Of course i know that the forums are there for BUT being able to advertise for recrutement or last minute offer for trade without having to wait for hours/days would be a major boost for the community!
Lets face it... the forums are used pretty much by the same peoples with Mrs. Joe Public adding a few thread here and there. A large portion of the community dont have enough spare time to both spend hours on unending threads AND playing at the same time. And for myself i pay 15$ a month to PLAAAAAAAAAYYYYY not to read/post/chat and thats the case with a vast majority of players!
Why i`m asking for that?
Because the other day on Ghallanda i was looking for recruts for my guild and a nice and warm DM just came in and told me to stop advertising for non grouping content otherwise i would be banned! Banning peoples who try to keep this game alive and rolling is prolly the best way to stop peoples to leave DDO for other MMO i guess! But that`s a diffent story.
So adding a new section for advertisement in the social panel would "thin up" the grouping section to its orginal purpose but also would give a chance to players to reach out other player LIVE! Lets say i need that large bone to complete my tier 3 item NOW not next week or either pay 2,000,000 stupid gold for it so i got Lshrapnel or Lstone to trade for"! that would be settle in minutes live! You could also looking for guild/guildmember or any other kind of advertisement.
As for adding the new section to the social panel, don`t try to convince me that it`s hard to do... im a real life programmer/DBA so i know for myself that adding a template that already exist (grouping), and making some minor changes and renaming it ADVERTISEMENT is really no big deal!
My main point is WHY NOT GIVING THE COMMUNITY OF PLAYER THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLAY MORE FOR THEIR $$$ AND WAIST LESS TIME ON FORUMS ?