archives question

[urghiggi]

No: HPFGUIDX 78626

Since it seems like every other post lately starts with an apology (e.g. "sorry if 
this has been discussed before, I tried to find, info, REALLY"), and copious 
offers to iron one's own hands, I thought I'd throw this question out for the 
moderators/elves. 

Once you've read all the faqs, taken a look at the files section, read the 
humongous bigfile thoroughly, and used the (IMHO) woefully inadequate 
"search" function in the messages index -- where else are you supposed to 
look to see old threads? The "search" function is not that useful -- and I know 
yahoo gives groups a limited amount of archiving space. With the volume of 
HPfGU, this has got to be exceeded frequently, causing old messages to be 
dropped from the easily searchable group.

Is it necessary to go join all the separate archives groups (looks like there are 
2 live ones now and one in the works for future archives) to see older posts? 

Case in point -- I wanted to get my mind around this whole Severus = Perseus 
discussion, but a search of the currently available messages was not very 
helpful, and certainly didn't point me efficiently to the originator of the 
anagram idea, or any threads that followed. I think most of us want to be 
responsible list members (and we want to avoid being -- horrors -- boring), but 
the available tools make it tough to do this.

Suggestions?

urghiggi, Chicago