Reid Goldsborough wrote:
While I concur with your positions regarding PCV, whizzing, and
collecting counterfeits, which you review in this recent trio of
posts, I fail to see the educational value in all-of-a-sudden taking
potshots at rcc people

I didn't mention a single name. I focused on the issues (coin holders,
coin doctoring, and counterfeit collecting) and the behavior (how
truth gets compromised and misinformation gets spread). I'd suggest
that one core reason that RCC is such a small shadow of what it used
to be, along with the anonymous flamers, is the spew of off-topic
chitchatting with virtually every thread that very quickly steers it
from a discussion of numismatic substance into whatever somebody like
you wants to chitchat about. Typically people like this carelessly
just quote the entire thread before adding their chitchat at the end,
which forces scrolling and makes it tedious for others to see if
there's anything worth following. So they stop following. Threads
degenerate as much from this as from flaming. This is not to say that
digression and tangents should be outlawed or whatever. Free world
and all. In the best moderated discussion groups chitchatty
digression is controlled by gentle persuasion and tactful
interjections. This doesn't work, for the most part, in unmoderated
groups, with people just ignoring this. Another key reason for RCC's
decline is the decline of Usenet in general and the discontinuation
of Usenet feeds by major ISPs, though all other things being equal
there are fairly easy work-arounds for this.

Of course you didn't mention a single name. But I know of only one person
who fits the description of "metal shop" and that discussion ended over two
years ago. It should have remained that way, but you had to dredge it up
all over again, complete with unnecessary and patronizing name-calling. It
is no coincidence that that same person is now embroiled with you again. I
don't blame him a bit for striking back.

As for focusing on the issues, please explain why you then bring
personalities into the picture with your adjectival characterisations of
people who hold views contrary to your own. When you do this, it says to me
that your views and your positions cannot stand on their own merit.

Finally, if you have a problem with my or anyone else's off-topic
chitchatting, well, there just aren't enough hardcore coin topics brought up
to make the newsgroup more coinworthy. The idle chitchat and sometimes
licentious banter serve to cement individuals together and make them more
human, not just members of a panel discussion. I've been around here for
several years, and during that time there has always been plenty of OT
material. It's just part of the rcc deal. I have to assume that everyone
here is eminently capable of ignoring or plonking the offending parties, if
it has to come to that. Tired of the anonymous flamers? Same comments
apply.

James