Cursed!

[Bushbaby]

Hi All,:helpme:
I beginning to think that I have some sort of curse on me! Why is it that when I see things in the 'for sale section' in this and the 'other' forum and offer to purchase or request a FOC item that I seem to be ignored?

Do I have B.O. or something worse???????

Regards

Rob

[OldTickTock]

Maybe

Seriously who knows Rob, I suppose at the end of the day it's down to the vendor to whom they wish to sell, frustrating, not 'cricket' but ultimately it is their choice. We cannot and I would not wish to put rules around it.

Chris

[Skywave]

The negative results that you are getting may be due to the method of communication you use to signify an interest. If you simply only send a P.M. to the vendor, & do nothing else, he might not receive and read that P.M. in time - hence, the item goes to someone else.  :computer:  A despatched P.M. generates an e-mail message to the recepient: he may not read his e-mail In-Box on a regular basis. My approach is to make a replying Post within the Thread to say "You have a P.M." - then send the P.M., registering that interest. That way, when the vendor reads the Thread, he sees my Post, says "Ah-Ha!" - and hopefully opens his P.M. mailbox and reads my message. Depending on what the item is, its estimated weight & size, who the vendor happens to be & his location, adding bits of auxiliary info. in your initial P.M. can help secure the item.

Al.

[fido]

Yes, I've sometimes had replies to PMs several weeks after sending them because some people don't have their control panels set to send them email reminders.

[Paula A]

I gave away and sold a stack of stuff early this year through the "other place" but regardless of putting "collection only" still had people requesting I post (not possible due to no funds or weight or not possible) or drop off somewhere. I was gutted to have to dump 60+ 1970's and 80's computer books.. long out of print and some for very rare hardware. (commodore mega why not.. both manuals) and books on unix and fortran stretching back into the 60's. I guess what some people think has value (a lovely perfect fergy 12" colour portable for example.. perfect for old computers or analog output vcr's) to others is just junk. Well.. now I'm downsized and the things which I guess had any value were salvaged and passed on.. Very collectable now seem to be the incredibly rare working late delta colour sets.. everybody is worried and interested in a dac90 for example (there are thousands and thousands out there) but not so much a pre-war Graves (most exotic and rare) or a mid 50's bakelite fergy, or even a HMV badged thorn/fergy 2000 colour set which there are probably less that 100 knocking about.

Other observations from the "other place" after being shouted at more than once for exposing real scams and real scammers and fraudsters on a well known auction site (I'm a member of a group of anti-fraud activists working on online "auction" sites) I gave up.. you can only save people from getting ripped off so many times and getting told off for it before you give up. One person I warned (and got a suspension for) was bidding on an item where I knew the seller.. and the seller and his friends were shill bidding on the item among themselves... and had no intention of sending the item as they didn't even own it.. Where does that come into "might upset members who use that site"? .. I gave up..

There is an elitist attitude which I find distasteful.. it's only happened here once.. and being an adult I left it alone because it was far too easy to post a list of actual definitions to precisely define the point... but when somebody who (by their own admission) hasn't done anything in the field for 25 years starts trying to "correct" already correct fact and information with obsolete assumptions and wordplay.. forget it..

I like it here.. everybody has different interests and skills. I think over the years we always learned various bodges and tricks which it is nice to share. I love the woodworking and welding bits myself.. having done a fair bit of both in my time. All I wish was a bit less of the 1950's standard stuff and a few more diverse articles perhaps on early 80's kit.. after all.. that is now over 25 years old and most of the things we see.. especially in the tv restores are our bread and butter sets from the early 80's second hand and home independent rental business... Does nobody have a VC53 d/s set about on a "to do" list.. make an old girl happy? (pl504 mod required.. the pl36 trashes the metrosil when it goes low emission which is impossible to replace and causes reduced width and ragged verticals)

now where was I.. oh yes.. waiting for the kettle to boil.. tea up!!

[Bushbaby]

Hi Al/Trevor,
This is indeed sound advice and one that I have followed on numerous occasions but to no avail.

Paula,
I think you are spot on on what you are saying in terms of whats really available for sale and elitism.

Perhaps its my own fault as I have 'burnt' before perhaps I should have learned from my expirience and not bothered to ask for an item offered in the first place!!
I also wonder whether my original forum nickname might not have helped either.
I do think (perhaps I shouldn't!) that a forum member (on any forum) could get a reputation purely on the threads etc they have post and nothing about the individual who has written them in any way shape or form hence why I suggested some time ago that our avatars should be our own pictures. At least in that way we are endeavouring to post a reply to a person out there in the ether.

In the mean time I'll just keep taking the Prozac!!

Depressed!!

Rob

[beam me up schottky]

All valid POV and interesting observations.
My personal philosophy is if I'm lucky enough to grab a freebie then I appreciate that and consider myself fortunate, if not then c'est la vie, it was after all a generous freebie, offered to the the first taker. The generosity and assistance freely given by our little community never ceases to amaze me, it conflicts so profoundly with the prevailing adversity of modern society. The thing I find so frustrating is that I always seem to be in the wrong place, geographically speaking, to return favours and do my bit to help others out !

[Skywave]

. . . There is an elitist attitude which I find distasteful.. it's only happened here once.. and being an adult I left it alone because it was far too easy to post a list of actual definitions to precisely define the point... but when somebody who (by their own admission) hasn't done anything in the field for 25 years starts trying to "correct" already correct fact and information with obsolete assumptions and wordplay.. forget it..

. . .I like it here .. everybody has different interests and skills.

Fortunately, that 'elitist attitude' that you speak of hasn't infested this Forum . . . . yet - and (surprise, surprise) I, for one, hope it never does. But it has recently become firmly entrenched 'elsewhere', which is one reason why I now tend to avoid that 'elsewhere'. And the rest of the above snippeted quote is true also. So-called, self-appointed 'experts' with their rigid, inflexible, 'this-or-that-but-nothing-in-between' attitudes are a vexation of the soul - and it is simply best to avoid them - and the places they haunt.

Yes, I like it here too. In addition to the above comment by Paula A, there is a much more open-minded attitude here towards our common interests & a far greater degree of tolerance and acceptance.

Al.

[Skywave]

. . . hence why I suggested some time ago that our avatars should be our own pictures. At least in that way we are endeavouring to post a reply to a person out there in the ether.
Rob

That is a very valid observation, BB. I know this sounds strange (human psychology is strange, very strange), but I have read (and even communicated) with many people for years via computer in Forums, etc., but with only knowing their nick-name a (mis-appropriate) opinion of that person develops. Yet as soon as a face appears, suddenly my perception of that person changes in a flash! It's the same with the telephone. You hear a voice - and the brain simply has to have a picture: so it makes one up, based on what is heard and how what is said - presumably, based on past experiences. Yet when you meet the person in question - whoa! Totally different from what you were expecting! And for several minutes, it all becomes rather disturbing as the brain rapidly and dynamically updates its database!

This is a topic I could discuss with others at some considerable length - but I've said enough (for now, anyway).

I keep meaning to replace my avatar with a self-photo . . . one day . . . .

Al.

[Yorkie]

I wonder if it's just me, but 'on the other side of the wall' whenever someone offers anything free, there seems to be a small clique of inidividuals who swoop within minutes, and despite the 'givers' saying 'collection only', the recipients expect others to put themselves about and get stuff to their doorstep. Sometimes people say 'this has to go by the end of next week' and get a response 'can you hang onto it till August?' or whatever. One particular individual 'elsewhere' has snatched a couple of items of complex equipment which - from his postings - far exceeds his abilty to get working, and which could have gone to others who would have greatly appreciated the opportunity to restore.

In one sense, from the giver's point of view, maybe it doesn't matter much if the item goes to someone. I try not to be cynical and to look for the best in people, but I have to say that I do wonder if any of the stuff later end up on e-bay. That probably sounds very unkind. The local 'freegle' group here asks that people who offer things don't adopt a fist come first served approach, but allow a day for people to respond, then pick a name out of the hat, explainnig in their post that this is their intention. I suspect that most people offering stuff FOC just want to get rid.

I do agree that it's essential to post an open message saying 'you have a PM' because as already outlined, not everyone has set up e-mail notification PMs.

David.