First of all, “await” is a better translation than “hope”. Now I think that Coffee Addict misunderstood writersoul. I think that Francorachel3 was saying that people are claiming that the signs indicate that we are in the times before Mashiach, but since these signs have indicated such for a while already, perhaps there are different signs which REALLY indicate that Mashiach’s arrival is immininent. Randomex was pointing out that the time period before Mashiach can be quite a while so there is no proof either way. In other words, it would seem that according to Francorachel3, Mashiach’s arrival is not imminent because there are still pre-Mashiach signs that have to happen whereas according to Randomex Mashiach’s arrival could be imminent but we can’t say so for sure. I think writersoul was objecting to the whole idea Mashiach can’t come unless a whole list of things have happened – he can come anytime.
I will bring the same proof that the Rambam brings (but each of the three people above can construe it as supporting his/her position): R’ Akiva accepted Bar Kochva as Mashiach which means that R’ Akiva thought that Mashiach could come at that point even without checking off the list of pre-Mashiach signs (writersoul) or that the pre-Mashiach signs have been here for 2,000 years (Randomex) or that R’ Akiva misinterpreted the pre-Mashiach signs (Francorachel). The only thing is that if the greatest people for all these years were misinterpreting the pre-Mashiach signs then I’m not sure how asking “does anyone know the real signs?” will accomplish anything. That is my analysis of the debate in this thread. For anyone who is interested, the Rambam in hilchos melachim chapter 11-12 discusses Mashiach and what he has to do and how we can know if he is Mashiach etc.
I will close with the following (hilchos melachim 12:2): ??? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ?? ??? ??? ??? ???? ?? ????? ?????? ?????? ?? ??? ??????? ?? ?????? ??? ??? ???? ?????? ??? ??? ??? ???? ??????? ?????? ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ??? ??? ?? ???? ??? ???? ????? ????? ??? ??? ???????? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ????? ??? ????? ?????? ??? ????? ??????? ??????? ??????? ??? ?????? ??? ??? ????? ???? ???? ?????? ?? ???? ???? ??? ???? ???? ??? ?? ???? ????? ???? ????? ??? ???? ?? ????? ????? ??? ???? ?????? ???? ???? ??? ?????? (although the first part of the quote is primarily talking about post-Mashiach things).