Qui-Gonzalez wrote:
Mac, his little tirade against Joe fell just as flat as Thomas' did against GINO. As I said, both arguments were utterly pointless. I give GINO the benefit of the doubt at times, but even I can admit when the guy is wrong, and I told him as much regarding this one. I haven't seen the posts here where members have pointed out his "inaccuracies". Frankly, it is irrelevant to me.
As far as "endorsing the bully" goes, people here do the saaaaame thing. Yes, I like GINO, but in all fairness, I don't know him from Adam. Same goes for all of you, none of us know each other, for the most part. We ALL have our opinions, and they are all worth exactly the time it took you to type them out...mine included.
Now, Joe said something on GINO's board that really struck me. He basically said he has nothing to prove to anyone. I direct this to you, Joe; If you have nothing to prove to anyone, why post about your piece in the first place? I still think it is what it is...a cool piece of film history, but you chose to share it with us in the SW Prop community, so it says to me that you are looking for approval. I've already said I am envious. It's a hell of a thing to find TWO pieces from ILM. Let's not sugar coat it though, we are looking for approval when we post pics of our items. If not approval, then at least mutterings of jealousy.
Gonz,
Thomas' "tirade" against GINO didn't fall flat for the same reason however. My read on participants' responses is that Thomas' past stubborn myopic focus and the horrendous amounts of difficult-to-interpret photo comparisons frustrated them to the point they became immune to anything valid he might say. The AA/SDS thread on the RPF was brought up. People were also saying "Don't look at GINO's past; his concern is valid." Conversely, people don't have to look at the past; GINO's current conduct condemns him clearly enough. Thomas' concerns were indeed valid and not pointless. However, they were drowned out by the volume of the ridicule he received. What a double standard!
Also, don't confuse having an opinion with becoming a self-appointed one man prop police force. GINO was banned for trolling. I endured months of him trashing and derailing my threads as well as personal attacks. For what? These were educational threads written to help others to have an improved knowledge of Vader props so that people could think independently without need to rely on people who claim "secret sources" with Lucasfilm and yet refuse to back up what they say. Please, therefore, don't paint everyone with the same brush. While no-one here is perfect, since GINO was banned, nobody has bullied anyone nor trolled threads and leveraged public angst to pressure an individual wrongfully.
Are there imperfect people here on the Den? Yes. Bullies? No incidents after GINO was banned.
But your last sentence regarding jealousy is thought-provoking (in a good way). JoeR revealed that there was past history with GINO, and a deal that didn't go through. Well, that fell on some deaf ears. It prompted me to think: the SW community is full of adult-sized kid who have not grown up yet or emotionally matured, since jealousy is so rampant - the need to "one-up" everyone else and to be king-of-the-hill.
I'm personally not jealous of JoeR because, quite honestly, I'm not a fan of ROTJ stormtrooper helmets. At the end of the day, it's a damn piece of vacformed plastic (though a damn nice piece). Likewise, Vader is just a piece of fiberglass. They're cool looking and they remind us of our childhood and help us tap into a "fountain of youth" of sorts. The fact that grown men would fall to jealousy, politics, manipulation, propaganda, incrimination, etc. over plastic and fiberglass is something I hope we can all rethink. Let's just focus on enjoying them. You never know: the more we cheer people forward when they arrive into acquisitions, it may benefit the community in ways you wouldn't expect. Once in a while, someone choses to share and in doing so transforms the whole fan collector landscape.
I think that if the environment weren't made so hostile by a select few, I think there would be more sharing. Had JoeR been given much more sincere encouragement, I think he might have found it amicable to find a way to make "JR" helmets available.
