many members here are also active (or passive) members on other BMW boards - search for my handle on the boards, you will see that I might have a 1 or 2 posts there... I am also a member on foreign language boards related to the BMWs...
If I am looking for something related to my car and it is not available on this board, i will look on the sister boards, as most of the parts are shared between models... however, this board is not a bargain basement nor a flea market, this one is mainly an exchange of idea and exchange of goods is purely incidental to the friendship and comraderie that is built here - i have a few members here that are also on my FB page, and once a year we even get together for a little barbeque...
I am not stouchly defending the old way - if you can convince the folks here that the old ways should be changed, by all means, they can be changed... So far i have not heard a convincing enough argument into opening those "floodgates" though...
Think of this as a HomeOwnersAssociation... I personally would not buy a house where there is a HOA but, some people like it that way...
Cheers