I would really appreciate some clarification on what constitutes discussing a method in Penny. I can expect a response to this might be something like, "If you have to ask, it's discussing a method and it's against the rules."

However, I feel like there are major inconsistencies with the moderation of the forum section. Multiple times I have seen posts on threads in Penny that specifically mention the names of certain methods, and even go about details on how to achieve them in an ideal way (these are recent posts). But today I made a post that simply referenced a method by mentioning it's creator, something that was incredibly ambiguous and even un-google-able by a lurker, in order to ask about any routines that might already exist. It was immediately hidden/deleted.

I'm not asking because I'm mad. I'm asking simply because I would not like to waste my time or the time of the moderators.

I understand the quota of the 50 post count is put there for a reason. And I also understand the rules of Penny exist for a reason. But I hope the Café also recognizes that if they want new users to only make posts that legitimately add value to a thread, that becomes a very difficult thing for new users to do if they can't even ask a question about whether an effect exists already by simply referencing some names. Especially when other more experienced users with thousands of posts are not nearly as cryptic in the same section of the forum.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I appreciate it.

Thanks for taking the time to compose your experience succinctly. Monitoring this board is a daunting task, practically speaking it is near impossible to monitor every thread. As such some slip by. We rely in part on our members to use the “Report Post” function when they see something they suspect might violate the rules.

As to those “rules” for the Penny forum, there are hard rules, and then there are protocols of discretion which are there to aid in the protection of methods from the general public. As such threads which generate lists of products should be made in the protected areas. Threads which discuss methods without any attempt to disguise those method names should be made in the protected area. The loop hole in that is someone is allowed to expose their own trick if they want to, but that is still restricted as to discussing methods without attempting to disguise them by name.

It is not uncommon for an old thread to be brought back to the front page by a new post from a member with fewer than 50 posts. If that old thread falls into the category of needing to be moved to the private areas, the new post is deleted and the thread is relocated. This is what happened in your case.

There is also an issue of a thread being started by someone with fewer than 50 posts, when that thread gets into topic discussions which should be moved to the secret areas. The balancing act of leaving the thread where it is, vs deleting the entire thread because the person who started it can’t post in the secret areas. In such cases discretion takes over in deciding the best road.

As a safe rule of thumb, all threads about mentalism are better suited in the protected area.

And yes, there is a good deal of the classic “If you have to ask…” test going on as well.

Thanks again for your well thought through post.

Thank you Tom for the speedy reply. This makes a lot of sense. I'll keep it in mind from now on.