Bob has some tough choices to make and I will support them gladly.

I would pay more for the mag. , more for a premium subscription and pay for a CD with back issues of the mag. I have doubts about a process of deleting posts/threads with substantive info from the forum. Just think about the great posts over the last year. Under a deletion process they would be gone in a couple of years. If so then we will no doubt have to answer those questions again and will have lost to the public all that original info /links/experience. To keep it would require both CD's and their interaction/functioning with the forum. I don't know how that would work. You could not link a new question to the old deleted answer. Would someone with the the CD find the info copy it and add it to the answer. Then you would be back where you started. While the search function has problems it is a lot better than nothing which is what you would have if the info is gone. Also once the initial post is deleted ,then several year updates to ongoing pond trials/experiments would become a problem with the initial post missing.

One of the often repeated comments is about the wealth of info here. Not just the people but the results of those peoples' prior work being accessible to the public and our ability to tie it to the current questioners situation. The first step of many viewers is to look for info and only later ask questions. If the data is gone what will they do - leave the site or ask a question. There are many who read but never post and some of them get the mag. as well. Where does that leave the forum as to its ability to help people with info and act as a source of growth for the mag. and the advertisers.