Pete thanks for going to the trouble of typing that up.
May I offer a suggestion for you so you do not encounter that dreaded "Timed out" feature a lot of us have also encountered. Compose your message, if it is going to be lengthy in word or notepad first, and then you can just copy and paste it into the message box without having to rush through your message. Benefit of doing it in word is their is a spell checker as well, which notepad does not offer. Just something I do if I don't want to lose all I have written.
One other way is to highlight your message just prior to actually posting it and do ctrl+c to copy it to your clipboard. Or right click in the message area, then click on select all and then click on copy in case it goes poof. Then all you have to do is hit reply and paste your message in the new window if you have lost everything you just wrote.