Rules for classifieds

For the first time in about 6 years I've updated the rules to explicitly cover two things that were already being enforced.

#1 You really can't use non-standard formatting in your advert title.

Which means no:

• SHOUTING
  
• Strange Use Of Caps To Give More Importance (if it's not a name or the first letter of the title, don't capitalise)
  
• Strange use of special characters to create weird symbols to draw more attention to your advert (like it's 1999 usenet all over again)
  
  

Why? To keep the forum readable, and to not make the classifieds a race to who can use loudest titles out there.

#2 No destroying the historical record

Which means no:

• Editing out adverts
  
• Removing information about items
  
• Deleting threads
  
• Locking threads and preventing buyers leaving follow-up information if necessary
  
  

Why? Aside from the more useful thing about provenance of items and establishing fair prices, LFGSS helps the police a fair bit with stolen goods. We're really good at getting items back to original owners as well as giving statements to police, providing evidence based on our logs, etc. It's a general pattern in those cases that people are either idiots, or they try and cover their tracks. So this rules is really dealing with that.

It's worth pointing out, nothing is ever deleted. Nothing at all. All revisions of all comments as well as the IP addresses are always stored. The rule is about making it harder for anyone touching stolen goods to hide, and to make it all more transparent and just a hostile environment for those selling items of dubious origin.