Hi Rick. Don't be disheartened.
There really is a lot we can talk about without getting hung up on authenticity. And when i say hung up i am implying that we can still talk about it. My concerns are seeing it as the end all supreme topic, when infact, it can't really be decided here and is only used as an opening for abusive use of the forum. People need to come to accept that if someone says a keris is definitely authentic (or not) based on a photograph alone that they probably don't know what they are talking about. For the most part, if the photos are good, we can still see quality of workmanship, dapur and pamor designs, etc. We can still discuss the ever evolving place of the keris in Indonesian society and it's place in history ( a subject solely under discussed and misunderstood). We can still say, i like, or i don't like.....or i think that's might be old, or not, because of this or that. But no, with out handling a piece, even the greatest expert would, at best, just be guessing most of the time on true authenticity.