@ehBeth,
Right. I know that's how to treat malformed topics. It's just that one recent example didn't look/appear malformed to me. I didn't click on it - but it's possible I or someone else might, because it didn't (to me) look malformed.
You're saying that even if I had clicked on it, and found myself staring at a blank space, I could be safe to just back out, as in use the "back button" on my computer (not tag, etc)? That would be a relief..
It happened to me the one time, but that was before Jes started the topic warning us not to touch malformed topics - and at the time I got shut out, I'd no clue what I had done. Anyway, Jes came to decide it must have been a malformed topic I'd somehow fooled with, and the developers (I think) found it, and got me back in.