> For the past couple days, I've been working on a perl program that would help me delete posts easier. Up until now, I've removed posts that needed deleting manually, which is a pain, because it requires hand-modifying all the associated pages. Last night, I finished testing this program, so I have a working tool, now.
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> I did this for three reasons: one, because I could use it anyway, for spam, double posts, etc. Two, because recently I think the quality of the average message forum posts have taken a downward turn of late, and I think it's time for me to break from the backseat position I've taken in the past and become a more active moderator. Three, because the size of the message forum has grown to 70 megs (all the rest of RinkWorks only takes up an additional 55 megs!), and it needs to be pruned down purely for disk space reasons.
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> Over time, I will be going back into the message forum archives and removing posts that are not of enduring interest. I don't expect to be too harsh, and I won't remove anything that I can conceive people of being generally interested in.
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> I will also be keeping an eye on the new posts (which I do anyway) and become more active as a moderator in this forum. I don't expect to be overly heavy-handed, but I will be removing posts that aren't substantial, thereby increasing the signal to noise ratio and hopefully making it easier for those who have a hard time keeping up to do so.
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> So the bottom line is, don't be surprised, or think you're seeing things, if posts disappear. Also, please don't be hurt or upset if you find one of your own posts gone. It's not that I think less of you, or want to stifle your expression, or want to discourage you from posting further. Nothing could be further from the truth.
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> I hope you all understand where I'm coming from.

That's cool with me, and I won't be offended at all if any of my postings disappear overnight. Personally, I find more and more that I'm using the new chat room to fulfill my daily need for brainless drivel (whoops, I mean conversation) and I don't read the older messages on the forum anyway.
Having said that, silliness has its place on the forum, as long as it has entertainment value. I know a lot of people besides me would be sad to see this forum lose its light-hearted side ... not that I think that's very likely while certain people are around. :-) I trust Sam to walk that fine line between substantiality and silliness.

Brunnen-"just going off to think of something substantial to post ... this could take some time"G