I'm noob here, so none of the comments below may be valid...First, I haven't posted in any welcome thread except my own. It seemed kind of unseemly to me. As a new person here, I assume my credibility will take months to generate, and it will come through my words, actions and behavior. Once that fuzzy threshold has been reached, I will feel a welcome post from me would be more relevant. (This is one of the reasons I sign my actual name to my posts here; something I do in no other forum.)Second, since this is a keyboard forum, one could expect that the members are gonna use those keyboards to post. Because of that, I was very surprised that the sales-post threshold was so low. Unless someone is a long-time member, why should they be trusted to buy from? Personally, I don't think people gain credibility by frequency or by paying to play. Time, insight, expertise and OT wit seem like better guides, at least to me.Third, I agree that all the "hello" and "hello to you too" messages add clutter. But sometimes it is cool to see where people are coming from.So, some suggestions that should be taken with a grain of salt or tossed in the bit-bucket:1) Exclude welcomes and OT replies from the experience count.2) Add membership duration to the sales-post criteria.3) Exclude new member posts from one of "Spy" or "Unread Posts", but not both.Again, the ink (dye?) is not yet dry on my membership in geekhack.org, so none of the above may be relevant, insightful or useful.But man I love typing on my noisy keyboard!- Ron | samwisekoi