[meteorite-list] [ebay] ending in about 2 days

From: Walter Branch <waltbranch_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun Oct 15 15:52:03 2006
Message-ID: <027c01c6f093$56e477b0$6101a8c0_at_BranchFamily>

Hi Dave and Greg,

>Informed decisions cannot be made in the vacuum of a
>lack of knowledge.

I agree with you. I just question the reliability and validity of the
knowledge.

When these type posts are made, there is a lot of heated, emotional and
sometimes inflammatory discourse. People talk a lot but rarely say
anything.

I am not meaning to defame or otherwise antagonize anyone, least all the
parties involved but to use another analogy, there is a lot of smoke but no
fire and smoke is often used as "smokescreen."

In these posts I see a lot of name-dropping, accusations of wrongdoing and
dishonesty but little data. People quote rules for others to follow then
break them themselves. If someone says yyy is paired to zzz then show the
data. If someone says some scientist said this or that then give us a
direct, verifiable quote. If someone says something has been published then
give us the URL or something. If a certain TKW is stated tell us why this
is so. Etc...

I too, like to make informed decisions but the quality of my decisions is
only as good as the data that goes into my decision and my point with all
this is that I need good, hard data.

I get very little usable information from these type posts, surely not
enough to judge the reputation of a dealer. Show me, and others, the data.

-Walter
________________________
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dave Carothers" <david.carothers_at_verizon.net>
To: "Walter Branch" <waltbranch_at_bellsouth.net>
Cc: "Adam Hupe" <raremeteorites_at_comcast.net>; <laser_maniac@hotmail.com>;
<gmhupe_at_tampabay.rr.com>
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 11:10 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] [ebay] ending in about 2 days


> Good morning, Walter,
>
> I hope this finds you well.
>
> As Greg, Adam, and Stan were the originators of his thread, I thought it
> only right that I cc them in my response to you.
>
> While I'm sure that most people would rather not have to read arguements
> and
> verbal fist-fights on the list, most of these type of arguements (like the
> one at present between Stan and the Hupes) are IMHO beneficial and useful
> to
> the community as a whole. With collectors paying $8, $50, $500, or $1,000
> per gram for meteorites, we need to make sure we are dealing with
> reputable
> sellers and we need to ensure that the descriptions used in the ads are
> fair
> and accurate representations of the meteorites being sold. The only
> "policing mechanism" we have is ourselves and the only real tools we have
> to
> combat phoney or misrepresentative meteorite sales is education and public
> disclosure. Public disclosure serves two functions --- it is the means of
> providing education to the community and it is also the "stick" that keeps
> everything above board and, hopefully, honest.
>
> I'll use my own public discourse with Steve (Chicago) Arnold in
> July/August
> of this year to make my point. In the past, when informing Steve
> PRIVATELY
> of his misrepresentations in his sales of meteorites, he would respond
> with
> "Mind your own business" and ignore the situation. It was only through
> the
> sting of public disclosure that he would actually make changes to his
> misleading sales ads. Of course, he would play up to the readers as being
> put upon and unjustly persecuted, but the objective had been achieved. 1)
> He made the change to the misleading statements in his ads and 2) His
> propensity for making misleading statements in his ads was now made public
> so the community could then make an informed decision if they wanted to
> deal
> with him. At least potential buyers were put on notice to research the
> items Steve (Chicago) Arnold was selleing to ensure they were getting what
> they paid for.
>
> Informed decisions cannot be made in the vacuum of a lack of knowledge.
> Once again, it is my opinion that the free-flow of information, even in
> arguementative forms, is a useful endeavor. Everyone in our community
> should know of these happenings and hear from both sides of the arguement.
> They can then make up their own minds as to who is telling the truth and
> who
> to believe or not.
>
> For what it is worth... my $0.02.
>
> Dave
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Walter Branch" <waltbranch_at_bellsouth.net>
> To: <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 9:09 AM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] [ebay] ending in about 2 days
>
>
>> Hello Everyone,
>>
>> Does anyone, other than the parties directly involved actually read and
>> careabout these periodic postings to the list.
>>
>> If so, please email me in private. I do not forward private email. I
> will
>> report aggregated data to the list. Not meaning to slight the parties
>> involved, I would just like to get a sense of how important these
> exchanges
>> are to list members.
>>
>> -Walter Branch
>>
>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>
>
>
Received on Sun 15 Oct 2006 03:51:43 PM PDT