Banned
Another recent post with complaint against forum and vendor practises closed. Yes, it is like going on a date and listening to her talk about the ex boyfriend. But is it a 'dead horse?' We are facing the imminent loss of net neutrality and ISPs selling our information like a pimp on a street. We
have 'fake news' and 'alternative facts.'
None of this is new. My mother was born in Fort Wayne Indiana and spent her early years in a small town of mostly dutch and germans. The postmaster was lutheran and hated catholics. He sat on the local draft board in WW1 and all the catholic boys went first. After his death and some needed rennovations a huge cache of undelivered letters was found in a wall, much like those old used razor blade slots. Inside were decades of opened letters to the catholics. My family has one; delivered from Prussia explaining why this family member of high social class ( Manfred Von Betten and Catholic) was immigrating with a new wife with child ( pregnant and Lutheran) who had the manners of a housemaid, because, oh the shame, she was. It had that precurser to a password, a broken wax seal on the envelope with elegant fountain penmanship and no smilies or LOLs. It wasn't delivered and whatever social consequences that, and hundreds of other censured correspondence held now lies in graveyards.
There are issues in the commercial aspect of this curious hobby we share that extend into prejudices and ethical and sometimes legal business behaviour. It can get ugly. But if we do not discuss it A. It will only get uglier and B. An even uglier vendor who wiped out the retail book industry
will be dictating where we buy our crap from.
have 'fake news' and 'alternative facts.'
None of this is new. My mother was born in Fort Wayne Indiana and spent her early years in a small town of mostly dutch and germans. The postmaster was lutheran and hated catholics. He sat on the local draft board in WW1 and all the catholic boys went first. After his death and some needed rennovations a huge cache of undelivered letters was found in a wall, much like those old used razor blade slots. Inside were decades of opened letters to the catholics. My family has one; delivered from Prussia explaining why this family member of high social class ( Manfred Von Betten and Catholic) was immigrating with a new wife with child ( pregnant and Lutheran) who had the manners of a housemaid, because, oh the shame, she was. It had that precurser to a password, a broken wax seal on the envelope with elegant fountain penmanship and no smilies or LOLs. It wasn't delivered and whatever social consequences that, and hundreds of other censured correspondence held now lies in graveyards.
There are issues in the commercial aspect of this curious hobby we share that extend into prejudices and ethical and sometimes legal business behaviour. It can get ugly. But if we do not discuss it A. It will only get uglier and B. An even uglier vendor who wiped out the retail book industry
will be dictating where we buy our crap from.
