Dear List,
After a brief conversation with Paul it was agreed that we would pull the
MeteoriteTimes magazine down off the web and pick up our toys and go home.
And I had a neat article already written for next month.
We tried to offer valuable information and good science. What we fought the
whole time was a battle to keep out the personal agendas of dealers who
were contributors. Editing and worrying about any information concerning
pricing. Careful that there was never mention of others dealers names by
dealers, and ebay auction results and many more things. That is beside the
fact that some of the material submitted was just badly thought out and
poor science.
Well, whether out of rushing around with the holidays and trying to get an
issue out; we missed a couple things this month. They became matters of
concern to certain individuals. Frankly, I have spent the week moderating
the disputes of dealers in the meteorite business over things that we had
little or no involvement in, except that they were written or done by
contributing writers.
This was never what the magazine was to be about. None of this has anything
to do with the joy of studying meteorites and sharing stories. It involves
egos and business. So when Paul called today with another problem created
by one of our contributors, we came to the easy decision to drop the
magazine. This reflects our general philosophy of life. As hard as we work,
if the things we do in our spare time are not fun, we don't do them.
Both of us have very little spare time. I work on average 55 hours a week
in a high stress environment. Responsible for the entire operation of the
production floor of a large printing company. He is working similarly
stressful hours.
As has so often be seen on this list, we are a community with some
individuals who do not always work and play well with others. I have this
week (and so has Paul) been in the nasty position of trying to balance long
standing dear friendships with disputes created because we provided a place
for the exchange of ideas. I will never choose losing friend over anything.
It is my hope that when the dust settles that these individuals that I care
deeply about will still choose to call me friend. I choose not to be
hardened and ignore that there are friendships at stake. One meteorite
investigator offended a dealer who is his friend. It occurred because of a
photo used on our magazine. I took the blame for not seeing the offending
element in the picture. But the thumbnail in our article did not have the
element. The larger picture linked to our thumbnail which is not on our
server was different. I took the blame I should have looked at every link
to see what was there, probably a hundred links in this issue. Today, it
is an argument over one person taking unfair advantage to promote
themselves and their business; while not mentioning the activities of a
similar kind by someone else. And these individuals are all good friends of
ours.
After raising four children and now having five grandchildren, I have
despite my old nature become a pretty open person about my feelings. And
all this saddens me and is frankly breaking my heart. To say the least it
has taken the joy out of doing the magazine.
With that said I offer an apology to anyone feeling slighted by anything we
offered in the magazine. I have felt all week that there were maybe still
black feathers in my mouth from the big meals of crow I have been eating.
Paul and I spoke as I said rather briefly to agreed to this, and ended by
saying we would send messages from our guts to the list, without discussing
our posts with each other. I'm am just as interested as you to read what he
says.
Art I apologize to you also, this is the first non-meteoritic email I have
ever sent, breaking one more rule today.
Jim Tobin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The Meteorite Exchange
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