I would like to make some comments on this thread.
But first, my apologies. As much as I love this group and the work I get to do here, I have been falling behind. It seems recently that I get to log on only every few days or so, instead of every day as I would like, and then try to hurry through all the threads until I've read everything. (Well not everything, I've only been skimming through the thread about motorcycle races.) So my apologies. Hopefully I'll be more successful at getting to the board on a more regular basis.
Now ...
This thread was brought to my attention by a fellow club member who was concerned about the tenor of some of the posts. (Thanks again!)
In Mica's post above, I perceived some familiarity on her part with Bobby.
In Bobby's post #3 above (his second post in this thread) he mentions that he has owned 17 Alembics.
At this point I'm thinking there is a possibility that Bobby may be a really good customer of Alembic.
And this discussion board is of course owned, operated and provided as a courtesy of Alembic.
And we all know how Alembic treats its customers, whether or not they are members of this board.
There have been cases here in the past where a new member, unfamiliar with our community, unfamiliar with the daily flow of conversation among people who have grown to know each other, has started posting in such a manner as to ruffle some feathers. In most of those cases, the new members sooner or later caught on to the ebb and flow of life here in our community and became valued members and friends.
It is reasonable for members to a see a post in the For Sale section by someone with a Post Number of 1 and assume that this person joined the board for the sole purpose of selling something. It also follows that such a person probably is unfamiliar with our community, our members, and the contexts in which we know each other, and has probably not read
[color=0000ff]The Posting Guidelines[/color].
My guess is that had Bobby been more familiar with our group, the tenor of this thread would have been different.
I don't think anyone is at fault here. My take is that this was a series of unfortunately worded and unfortunately interpreted posts that resulted in an exchange that was a bit unpleasant.
Bobby. I know the guys here and I can say that they are a great group of people. And Alan in particular is very highly respected. Most of us are aware of the context in which he has led his life in the recent past; and personally I'm grateful he made it out alive. Anyway, I just wanted you to know that any negative impression you may have drawn from your experience here was in my opinion just an unfortunate exchange among people who did not know each other, posting written messages on an internet discussion board. Such errors in communication do happen in this medium. It's certainly not the same as meeting in person.
In closing, it seems to me quite valuable to us as individuals and as members of communities of people that we care for each other, that we help each other, and that we treat each other with respect. Compared to that valuable asset, what kinds of and how many instruments we own seems unimportant.
