"Rick "you have no idea how much 'moderating' the FS forum has actually required in the past" Denney"

On any forum some things must be moderated, and do indeed take up a lot of time. In the main threads that characterize this forum most people attempt to stay on topic so the major need for moderation would be to maintain civility becaues even in the best of worlds decent people do make mistakes of behavior.

The FS forum, not being essential to the mission of the LF forum, and not being a soure of revenue for this site, should in my opinion function strictly on a Buyer Beware basis. That is how it functioned until around 2012 when the moderators began to create the current set of rules as a result of some whining from members about real or perceived views of the resonsibility of the LF forum to protect them. And the result is an increasing use of rules to moderate the FS and WTB threads, including the Buyer Beware section. Well, more rules in this area will never work because rules can never replace buyer or seller responsibility. I am amazed by the number of people who attempt to involve the forum in buying and selling issues which are purely a private matter and have problems because of their own failure to do their homework.You can put in as many rules as you like but in the end they will only result in, 1) need for more time in enforcement by the moderators, and 2) irritation by members at the real or perceived absurdity, complexity or inconvenience of more rules.

You seem to believe that the rules have benefited the forum in some way. I disagree, and say that as a buyer and seller who has never experience any problem in buying selling on this forum.

My suggestion to you and the other moderators is to simply get rid of the morass of rules and advisories and reduce the FS/WTB section to a simple two or three line paragraph similar to what they have on the Luminous Landscape, state clearly that it is not the role of the LF forum to moderate or intervene in sells between indiviudals, and leave it to those who wish to use the selling and buying tool to resolve their own problems. In my opinion that would be a vast improvmenet over the current situation.

Sandy