Hello Jim and list I felt you guys did a stand up job, with all the difficulties and egos. Its a shame that this has to happen. I'm too new to this list to know much, but I sure am going to miss the stories of the field trips and all the articles and techniques. So, guess I'll go back to my corner since I won't make any Arizona show this year and hope that stories of the field trip are fun and put up before the list is no more. Mark
----- Original Message ----- From: James Tobin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Meteorite List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 08, 2003 10:54 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Another mag bites the dust! > > 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 > > > > > ______________________________________________ > Meteorite-list mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list > ______________________________________________ Meteorite-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
