I want to say 1st off that my preference is for this forum in its current state (with the exemption of useless spammers) is one of the greatest online assets in the welding community. Part of that is because of the long history of content entered by members of this community , some of which are no longer with us, and by the current participants.

Should this forum be stopped all of a sudden, I think many of us would lose contact with those people with opinions and knowledge we highly value. I really hope that doesn't happen and the leaders at AWS (Which I would think are the Members), would take into consideration the value of this forum for those in the welding community.

I sincerely hope that AWS will work this out with the following.

1) keep this forum AS- IS except for lack of spammer moderation.

2) Preserve all of the existing content of this forum for searching.

3) Create a "Member Only" forum for AWS members that helps AWS prosper in reaching whatever their goals are.

Gerald Austin