Funnybook
2006-08-01 16:02:39 UTC
An open letter to Rocco Letterfan
=================================
In early March of 2005 I posted in the group that I was looking for
the "Grand" TV series, starring Pamela Reed and Bonnie Hunt, from
about 15 years ago. You replied by e-mail that you had Grand
complete, and you outright promised me you'd share it with me.
Then you backed out, saying it was "too rare" and you had gone to
"too much trouble and money" to get it, and you wouldn't trade it
for any of the offerings on my lowly list, and you ignored my
e-mails from then on. Months went by.
Then, in July of 2005, Justin started a thread with the subject:
Opinions regarding "rare" tapes
A lively discussion followed as to whether a person should "hoard"
a certain show because it's rare. Someone even suggested that
perhaps it should be standard practice to intentionally degrade the
copy before letting go of it, the object being to make one's own
copy an unequaled holy grail! Some spoke up on one side and said
yes, if you let it go it gets spread around and then you lose your
trading power... others said no, let it go, it will come back to
you with interest... My own comment was that we should all scatter
everything to the four winds, at best possible quality, and someday
when we had a fire in the den we'd be able to easily locate all our
lost treasures. Be generous, share, and let the hobby take care of
the rest.
Out of the blue, after months of ignoring me, you e-mailed me
again:
====================================================================
. I'd love to see your trade list again.
.
. I read what you had to say about 'rare tapes' on
. alt.video.tape-trading and see myself in some of the posts.
. I know 'grand' is rare which is whyI'm reluctant to trade it.
. It took alot of time and effort and money to get that series
. complete.
====================================================================
I actually believed you had grown a shred of humanity. Shame on
me. I wrote back and thanked you for writing, attached my now much
more impressive list, and waited. Nothing. Another couple months
went by. I wrote again. You ignored me.
More months went by.
Then when I got ripped off by Jason Konarz you e-mailed me out of
the blue yet again, expressing your sympathy for the way I had been
robbed and offering something "rare" from your list. I knew by
then that you're stuffed with manure but I wrote back and accepted
anyway, just to see what would happen. And just as I knew you
would, once again you totally ignored me.
That was over six months ago. You never wrote again, and
naturally, you never sent anything. That's OK. You didn't owe me
anything. I never sent you anything. All you did was outright
PROMISE that you would send me Grand, REPEATEDLY, starting
SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO, and then back out like a weasel every time.
When AKackley posted for Grand you contacted him, then blew him off
and ignored him because there was nothing "good enough" on his
list. When John33907, the most generous person in this group,
asked for Grand, you didn't even bother to respond to him, knowing
he would share it with other people. That would be just sickening,
wouldn't it, Rocco? John went into the hospital for major surgery
shortly afterward, the life-threatening kind, and might have left
us forever without seeing this one simple little sitcom he wanted
to see, but that doesn't matter to a tight-fisted greedy little
hoarder like you, does it?
Tell me, Rocco, what have you gotten for Grand in the seventeen
months since you promised it to me and then decided it would be
better to be a liar and a snake and hoard it, to "hold out" for
something "rare"? What cool "rare" stuff have you gotten in trade
for it? I already know the answer: ZERO. You have NEVER traded
it. You have hoarded it like a greedy miser in spite of some of
the nicest, kindest, most generous people in this group frequently
and repeatedly posting a desire for it.
When Julie contacted you a month or so ago it was a smokescreen,
set up to give you one last chance to show a shred of human decency
and prevent what's about to happen in the next paragraph. You told
her you had been hoarding Grand since you got it, and had NEVER
traded it. Then you proceeded to blow her off and ignore her, just
like you have done everyone else. Well guess what, Rocco? Here's
the punch line: All that you have gotten for Grand as of TODAY is
all you're EVER going to get. NOTHING. And that's just what you
deserve, you sad, greedy, self-centered, lying little creep.
I have Grand now, the complete series, the original network airings
with all original commercials, in spectacular quality. I have
already sent it to everyone I have ever seen ask for it in this
group, and I've asked all of them to send it to everyone they know.
They've assured me they'll share it freely. I'm going to give it
away free here in the group to anyone and everyone that wants it,
no trade required. How do you like them apples? You called Grand
your "trump card" when you were writing to Julie. HA! Your trump
card just got trumped, big shot. Now it's worthless. Grand is
already as common as yesterday's newspaper.
But Rocco, have you learned anything? Will you now reflect on all
the missed trades and friendships you could have had by displaying
a sharing attitude? Will you share the next "rare" item you get
ahold of? I doubt it, but I don't really care.
You mark my words, you and all the greedy hoarders like you: No
matter what you have, no matter how rare you think it is, someone
else has it and eventually they're going to find this group. Once
they do, they might even write to me in response to an unrelated
request, and in the course of conversation I might trade them for
that same rare thing you're hoarding, and then ask them to keep
quiet about it while I scatter it to the four winds, making it
common and ordinary as a trade item. You have been warned, and not
just by word, but by example.
As I said a few days ago, I take every rare thing I get and send
out offsite backup copies to several trusted friends. They do
likewise. I have gotten back more than you will ever know, and
more than you would have ever gotten for Grand in ten more years of
bitter, cruel, selfish hoarding.
My stand is unchanged: No show ever made should be hoarded. We
are talking about nothing but little thirty cent slices of plastic.
Life is short. Share, and see what comes back. When you give it
away, you still have it, but now you also have an emergency offsite
backup, new shows to watch, goodwill, and a potential new friend.
Draw your own conclusions.
Let me ask a question; you can make a guess: Who holds the keys to
your happiness?
Funnybook
=================================
In early March of 2005 I posted in the group that I was looking for
the "Grand" TV series, starring Pamela Reed and Bonnie Hunt, from
about 15 years ago. You replied by e-mail that you had Grand
complete, and you outright promised me you'd share it with me.
Then you backed out, saying it was "too rare" and you had gone to
"too much trouble and money" to get it, and you wouldn't trade it
for any of the offerings on my lowly list, and you ignored my
e-mails from then on. Months went by.
Then, in July of 2005, Justin started a thread with the subject:
Opinions regarding "rare" tapes
A lively discussion followed as to whether a person should "hoard"
a certain show because it's rare. Someone even suggested that
perhaps it should be standard practice to intentionally degrade the
copy before letting go of it, the object being to make one's own
copy an unequaled holy grail! Some spoke up on one side and said
yes, if you let it go it gets spread around and then you lose your
trading power... others said no, let it go, it will come back to
you with interest... My own comment was that we should all scatter
everything to the four winds, at best possible quality, and someday
when we had a fire in the den we'd be able to easily locate all our
lost treasures. Be generous, share, and let the hobby take care of
the rest.
Out of the blue, after months of ignoring me, you e-mailed me
again:
====================================================================
. I'd love to see your trade list again.
.
. I read what you had to say about 'rare tapes' on
. alt.video.tape-trading and see myself in some of the posts.
. I know 'grand' is rare which is whyI'm reluctant to trade it.
. It took alot of time and effort and money to get that series
. complete.
====================================================================
I actually believed you had grown a shred of humanity. Shame on
me. I wrote back and thanked you for writing, attached my now much
more impressive list, and waited. Nothing. Another couple months
went by. I wrote again. You ignored me.
More months went by.
Then when I got ripped off by Jason Konarz you e-mailed me out of
the blue yet again, expressing your sympathy for the way I had been
robbed and offering something "rare" from your list. I knew by
then that you're stuffed with manure but I wrote back and accepted
anyway, just to see what would happen. And just as I knew you
would, once again you totally ignored me.
That was over six months ago. You never wrote again, and
naturally, you never sent anything. That's OK. You didn't owe me
anything. I never sent you anything. All you did was outright
PROMISE that you would send me Grand, REPEATEDLY, starting
SEVENTEEN MONTHS AGO, and then back out like a weasel every time.
When AKackley posted for Grand you contacted him, then blew him off
and ignored him because there was nothing "good enough" on his
list. When John33907, the most generous person in this group,
asked for Grand, you didn't even bother to respond to him, knowing
he would share it with other people. That would be just sickening,
wouldn't it, Rocco? John went into the hospital for major surgery
shortly afterward, the life-threatening kind, and might have left
us forever without seeing this one simple little sitcom he wanted
to see, but that doesn't matter to a tight-fisted greedy little
hoarder like you, does it?
Tell me, Rocco, what have you gotten for Grand in the seventeen
months since you promised it to me and then decided it would be
better to be a liar and a snake and hoard it, to "hold out" for
something "rare"? What cool "rare" stuff have you gotten in trade
for it? I already know the answer: ZERO. You have NEVER traded
it. You have hoarded it like a greedy miser in spite of some of
the nicest, kindest, most generous people in this group frequently
and repeatedly posting a desire for it.
When Julie contacted you a month or so ago it was a smokescreen,
set up to give you one last chance to show a shred of human decency
and prevent what's about to happen in the next paragraph. You told
her you had been hoarding Grand since you got it, and had NEVER
traded it. Then you proceeded to blow her off and ignore her, just
like you have done everyone else. Well guess what, Rocco? Here's
the punch line: All that you have gotten for Grand as of TODAY is
all you're EVER going to get. NOTHING. And that's just what you
deserve, you sad, greedy, self-centered, lying little creep.
I have Grand now, the complete series, the original network airings
with all original commercials, in spectacular quality. I have
already sent it to everyone I have ever seen ask for it in this
group, and I've asked all of them to send it to everyone they know.
They've assured me they'll share it freely. I'm going to give it
away free here in the group to anyone and everyone that wants it,
no trade required. How do you like them apples? You called Grand
your "trump card" when you were writing to Julie. HA! Your trump
card just got trumped, big shot. Now it's worthless. Grand is
already as common as yesterday's newspaper.
But Rocco, have you learned anything? Will you now reflect on all
the missed trades and friendships you could have had by displaying
a sharing attitude? Will you share the next "rare" item you get
ahold of? I doubt it, but I don't really care.
You mark my words, you and all the greedy hoarders like you: No
matter what you have, no matter how rare you think it is, someone
else has it and eventually they're going to find this group. Once
they do, they might even write to me in response to an unrelated
request, and in the course of conversation I might trade them for
that same rare thing you're hoarding, and then ask them to keep
quiet about it while I scatter it to the four winds, making it
common and ordinary as a trade item. You have been warned, and not
just by word, but by example.
As I said a few days ago, I take every rare thing I get and send
out offsite backup copies to several trusted friends. They do
likewise. I have gotten back more than you will ever know, and
more than you would have ever gotten for Grand in ten more years of
bitter, cruel, selfish hoarding.
My stand is unchanged: No show ever made should be hoarded. We
are talking about nothing but little thirty cent slices of plastic.
Life is short. Share, and see what comes back. When you give it
away, you still have it, but now you also have an emergency offsite
backup, new shows to watch, goodwill, and a potential new friend.
Draw your own conclusions.
Let me ask a question; you can make a guess: Who holds the keys to
your happiness?
Funnybook