Robert

petit: I don’t know if your question is sincere or if you are trolling. Here is my answer:

Nope. The logic is strict.
A simple example with more natural language:

if post-categories contain category==17
then do not show post
else
show post

Nothing here is contradictory. It actually depends on what you want to do doesn’t it?

It could be this:
if post-categories contain category==17 && category==1
then show post normally
else
show post with pink background

Yah I did, and found another peculiar situation. If I run query posts nothing changes. If I run this line <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php if ( !(in_category('17')) && is_home() ) { ?> nothing changes but I can create a section below restricting to one category successfully, it’s the main body that still comingles the attempted excluded cat.

Now. If I run this: <?php query_posts("cat=-17"); ?> that category DOES get excluded from the main body of entries ONLY if the post is tagged with cat id#17 only — but if for instance the post is tagged with three categories, 3, 5, && 17 then it still gets listed.

Not sure why this is so queer. Thanks in advance. I’ll be away for a day or so but happy to answer questions if anyone has them.