[Milsurplus] Please stay on topic - from your friendly list admin
Floyd Davidson
[email protected]
28 Jul 2003 16:23:38 -0800
[email protected] wrote:
>Okay fellow collectors,
>
>As you can see there is a good reason this list frowns on discussing ebay
>listings. In general we don't discuss ebay or any ebay listings on this list.
>I let it slide occasionally when its a 'whats that' question that may benefit
>all, but discussing the merits or evils of ebay is way off topic.
>
>Please stay on Milsurplus topics.
How and where to find military surplus equipment _should_ be
very much on topic. Clearly for most readers, eBay is going to
be a primary source, and for many practically the only source,
of many types of military surplus items. Understanding how
eBay works, and how to make it work for the individuals who
subscribe to the mailing list should be a serious topic of
discussion. And do we also ban *all* discussion of sources,
or only eBay?
Certainly a percentage of the articles do get off topic. I.e.,
discussions of the definition of "greed" probably are not needed
here! :-) But it appears that what bothers some is just any
significantly animated traffic.
And it might indeed be exceedingly difficult to moderate such a
discussion effectively. By that I mean you can probably repeat
dozens of times to stick to "how to use eBay, or whut is that
thang on eBay" as opposed to "eBay is a den of greedy bastards",
and it probably won't have much effect, while just banning all
discussion of eBay definitely does reduce the off topic portion
of the thread.
But is tolerating a few out of bounds articles worse than
missing some _useful_ details on how to work the system to
obtain the surplus equipment that is available daily on eBay? I
think not.
I'd rather see you either ignore it completely, or if you have
the time and energy make an effort at directing the topic in a
productive way.
Most of all, I think it would be good if those of us who do use
eBay would be kind enough to write a few articles now and then
on _how_ to effectively use eBay. Those who use it the most are
definitely going to admit people can and do get ripped off, but
we can explain how to avoid being that victim.
That shouldn't be an unwelcome discussion in a group devoted to
buying somebody else's trash...
>Thanks for your support in this matter.
>
>Ralph W4XE List administrator
--
Floyd L. Davidson <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik "Place where people hunt snowy owls" (Barrow, Alaska)