So, now that everyone's had there little bit of comment - and invariably came to the same conclusion that these type of threads always do (which is that people have different preferences), there's really no point in going on and on. These type of threads have existed since the begining of newsgroup life as we know it. And regardless of any responses whatsoever that squeker may get - he has already accomplished the goal that ALL of us probably want. By simply bringing up the subject he has probably ensured that dozens of new threads aren't created, and people will simply think twice before a new thread. For those that wish to start new threads - nothing the moderator is going to do is going to persuade you otherwise, so it's not like we need to debate that concept itself in another thread.
So, at this point, I'd say this thread has already accomplished it's goal of making people more aware of the search function (which is NEVER a bad thing).
Just my two cents.