09-12-2007, 08:40 PM
Dan - you handled yourself really well here. The NO mods take a lot of crap for nothing in return. They're good guys. Couple things on my mind. 1- A blog to organize folks who've been robbed or cheated is a fine idea. Hosting it anonymously is ridiculous. It's hard to represent yourself as the voice of justice when your identity is hidden, unless you're Batman. Keep it on the level; don't hide.2 - I can see why someone without the full story might think Mike was being "protected" here. Leaving the thread open "just for Mike's reply" feels one-sided; host the discussion or don't. That said, if someone would have just PM'd Leprechaun Mike's contact info, that thread could have been closed, deleted, whatever, instead of dragged into a weeklong soap opera. There's nothing ethically wrong with providing someone with contact info when the buyer has deleted all other avenues of contact. "All that is required for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." I don't know if Mike is a bad guy or not, but he seems in over his head with back orders and (based on his myspace page) personal problems. But helping him keep his head in the sand isn't really helping him. You can't give someone a second chance if you can't find them.3 - Larry brings up a decent point about cultivating a thriving buying/selling/trading community, but having a zero tolerance policy about transaction problems. I don't have a fix for this, but I can tell you this trend of mask makers flaking and falling off the face of the earth is killing the hobby. New people wander in and are usually young and naive-ish, and they're ripe for the rapin'. There is nothing online that collects the names of bad dealers, because people are unwilling to be vocal. So instead we get together at cons and hate on all the criminals in private. Who's that helping? I know some guys enjoy the exclusivity, but with no new blood, eventually you'll end up with stagnation. You guys who've been around a while are the only ones who can help keep the hobby alive by protecting the next wave of collectors from being turned off to it via mail fraud.I love all of you. Peace.