What's with the Globe and Mail's letters page?

This must be one of the most annoying pages on the Internet -- and, mysteriously, it has survived several redesigns.

It's the Globe and Mail's letters to the editor page. When I pick up the print edition, it's the first place I turn. I'm not sure why -- habit probably. The letters used to be witty and incisive. Sometimes they still are, though not often enough.

But online? The page is a mess. 

The letters are grouped by subject. Usually. (Yesterday, the letters in response to Margaret Wente's claim that Canada was, in fact, "un pays de sauvages" before Europeans arrived took up most of the page, but were not all grouped together.)

For each letter, we see the name of the writer, and some text. Like this:

Nameless white crosses 
Judith Tanguay

Your front-page photo depicting the nameless white crosses that mark final resting places at Alberta's Wabasca Cemetery (Hunt Begins For Long-Missing Students - Oct. 27) sadly perpetuates a belief that this was unique to native children who attended residential schools. I recently visited a small Protestant cemetery in Hearst, Ont., that was established in the early 1900s. Of the 505 graves, 114 are anonymous and countless others unmarked.

Click the name of the letter-writer, and the rest of the letter appears.

Then there are letters like this one:

Victim of eco-bullying? 
Karen Shein 

Re Don't Carry A Cloth Lunch Bag To Work? Tsk, Tsk (Life, Oct 27): If an employee is going to act like a whiny and egocentric preschooler who does not yet understand that we all need to do our part to take care of the environment we all share, then it necessitates their being treated as such.

Click the name of the letter-writer and you see... the same letter again. The site doesn't distinguish between which letters are shown in their entirety, and which represent only the first paragraph.

In order to ensure that you catch each and every bon mot from the Globe's letter-writers, you have to click each and every one of their names. Which is ridiculous, of course.