I have a simple question about the format of these forum postings. 
After the usual (space-wasting) header, each thread seems to begin with
a large-type, bold-font, badly formatted rendering of the first 240 (or
so) characters of the original posting, followed immediately by the
whole of the actual original posting in its original form.  For example:

      I have a simple question about the format of these forum postings.
      After the usual (space-wasting) header, each thread seems to begin
      with a large-type, bold-font, badly formatted rendering of the
      first 240 (or so) characters of the orig...

(Which you'd have seen, if my HP-supported Web browser could actually
post something normally on this oh-so-shiny forum system.)

   What purpose is served by the big, bold, short (usually truncated)
introduction, other than to annoy the reader?  These postings are not
being written by skilled newspaper journalists, hence the authors almost
invariably bury the lead, leaving very little of value in those first
240 characters.  (Most couldn't write a useful title to save their
lives, either, but I digress.)  The eye is naturally drawn to the big,
bold text near the top of the posting, but the mind is disappointed in
almost every case, because, having wasted the time to read it, one needs
to scroll down and read it all again, in more complete form (and usually
with better formatting).

   Does anyone find this (too-)brief extract useful?  Useful enough
often enough to justify occupying all that space with so little valuable
content?  If it's a good idea for the original posting, then why not do
the same thing for each of the responses?