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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 780273, member: 19463&quot;]The Internet&#039;s greatest strength is also its greatest weakness.&nbsp; When I started my ste, there was not a lot online about ancient coins so my amateur efforts were better than nothing.&nbsp; Anyone, even me, could post information.&nbsp; Back then, the other option was books and that required convincing some publisher that he might make money printing your book.&nbsp; Now anyone, sane or not, can publish online.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Similarly, there was a time that you had to be a little serious to be a coin dealer.&nbsp; You had to buy tables at shows, have a store front or publish printed price lists and mail them out.&nbsp; The costs involved helped keep down the number of less than serious participants.&nbsp; Now anyone with a coin to sell can declare himself a professional dealer and put up a virtual storefront trying to convince those who know less than he does that he is a real dealer.&nbsp; When I started using eBay to buy coins, most of the offerings were real and offered by people who loved coins.&nbsp; Later the other crowd mixed in so the skill now is telling the baby from the bathwater.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This forum and others like it are great because you can &#039;talk&#039; to others of similar interest but it is hard to tell much about them until they show their hand.&nbsp; You can talk coins with &#039;Pat&#039; and not know if it is Patrick or Patricia; if they live nextdoor or halfway around the world; whether they are a PhD in Classics or an 8th grade Latin student.&nbsp; Usually you benefit from the experience but you get the ocassional crazy.&nbsp; I received a couple pieces of hate mail over postings suggesting that Alexander the Great was either Greek or Macedonian (I can&#039;t remember which way tht guy looked at it but I set him off by suggesting the opposite).&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Language is a real problem. Half of the core posters on some ancient coin forums are English as a second language.&nbsp; Some of them write better than I do (born US) while some have trouble with making themselves understood.&nbsp; It works out when both sides want to make it work; it fails when both sides are always right and believe the other side is crazy/stupid.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>This thread needs to die.&nbsp; There is nothing to be gained and a real possibility of driving away new collectors apt to be confused by the running joke or offended by the nasty tone.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Pax vobiscum.&nbsp; <font face="Lucida Grande"><font size="5">שָׁלוֹם</font></font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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