I hear you on the spam. We switched the bulk of the forums to require logins some time ago. This was something that meant losing many casual posters. But we did stop the spamming bots. But it seems that there are still people that signup just to spam. Hopefully the migration will stop that.

I know you are in the middle of doing some major upgrades to the site, and I know you want to keep posts exactly as they are, but could you possibly remove some spam that has crept up on this site? It's annoying to look through recent posts and find stuff like ads for escort services. Other than that, I'm really looking forward to the updated site especially the wiki!

Ask and ye shall receive.

I did a fairly major cleanup today. You'll find...

* Many older threads turned unsticky.
* You'll find consolidation with the announcements
* You'll find a NEW forum: Conference Realignment MAPS

I think it is terriffic to have the old threads, but they should really be closed after no new posts in 6 months.

I know a lot of times I'll come to the site and get lost reading a thread that is 3 years old, rather than focusing on the new issues. I think more clearly illustrating which posts are "dead" would help that alot. (Now, that isn't to say those posts should be removed! ---they are still great reads!)

Also stickies to keep important threads seem overused. (edit: Looking at the site again, the announcement threads are what I am referring to. Maybe a thicker dividing line between announcements and normal threads in addition to fewer unique announcement threads?) 1-2 in each category would be plenty. If old stale threads were closed, then the perceived need for most stickies would likely vanish.

Also, The grid needs to be featured more prominently. Maybe a permanent link on the main page? Also, I'd get maps up somewhere easily found ---- maybe that could be links to wikipedia's conference pages or something?