Posted By:
AnonymousI have lurked here for several years. I do not own a single baseball card or any items of vintage memorabilia. Never have. I am, however, fascinated by your hobby and I enjoy reading the posts, viewing the scans and especially hearing of new "finds".
I just wanted to give you an outsiders view of some recent threads here which seem to have escalated in the last several weeks. There seems to be alot of animosity on this forum. Alleged shady auctions, in-fighting, religious banter, politics, name calling, personal attacks. I think all of this really detracts from the stature of the forum and your hobby, in general.
Most of you have probably collected since childhood and cherish the purity of the game. But.... your hobby is also big business and along with that comes folks who operate in the shadows, so to speak. Your hobby is ripe for fraud and there is virtually no oversight. Condition = opinion. Establishing provenance is often impossible.
Absolute free speech cannot exist on forums such as this. There must be strict rules enforced for posting including zero tolerance for personal attacks, religion, and politics. The internet makes it all too easy to "go off" on someone whom you will never meet in person.
So, just from an outsider who has enjoyed this forum , and who hopes to continue to do so, treat one another with more kindness and courtesy and allow the love for your hobby to draw you together. The cream will always rise to the top and those who take the low road expose themsleves for who they are. I hope you guys can get it together. I enjoy visiting this forum.