Jim, is there any way to delete age old buy/sell forum topics? I was checking out the forum when I noticed the pages go to 72. Many of these old posts are ancient history and no longer valid.

Would deleting them decrease member posts/rank? Would it help save space on the server, or would it be just a big hassle with no particular benefit?

If it could be done, I would make it standard procedure to delete all old sale posts from the previous year by June 1st of the current year.

Rob,
I am going to have to come up with a working system to archive or remove all the old posts. Few forums can constantly keep adding records to the level we are at now. We have almost 50,000 topics I just noted. That's about 40 new topics per day average for 3.5 years.

I think I can probably do it so that it doesn't affect the total posts number.

Jim

Perhaps I just don't get the whole "number of posts/rank " thing, as I never look at it to evaluate the level of credence I should lend to a poster. I'm not sure if Shep Paine has ever posted here, but if he started tomorrow, he'd be at "1." However, if there IS a reason you're trying for higher numbers for rank, it seems, IMHO, that me trying to sell excess TA-50 and old references sliding off of shelves in my garage wouldn't really be worthy of a "point" or whatever. If I were inclined to care, I'd make it for posts which either seek or provide info. A person could just get on here and run up their totals my making a lot of mundane observations, of which many of mine would undoubtedly qualify.

Is there a way to create an "expiration date" for a buy, sell, trade post? I would think a listing would not need to be out there for more than say 60 days.

If you could make the post "expire" and drop out of the system that may prevent some back log. If the person still wants his/her items to be considered, the list could be reposted. After 60 days, it would probably be so far back in the posts anyway that site visitors would never see the post.

I would turn off post counts for buy/sell/trade posts also if that is possible. I agree that only posts that contribute information to the site should count.

Just .02 cents from the peanut gallery.

18B has a good suggestion. Just like J-D topics do not count towards rank, neither should buy/sell.

We have plenty of what I call "drive by" posters who have come to this forum a number of times since its inception and just post a for sale or for auction ad. They only return to post another ad months later.

It's easy to spot them, they have been members for 2-3 years but only have 15 posts.

Unless I recognize the name from other boards, I don't normally contact the drive-bys. A little cautious of another Jonesy .

I agree with above suggestions that buy/sell should not go into post count, just as certain other sections do not.

Post count should be reserved for "hard information" as much as possible.

I'm aware of another site where some guy has run up several thou in a year or so, basically congratulating other people on their high post counts !!!! The last model I saw him post had both ailerons in the down position.

John (who doesn't care if this counts)