I give up trying to help I really do.

Today I noticed a used 50mm autofocus 1.4 lens on mifsuds - possibly the FA 1.4, but the item was'nt terribly descriptive. Having said that it was available for £149. So I thought it was worth mentioning in the deals section if a forum member wanted to call them and enquire.

It's now been removed without explanation.

Then last week another offer I thought it would be good to mention on the forum had it's title changed to reflect a completely different offer. Again, nothing was mentioned to me at all at the time, despite it being confusing to other members what the deal was actually about in the end: Moderator intervention was unecessary and caused problems.

Have courtesy and manners evaporated from the moderators on this Forum? If I did something wrong PLEASE TELL ME. However I have looked at the guidelines on the links to deals section, and find no obvious reason why it has been taken down.

I'm seriously considering moving to a different forum as I really object to being treated in this way.

If you are considering taking down a forum members thread, surely a basic requirement is sending them a PM to advise of the situation, so that they might be able to address the situation without the need for it to be taken down.

I resent being treated like a mushroom here.

Hear Hear

It was sold so maybe that's why the post was removed.

I would say it's only good manners to have sent you a PM saying why the post had been taken off though.

Sorry to hear that Bob. It might be better if the OP was able remove the post when the item was no longer available. There shouldn't really be anyone else writing in that thread anyway. Alternatively move the post to a Completed Deals/No Longer Available thread for say 7 days and then delete.

I put on a link to one on AV Forums. Mike bought it. The thread was then removed.

I PM'd John asking if I had done something wrong. He said no, and explained that in order to prevent clogging up of "leads to deals" with expirerd deals, he would remove them once they were expired

Hope this explains.

I think that topics in the 'Leads to Deals' forum are monitored and when no longer relevant (Deal no longer exists) the topic is removed.

Dont take it personally Bob, I'm sure your a "fun guy" to be with

But yes it does make sense to remove a link to something if its no longer for sale, and we cant expect the mods to be following up with PM to members as well everytime the forum is cleaned up in this way.

That's great then - it served it's purpose. Would be great to be kept in the loop though when it's taken down.

We have had this conversation before and I think all agreed that de-clogging was necessary - however a quick PM to the OP would not go amiss. Or even better, the MOD posts to the effect that the deal has gone, then removes the thread next day.

It's really the same a when someone puts a "for sale postcard" in a shop window, the shopkeeper takes it down as soon as he knows it's been sold. It can make it difficult for someone (as well as the OP) who's trying to find the thread to check back on details to compare with another offer etc.

The government are banning the sale of photographic gear shortly anyway

And you dont think the mods have enough to do already?

No we didn't I disagreed then, and I still disagree now. It seems like a waste of JR's time to me, but he is keen to continue removing threads where the deal has expired. I'm not really sure why, apparently it is to keep things tidy and up to date but in that case why do we still have meeting arrangements from 2007 in the Local Groups and Meetings section?

?[/quote][And you dont think the mods have enough to do already?[/quote]So the MODS seem to have a conflicting position??

First of all, if you want to know why a thread has been removed, rather than take umbrage just ask.

As for Leads to Deals, it's been explained that expired deals are removed so we can see the wood for the trees, so to speak. There's no time to tell everyone every time it happens, because it happens all the time. We can also expect that the threads will eventually disappear, so nothing to report really.

If for no other reason, it's best to leave discussions out of Leads to Deals because when the deal expires the discussion will expire as well. Right from the start part of the deal was that this section would be closely moderated, so no grumbles please. That's all in the guidance notes.

John, I just think it's rude to take down a thread like that without a quick 'thanks' or something.

I do appologise for getting the wrong idea - and I'm very pleased it served it's purpose.

This whole leads to deals section is being policed far to heavily - if an item is no longer available; surely someone can just post that's it's now gone on the thread itself. Is'nt this being over-engineered?