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Enjoyed this one though there are a few that I haven't fully parsed.
Agree with the above that you can solve 3d with no cryptic shenanigans if you are older than 35: in fact, this delayed me putting in the answer for ages.
COD - 17a (now it has been explained to me!)
FOI - 19.

Hi, I’m a newbie to this site and really enjoy reading the posts but whose site is it? Is it Brendan’s or Geeker’s or just whoever posts first?

Is the second word the same in both 8 and 26? There doesn't seem to be any reason why it shouldn't be!

No Chris, not the same

thanks jono - now corrected

painfully slow prgress!

OK, finished. LOI 12a. I was confident that it was PASTES, but that didn't fit with 13d

Very clever, but I didn't enjoy it. It seemed like one of those that was more fun to set than solve.

Bravo. I balked a little at this one but it actually turned out to be an excellent puzzle.

I also wavered about 12a — a few possibilities presented themselves, and I’m still wondering whether there might be an alternative to the one I ended up with (and am pretty confident in).

I felt that an alternative, varying from what I take to be the answer only by the first letter (not a crosser), might also carry the definition ‘beats soundly’, though I’ve only found an account of it meaning ‘failures to succeed’.

Ludvigvan. the thread is started often by Brendan, sometimes by Geeker or whomsoever is first to complete, keenest in the morning, not otherwise occupied etc. If you look in the main site there are a few injunctions, one of which is not to repeat a thread, of which there are many. As to who set the .org site up in the first place, I don't know and chose to let it remain a mystery lest the truth blemish its sanctity.

A fun solve today. Took me a while to get going but reasonably quick once the device was obvious. I also had the wrong word in at 12 for ages which slowed me down a bit. I’m happy with its replacement, and if I’ve got it right, it reminded me of a memorable moment years ago when my husband carefully started to save what he thought was a black caterpillar from where my teenage daughter had carelessly left it by the bathroom sink!! We don’t let him forget ;).

ludwigvan,

Adding to other responses, I don't know who started the site, but if I had to identify the forum with a single person, it'd be the estimable norah (admin), who you can find on the "administrative"-type threads and elsewhere.