All righty. I'm surprised to see so many replies to "yet another thread" within a 24 hour period.
Lets see, I'm going to try and address some of the comments. They will be out of order, and without quotes. I'm currently 200 miles from home in my big truck, waiting at the delivery point for my slow moving chemical pump to transfer 2000 gallons of hypochlorite into a sewage plant.
I see references to someone abusing the system, getting banned, and said user recreating accounts to be able to re-post his wares. I completely understand the issue. The issue would be lessened if the user had to either reach 100 posts, or pony up cash to be able to access the "working parts" of the site.
I also recognize the sample threads, and agree that would be a way to get done what I want to get done. However, from reading the rules the many times I have gone through them, posting for sale/want ads is generally frowned upon outside of vbclassfieds. Even under the guise of an introduction thread, I still wouldnt feel right including such extraneous information. Ethics anyone?
My desire for access to the classifieds was basically to offer up an item of comparable value (fishing boat) as trade for an M35A2, not just to ask for a deuce as a "gift", or some other lowball request as most "wanted" ads are. Dang ethics... I just blew it, didnt I?
I would simply stalk the "Deuce" and "Modifications" forums, but personally, I have no questions to ask of the group. I cannot for the life of me think of ANYTHING I could ask, that hasnt already been answered before and revealed in a search. Thats how I operate.
Now, once I get my own truck, I am sure I could run into an issue that requires a question, but until then, I have absolutely no clue what to ask. Maybe "how much is diesel where you live?" lol I've read all about swapping a wo/w to a w/w, spin on filter conversions, veggie oil, biodiesel, pictoral views of a deuce's undercarraige, clutch replacements, repairing/replacing/swapping the pressure switch to fix your brake lights, how to properly pull 12v for add-on electronics, and on and on. Basically, everything I could ever want to do to my truck or know about it has been covered in depth. Just gotta know how to look for it in the archives.
Maybe I could clarify my position a bit. Basically, money makes the world go round. The SS community requires a bit to pay for bandwidth and colocation. Why not "open it up" to the world... you wanna buy/sell? You pay, or reach 100 posts, which screens out the freeloaders and spammers. The ads will continue to be moderated for content and character as always, which screens out the riffraff. Obviously, if an account gets banned for whatever reason, if that user wants to create a second account, they will end up paying twice: once before they were banned, and once to be able to get back to continue their spam, which would be promptly removed and then banned again by a mod. No refunds = basically free money to help pay for bandwidth. ChaChing!
Maybe I'm just ahead of my time on this concept? I understand the site "owners" havent had much time to devote to continued development of the forums. That thing happens to every web forum at some point in its existence. I've been involved with plenty, modded a few, and ran / developed my own. I've seen almost every issue from all sides. Thats why I was trying to present my suggestion in such an open manner. vB is a fun forum system, with code available almost everywhere to make it do almost anything you want, including subscription based access to limited areas.
I appreciate the words of encouragement from everybody, and I dont plan on going anywhere. Who knows? Maybe this thread will continue to be engaging and entertaining, and not turn south like the other rants? I could maybe make the limit just here, trying to make my case.
PSBTW, I like possums. That is all. As you were.
