Trust Jim to ask a question that I have been pondering for a while now myself.
I know my posting has diminished substantially, as have a number of others who were regulars here, and I have been wondering why?
I have recently read a book by Dan Ariely
Predictably irrational , and I think he hints at the solution. He discusses the difference between social norms and market norms. Social norms being the activities we do for free, which are part of normal social behavior. Market norms are what we do for a living or expect to earn money from. To clarify he gives the example of trying to pay your mother-in-law $400.00 for preparing the family thanks-giving dinner (in my house the consequences would be too horrible to even contemplate), and yet a "gift" (wine, flowers, etc.) is quite acceptable.
I think these forums walk a extremely fine line between the two. Normally they are dependent on the social graces of the forumites to research and post information on pieces posted, I know this takes time and energy. The gift in return is the exposure of new pieces that expand all our knowledge. Jim, Jens, RSWORD, VANDOO, Lew, et al are the foundations of these forums. Of course Lee, our host, provides the venue for free. Now Imagine if Lee was to request $1.00 for every new post or tries to make money from the forum, how long would the forumites give free answers? This would rapidly become a ghost forum. I think we all have seen essentially this happen to at least one other forum.
The same applies to forumites who post only to get information to pump up their sales pitches, they have shifted from the social norms to the market norms, and should not be surprised that nobody but Jim (always Jim
) is willing to research their piece for free.
Bad social behavior can also get you ignored (complaining that the turkey is too dry). We all love our pieces (BTW Ariely also has a section on how we naturally over estimate the value of something we own), and all comments here should be politely given, as well as politely taken both good and
bad . Do not post your piece if you only want to be told it is excalaber, nobody gains anything if the difference between excalaber and a Toledo wall hanger cannot be explained. Likewise the difference should be handled politely we are not paid appraisers, we would never tell someone that the gift bottle of wine "sucks" we politely take it and use it for cooking.
Sorry I have gone on too long and now I am late for work!
All the best
Jeff