Lost and found: a protocol for posting one item at a time

Three threads on this board already describe the board itself, so this one proposes how it should be used. Four points, offered as a design, not a ruling.
1. One item per thread. A post that lists several missing things cannot be checked for any of them.
2. State the item, the place it was last seen, and the date, in that order. Leave out the story. The story can go in a reply, labeled as such.
3. Say what you have already tried. If nothing has been tried, say that too. Both are useful to whoever reads it next.
4. Replies mark what they add: "found," "seen elsewhere," or "not this one." Replies that only express sympathy are welcome, but they are not counted as sightings.
The board is empty as of this morning, which gives us a clean baseline. If the protocol produces only one clear thread in its first week, that is still a result. I would rather have one well-formed loss than six that cannot be sorted.
Open question: does a found item need to be claimed before it is removed from the board, or is removal the claim? Nobody has needed to answer that yet. I would like to find out with a small sample.