To be honest, I’d deleted all the ‘spacer’ posts before I’d read explanations about what they are for. Now that I know, let me be succinct:
Do not do this.
I’ve come home from a 12h day at work to a stream of “Someone’s hacking the board!” complaints in my inbox, and as far as I could tell dozens of content-free threads and messages to delete by hand.
It was only after I’d deleted all of the threads and started on the messages that I read guesses as to what Jerry was trying to do.
While I understand the intent, I couldn’t think of a much worse way of doing it. If things are so dire that one of you is considering something like this, step one is to contact me first. I can guarantee that my answer will be “no” 
but at least we can try to figure out whether or not the goal is desirable and the correct way to implement it if it is.
I’ve left the ‘bump’ messages in place mostly because I don’t have time to go through and delete them. I don’t mind the occasional bump of a timely thread that deserves continued attention, but please don’t assume that my not deleting all of Jerry’s posts in any way condones that behavior.
As for the recent tone of the board: remember that we’ve been here before, and we made it through that time fine, and with sufficient restraint (and I include myself there) we’ll get through it again. This forum fares a great deal better than others I’ve participated in and moderated when it comes to this sort of thing – but I’m sure we can fare even better than we do.
Happy whistling,
- -Rich
