I agree, assuming I understand Jim's post. I think if you say in the forum that only the vendor is allowed to respond, then you should enforce it. As it is, we get all kinds of unauthorized folks trying to help. That's what the non-vendor support forums are good for.

This seems like a fairly easy fix. Only the original poster and the vendor can respond to posts, although anybody can start a thread. Any other discussion can go on via PM, or on the open forums.

Ah, now I understand Jim's point. The current system actually encourages non-authorized people to respond, because the search feature, and the "show me new posts" feature present the posts in a context where it looks like responses are allowed.