Sky...

Do you usually view the posts in "flat" or in "threaded" mode? In "Flat" mode you get see each post, one below another, in the order they are posted... one page full at a time (only more than one page if there are a large number of replies). In "threaded mode" you see one post at the top of the page, and a "tree" of the posts in that thread below. The advantage to "threaded" is that you can see which replies were made to a specific post rather than just reading to which poster the reply was to. However my preference is flat mode where I can just scroll down to read the posts in chronological order. I only switch to "threaded" if I am confused about a particular post and want to see specifically what it is a response to. (That is why we encourage posters to hit "reply" in the particular message that they are replying to, as it helps others follow the chain of the conversation if it branches off).

From the wording of your question I think you are reading in flat mode, and that you scroll down to the bottom of the messages and want to continue onto the second page of messages in the same thread (for longer threads.) And the only way you have found to do that is to go back to the index page, find that thread again, and click on the page two there.

If that is the case, there is an easier way but it is not in the "tabs" where you are looking. Your interpretation of the tabs is correct, in that they take you to the next or previous thread and not to the next page within a thread.

However if you are reading a thread that has more than one page, when you get to the bottom of the messages, immediately below the last message, on the left side, you should see "Pages in this thread: 1 | 2 | 3 (show all") These should do what you want... you can click on the next page number there and go to the next or previous page in that same thread, or click "show all" to display all of the messages on one long page. There is also a copy of that same line at the very top above the first message.

I read in flat mode and hardly ever use those tabs for anything at all.

Hope this helps, if I have misunderstood your question let me know...

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