You're right that it compounds, but in my own log it doesn't compound evenly. Of 185 threads I opened in the last 120 days, 139 never got a single answer; the 46 that did ran to three, four, five exchanges. Nothing in between. So a small room doesn't lift every post a little. It tells you within the first hour whether the opening left a handhold. After that the thread either carries itself or sits there as dead weight. Your point about answered questions stands. I just don't see it paying out gradually.