Here's a bit of rambling for your consideration;
First and foremost, the only reason people would actually take any precaution in buying/selling is if they
had to, and many don't realize that they in fact HAVE TO (IMO buyers and sellers are guilty, but this is also normal).
By this I mean that it is often only enforcement that results in desired behavior. (Debatable I know.)
Ok, so what I'm proposing is an additional requirement for getting information from the b/s/t section.
Now I know it is very easy to lock away a forum section with a basic password...
The problem is there are quite a few people who sell through the forum, some supplement their income with it, and as a result it's not really an option to lock away the forum through very strict means.
So step one, require registration to enter the B/S/T section at all.
If people go to the trouble of registering in the first place, that means they have some interest in lasers... adding on a little more of a requirement, like a very simple quiz to get a password to use the BST section wouldn't deter many people after that. (And is there really a need for the ones it would deter?)
The secondary problem is that currently there is nothing to stop a person who doesn't want to take this test from simply PMing or emailing a seller, without even registering.
So IMHO the only effective way to make this kind of an approach work, would be to anonymize the contact info in the B/S/T section only(and associated links). Perhaps only leaving behind the Rep of the seller in text format only.
This way the lure of the B/S/T board is there, and is publicly accessible, but people have to take two small, extra steps to access it.
So just to sum up;
Step 1. To access B/S/T board at all - require registration.
Step 2. To see contact information of sellers and/ or to post in b/s/t section require a short quiz/waiver.
Perhaps allow public access to b/s/t section, but only in the anonymized format?
Any thoughts? Feel free to point out glaring problems (I know there are a few
)
(Of course this is all entirely hypothetical, in the end it's all up to c0ld and the supermods
:bowdown