Feb. 2008

Ham To Ham References - Do We Really Need To Praise The Good Guys?

One of the major Forum sites has a Ham To Ham Reference topic. If you've completed a financial transaction with another Amateur Radio operator, either on an auction site, or the "classifieds" on a forum site, you can leave a positive or negative note about it.

Looking over the forum I see entries like (Callsign) Nice Person, (Callsign) Class Act, (Callsign) Good Guy, (Callsign) Great Ham.

It seems to me that it's a sad state of affairs when we have to take the time to go to a forum to report that someone did what they were supposed to do.

In the buying and selling of Amateur Radio gear, are we not supposed to (1) properly and honestly describe the item for sale and (2) promptly ship the item, in a secure manner, once it has been paid for?

Are there that many no-gooders out there that we have to take the time to sing the praises of those who do the right thing. Think about it. The fact that the forums are loaded with these praises tells me that I'm right about this. The online selling arena is in an overall bad condition.

Another problem I see in laying all these praises on people is that it's really only a "snapshot" of that moment in time. Just because one person had a good experience with a seller does not mean that the next person will.

73,

WF5TX