So we notice poor Steve playing perpetual Whack-A-Mole with the sneaky consumers who just want to ask a question!

What if Optiboard were to have a feature for this demand? Consumers could truthfully claim their motives when signing up, sign off on a waiver, pay $10 and submit a question to a select panel of Optiboard members? Their forum access & communication features are restricted accordingly.

The Panel kicks it around in a private forum and sends the reply back to the consumer. Panel keeps $5. House keeps $5.

(By "Panel," I mean Robert...and Steve defers carpel tunnel surgery for a year or two.)

I don't know how prohibitive the overhead for all this would be, but I'd bet a little in-house crowd funding could whip it up. Couple of hours for Steve's hard working lawyer and some IT with "keep it simple" in mind for low maintenance.