BriaN,

Thanks for your reasonable tone.

1. Yes, I began participating on this board a few weeks ago, when a thread was bought to my attention that called a good customer of mine a "sucker", and implied I was a crook, all because of the use of the dreaded "r" word. When I came here, I was angry. Who appointed you guys the "adjective police" anyway? Who are you to tell me how to run my business?

I was informed by some helpful members that a chip that I honestly believed to be relatively rare (although it was an $7.99 no reserve auction, who was I trying to sucker?), in the context of my eBay customer base, had in fact been traded quite commonly among club members. It was just a simple misunderstanding about availablity after all, and in fact my buyer was quite pleased with his purchase, and I modified the description the next time I ran that item.

I appreciated the helpful information from some members, I despised the weasly approach of the armchair auctioneers who like to sit in judgement of others, but don't want them to know they are being judged.

If the person who posted the original sarcastic post about me and by customer, pointing to my auction, and all those who piled on afterwards had been required to inform me of their intention to publicly accuse me of dishonesty BEFORE they made the post questioning my integrity, there probably would never have been a post made.

2. It is not my job to monitor this board, and email every seller who falls under the scrutiny of this board's self appointed eBay Ethics Committee. It is the job of the members who post to be responsible for what they post. I personally would NEVER post a snide comment behind someone's back, even if I truly believe he was a con man. It's juvenile and cowardly, in my opinion. In fact, if I did think a man was a crook, I would WANT him to know his ethics were under scrutiny.

More important, if the problem was just that he was misinformed about something, I would rather straighten it out in private, rather then take a chance of needlessly damaging his reputation.

3. You ask ". Is it that bad that ideas and information are shared here among our members as well as anyone that choices to stop by?" Good question.

Heaven's sake no, I love these discussion boards, and figure that 90% of what I do know about antique chips and online auctions has come from these forums. Obviously, I like to post my opinions, and I love to debate. But yes, it IS that bad when those discussions are totally one sided concerning a man's ethics, and the public nature of the discussion can jeopardize a man's ability to make a living. You can have a little private email gossip-fest, talking behind a man's back all you want, but if you do it in public, you risk damaging a man's reputation for no good reason.

Again, I have no problem with these discussions of values and ethics taking place. I do have a problem when they take place in a public forum, without the knowledge of the person being discussed. I cannot understand why some people here are so insistant that they be allowed to say behind a man's back what they are unwilling to say to his face.