Dear Burt,
I stopped spamming the thread when you asked it to stop. I also was around a long time before that period and as this was my first forum, learned about posting rules here. However, this thread has never been solely related to S&L topics since I first signed up. Most of the time it was a socializing place just like any other community thread, though not as full of spam. You started to crack down on it when it got spammy, but don't act like it used to be S&L discussion only, because it has never been that way (since I've been here, and as that's over a year I'd say it's a fairly accurate assessment) and whenever it's restricted to that, there are almost no posts. Plus most the posts here aren't spam as they're well thought out for the most post and certainly not single smileys or short little phrases. A lot of the discussion in here is paragraphs per post, regardless of whether or not it's on an S&L topic, I fail to see how you can see that as spam. Spam is the pit. Bartender doesn't allow spam in the R&M community thread (usually) and I see as much good discussion here (if not more) than I do there. I'd say you're being a little strict here, but of course that's my opinion and you don't have to even read it if you don't want.
Vince