form POST to same page, request method remains GET

Yeah! I tried CI a while back because of it's ease of use and the fact that it's not filled with "everything you ever might, maybe, someday, perhaps might want to use. It does what you need it to do. If it doesn't? You can still add other libraries to it.

For me as a new user, plus someone who's been out of the php scene singe 2014 and just now coming back into it, there are still headache moments over simple stuff like this ;-)