I fully understand your desire to maintain a marketplace as this is the most sustainable source of income but one has to step back and wonder if a webmaster marketplace and a freelance forum are meant to be combined.

I think you'll find that the overwhelming vast majority of freelancer members here (regardless of age or location) would really prefer to keep a buy/sell area of some kind. Personally speaking, I'm probably one of the oldest (age-wise) members here, as I certainly don't fall within the 13-25 demographic. I also probably don't contribute in discussions as much as I should, and I'll try and work on that. However, the marketplace has been a surprisingly valuable resource for my business. I'm a veteran designer and marketer, yet I often don't have the time to develop or design, and the first place I turn to is the TF marketplace. Why? Because when compared to DP.com and other sources, TF has always maintained a little higher caliber of not only trust worthy people, but quality work. I suspect that is because this is a forum where people with talent like to hang out..as opposed to other forums, where god knows who is a member. I've also noticed a significantly higher quality of buyers. Obviously these types of factors are becoming exceedingly rare these days, which should speak volumes of why TF is a much better forum. If you remove the marketplace, you'll more than likely see a significant drop in not only the overall participation of freelancers, but the quality of the posts as well. I have always looked at TF as being tremendously undervalued, and I really believe that it still has huge potential.