If it's not sold already, after the initial questions and answers, then it means he's trying to milk it harder. Guess we'll see.....

DLH

I know John Dunkle has a lot better things to do rather than hanging by to see if someone is trying to sneak a gun sale. But, I thought that was why the board had designated a group of web administrators, some of whom have the free time to monitor the website. I understood administration and monitoring of this site was not solely on John's back. Was I misinformed?

I moderated a Land Rover enthusiast's site for years and dealt with issues similar to this on many occasions. All of the moderators, myself included, resigned when the new owners of the site began to circumvent the policies previously adopted, which we had been trying to adhere to. Anyone who has had a moderator's position knows it's a thankless, pita type of job.

This is merely a suggestion, and admittedly not completely thought out, but one way to prevent circumstances like this particular one would be to prevent non PGCA members ability to use the PM function. I can anticipate there might be resistance by PGCA members who might want to use PMs as a means for furthering a legitimate discussion, but as the rules preventing non PGCA members access to the FS and Wanted sections benefit the members as a whole, so too would limiting non PGCA members ability to make private transactions.

That's a great idea, only PGCA members have access to pm's. That would cut down on this kind of thing.

Maybe we should have a few more equally responsible moderators to fill in the gaps where our two moderators may not be monitoring the forum, with the authority to immediately pull down such blatantly ignorant posts by non-PGCA embers.

No offense intended to those Forum Members who play by the rules...

Yes, I'm volunteering my services.

Good luck with this, people are clever. Where is the best place to look first to sell a Parker, right here. Limit the ability to PM of a forum member and they might post an e-mail address to conduct private conversations. A clever person selling a Parker could always post as a forum member and say "I am looking at a dandy CHE or whatever on Gunbroker right now and I want to know more about it and what you think." Never mentioning of course that he is the seller.

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Yeah, BUT, then "John Doe" circumvents that new rule by using the method of including his Name and Phone number, or (as Pete accurately stated), an e-mail at the end of a veiled gun for sale post/ad...

Moderators quickly removing obvious gun "For-Sale" posts by non-members in PGCA General Forums remains a very effective tool...

With his 5,364 posts, Dean obviously spends a great deal of time here and understands the rules, so perhaps he would be a good addition as a "responsible Moderator"...

Best, CSL
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I second Dean's nomination as moderator.

I think the larger question is; what do we offer and is it perceived as valuable for someone to fork over their money and join the PGCA. With that in mind who are the people who come to these forums for the first time or limited posting non-members and why. There are the people selling guns, looking for market exposure or advice because they think they might have something valuable or they want to be sure the collector hangout is alerted. Then there are the prospective new or limited knowledge buyers trying to be sure they don't make a mistake in either price or originality. There are also those who have discovered grandpa's old shotgun and want to know if it's worth something, can they shoot it and should they get it restored. There are occasional non-members whose gun broke and they are looking for the best person to fix it. For the most part we provide these services as a group every day, free of charge here in the forums.

If a person has one Parker and wants to know all there is to know or verify orginality we suggest they get Research letter. If the person has one gun they have a choice, $40 dollars for membership plus another $40 for the letter OR $60 for the letter and not join. Anybody see a problem here? Perhaps we should consider all first time new members get one free research letter then you are offering the curious something monetarily tangible and if they join they might stay and start collecting/shooting/participating.

Pete, If I were a BOD member (and I'm not) and this came to a vote (which I am completely confident it never will) I would vote against such a motion.

Also, please go to our Home Page and click on the "Research Letters" and you will see that the price of the non-member research letter has been raised to $100.
The reason for this change will be explained in the Spring Issue of Parker Pages which is at the printer as we speak. But suffice to say that it will be cheaper for someone to join PGCA and order one letter ($40 + $40 = $80) than to simply buy a letter at $100.

If anyone thinks $100 is too much for a letter he should try buying a letter for a Colt or Winchester :eek:

OK, finally the price disparity for a non member ordering one research letter vs. joining and ordering a research letter has been addressed. In that regard we are now offering something of monetary value for joining.

So what about all the free information and advice :)