Horological Meandering

MTF
[PuristS]
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Me thoughts.....

"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
Do you think, at your age, it is right?

Dear all,

[sigh]  This has been debated much-ly.

If this were the only thing we do in Life and had unlimited resources, on the surface, some of this makes sense. We could even appoint somone as Facilitator to "Make It So", as Capt J-L Picard would say. 

But look deeper and there are problems.

Why open a cesspool for the disenchanted to plunge with the disenfranchised?  There is enough negativity in our lives  -- don't take away our make-believe safe haven where everything is Perfect.     Remember that PuristS is about searching for perfection in an imperfect world.  We know it is an imperfect world.  We know shit happens to some people, some of the time. The aggrieved have very loud and persistent voices  --  that we have discovered over the years of moderating "stuff'.  The satisfied are the silent majority, by definition. Occasionally, we even get the well endowed who are happy to share their good experiences.

Let's say that Brand X makes (and sells) 10,000 watches of one model. Imagine the return rate (for all reasons) is 5%. That's 500 pieces. Assume the 80:20 rule of generally happy to unhappy people because people are like that; 100 Sad Sacks. Even though PuristSPro is a popular horology site, I do not presume that all 100 of those people even know of this site, let alone participate here. So maybe we get 1 or 2 who make the effort to rant. That is 1:10,000 sampling (it could be zero to 100). It then becomes like the prophet scene from 'The Life of Brian"....it must be true because everybody present.....heard the bad news. Nobody counts the 9,999 others who posted nothing; mostly because they are happy or nothing bad happened or it wasn't bad enough to rant (or rave) or they .....gulp....just don't visit our site   

We can never capture the denominator. Even with the best of intentions, it just becomes a rabble of he said she heard someone say......

Whinging Corner:

It does not help the individual because by the time they resort to public lynch-mob, they must have exhausted local and personal avenues. If you can't get it sorted out in person, it probably can't be sorted out by remote control on the WWW; don't hide in a crowd of baying wolves.

If they are of vindictive or mob-mentality to use this as primary resort.....er....we don't want them here.

It works the other way around too. Like the Emperor's Clothes, we have "built up" reputations of certain watch brands / makers that are eventually found out to be somewhat lacking "substance". This economic recession is turning into a magnifying glass.....er.....loupe, that people are inadvertantly using as a measure of 'quality'.

When I was younger and 'innocent', everything was black or white, Good vs Evil, Angels & Demons; I would have been The Facilitator. rushing around  --  tilting at windmills.

Now, I'm just tired.......

"You are old, father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head --
Do you think, at your age, it is right?

"In my youth," father William replied to his son,
"I feared it might injure the brain;
But, now that I'm perfectly sure I have none,
Why, I do it again and again."

"You are old," said the youth, "as I mentioned before,
And you have grown most uncommonly fat;
Yet you turned a back-somersault in at the door --
Pray what is the reason for that?"

"In my youth," said the sage, as he shook his grey locks,
"I kept all my limbs very supple
By the use of this ointment -- one shilling a box --
Allow me to sell you a couple?"

"You are old," said the youth, "and your jaws are too weak
For anything tougher than suet;
Yet you finished the goose, with the bones and the beak --
Pray, how did you manage to do it?"

"In my youth," said his fater, "I took to the law,
And argued each case with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my jaw,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

"You are old," said the youth, "one would hardly suppose
That your eye was as steady as ever;
Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose --
What made you so awfully clever?"

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father. "Don't give yourself airs!
Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?
Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs.

 -- Lewis Carroll