I think maybe because long term posters don't want to look through the whole thread again and find the relevant pages with regards to whatever is being asked at the time is why the general 'read through the whole thread' reply is used. It's down to the people who want the information to go and find it for themselves! I agree that the thread is getting very long indeed, however it is the same stuff again and again and I admire the people who do bother to take the time to reply to people asking the same stuff over and over even if it is just a quick 'read the whole thread'. In a few weeks time someone will ask for information about the stages and someone else will post 'There is a post somewhere in this thread where someone has outlined in 3 sentences what is required of you to do'. Your post itself will get caught up way down the line where people won't be able to find it without really looking...without, maybe, reading through the whole thread...and some people will find it useful to do that.
I believe that there is simply too much information that can be missed by not reading it all and picking out the relevant stuff - even maybe just by skim reading it, sifting out the stuff you don't need. And maybe the bigger point is that if you don't have the time to be reading a post whilst revising for the stages, then what are you doing wasting time on a message board in the first place?!
Did you get through stage 3?....I haven't read back through the posts for a long time!!
