This is confusing. My first post in this forum was in the LQ Member intro, as a REPLY to the guy who just posted saying he was an old guy new to Linux. Then after posting, instead of being taken to my post so I could recheck it, I was instead warned that I needed to post again. Had to guess how to do that, since it wouldn't allow me to post in the LQ Member forum again but gave me some other warning, and suddenly I'm in this other box.

Seems as though one must make TWO posts, before being able to read either one. Hope this goes through. Looks like I'm forced to start a new thread. This isn't an important post, so I didn't want to start a new thread, but if it's the only way to ACTIVATE, then fine.

Apparently not, since this is what shows as your first post.

Yes, after I posted it I was FINALLY able to see that the FIRST post I actually made, never was logged. So someone needs to refine the instructions to make it clear that your first post won't go through, unless you begin a new thread.

I later found the real thread I initially replied to, an 'old guy new to Linux' who was investigating dual-boot, and made my SECOND post, there.

So it's fine with me if someone wants to delete my real first post, as I don't see what value it adds to the forum.

Just for clarification: This forum runs an anti-spam heuristic on first time posters. Without this heuristic we would be flooded with spam. Unfortunately, like with almost any spam-filter, there sometimes are false positives. This is nothing to worry about, posts that are marked positive have to be approved by a moderator. This can take some time, but if a post is not spam (obviously like in your case) it will make its way to the forum.
There is no "you must first open a thread to be able to post" policy. In fact, my first post on this forum was an answer in a thread that wasn't even in the "LinuxQuestions.org Member Intro"-section and it worked fine.

LOL. So then my real first post will show up in a few days.