There is someone (Rajin, who appears relatively young if his avatar is accurate) who recently posted in the "Wanted to Buy" forum asking for advice in writing a post for that forum that would not be deleted. Obviously, he used the wrong forum for that particular post, and, having checked his display info, he also includes no way to contact him to let him know what's wrong.
Since we all would like to see younger members get acclimated to our hobby forum, I would like to make the following suggestions for improvement:
1. When someone is signing up and elects not to include a visible e-mail address, have the sign-up process pop up a large warning that says something like "WARNING - Your failure to include visible contact info will make it virtually impossible to use the Wanted to Buy or Sell / Trade forum sections the way they are structured for use. While we will not force you to provide that info publicly here, you are strongly encouraged to READ the Terms of Service for a more detailed explanation of the ramifications of your choice."
2. Include the detailed instructions for the use of Wanted to Buy and Sell or Trade forum instructions in the Terms of Service. Yes, I know they are in a sticky at the top of each forum section, but it sure seems like far too many people don't read those stickies. (Look at how often the warning about deleting improper Wanted to Buy or Sell posts is being repeated!!)
3. Along the lines of #1, have the forum software check, when someone starts a post in the Wanted to Buy or Sell or Trade forums, whether or not the poster has a visible e-mail address. If NOT, pop up another warning that says, "Due to imposed forum restrictions, no one will be able to contact you about this post BECAUSE you have no visible contact info in your forum personal information. We will deny your post here until you fix that situation."
Item #1 may not resolve every situational problem by itself, but I sure think the combination of the 3 items above might relieve a lot of administration headaches. Thank you for consideration.
Chuck