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To: Patricia who wrote (17266)	5/19/2003 11:23:54 AM
From: SI Bob	Respond to of 32873

I'm really sorry to hear about your father. I remember that we'd discussed his condition earlier. I hope that he went peacefully and in little pain, which is the best all of us can hope for. When the time comes for me, I hope it's with my message board career long in my past and I pass away quickly and painlessly slumped over a workbench tinkering with one machine or another. Regarding Mmmary, she sees me now and will always see me not as I am but as she would have me be. She thinks that the only way for me to prove I'm the person I and others claim I am is to not run message boards. Just shut them down and try to get a job with the SEC. It's an unfortunate fact of life that message boards are a venue in which low-lifes fleece the foolish or hopeful. The worst kinds of predators take up residence on these things. They're in the tiny minority, but they do exist. Same as in any other venue where money is involved. Message boards, however, don't only provide a venue for these people, they provide a venue for the people who endeavor to thwart them. It can balance out and the situation is FAR better than it was 5 years ago. More importantly, though, message boards are a handy and useful forum for people who make up the vast majority of users and who are neither out to fleece or be fleeced. People who just share their opinions and knowledge for the collective good. As a message board owner/operator/admin it is NOT appropriate for me to take on the role of thwarting the scammers. Even if I know in my heart that they're scammers. Why? Best answered with a question: If I target a "scammer" and silence or dispose of them based on my opinion or even strong conviction that that's what they are, what if I'm wrong? Taking on the scammers is a job I simply cannot and must not do. I used to do it when I was a user. Can't now. What I can do is provide a forum where the people who really can thwart them (by exposing the falsehood of their statements) are able to do so. And most people who are into that ("bashers", if you will) are very capable of doing so within the Terms of Use. It's fortunate for them (and me in a gratifying kind of way) that the scammers are typically far less capable of complying with the rules and a skilled basher can, while complying with the rules, nudge the scammer into non-compliance, at which point I can take action. Though some of the "bashers" might be inclined to think that most of the content of these message boards is the scammer/basher battles, it's really not the case and it's a matter of not seeing the forest for the trees.