"Keith G" wrote in message

My bloody newsreader (OE) briefly displays a high number of 'new
posts' and instantly drops back to a lower number on a routine basis.
Just now it said '16' before dropping down to '9' in a flash. Does
anyone else get this? (I've got no-one 'binned' atm!)

Is this just the crappy software or does anybody think I'm losing
posts?

No, you may be reading two newsgroups with that share a lot of crossposts.
In that case OE sees a lot of new posts, but after downloading them and
reconciling them with posts you've already read, the crossposts are dropped
from the count.