A good read Preacher...thanks for the honest and open disclosure
Your tale is very similar to my own experiences and those of others I've spoken with on the subject.
Having banged around a few different areas of this biz, I decided on going the link list route for the long haul. Yea, it takes a good long while get things tweaked right and establish any sort of consistency. But, it can be done and it should be longer lived than many other areas of the business.
That said, it's a long and fuckin bumpy road indeed
