on one of my husband's short visits home to see us...I unexpectedly became pregnant. :^: I found out on Christmas. During the first couple months there were some issues...along with everything else that was going on, and I was on bedrest for a short period as well. We ended up closing on both homes, staying in a hotel for a short period of time, switching all of my doctors/medical things etc., and moving in February. The time that the second chat thread began.

Normally I am here most days...but during that particular time, I was only here a few days a month temporarily, due to the circumstances. I didn't get to merge the threads together when they first happened...and as new people came along, they either joined one or the other.

It has been a REALLY busy and stressful year for me-I had to start work again from scratch, and my son was even born a month early. The last two months I have really been able to dig back in and start doing some things that I have been meaning to do...such as update Sticky threads, recipe sections, and other things in the areas that I moderate. It is a lot of work, especially since 3FC has grown so much this year!

So, in a nutshell, that is why two threads developed the way that they did...

:)

Aphil that is quite a story. Wow, how well you have perservered under such difficult circumstances. And a baby to boot!!! Very cool.

There is really absolutely no need to defend yourself and the 2 separate threads. It's really, really, really not that big a deal. Not at all. Don't worry about it even a little bit. I feel badly that you feel badly. You absolutely should not. I mean think about for a sec - okay, is it really that important? No, of course not. I really and truly think you have enough on your plate without worrying about 2 threads on the calorie counters forum. Don't give it another thought. Thanks for all you do to keep 3FC up and running. It is greatly appreciated.

I think it would be confusing to merge the two. The one I read already flies by so fast that it's a pain to go back and read everything that's posted sometimes, but I want to make sure I'm keeping up on everyone and not missing anyone's questions or comments for me.

I've never looked at the "doin in the old fashioned way" thread. Ever. I knew that it was another chat thread about calorie counting, and I knew that I've never seen a "last posted to" name appear that I've ever recognized.

For me, it's just a matter of "too much to read" if merged.

But it won't kill me either way. I probably just won't read/post as much to save time.