From: garry@alice.att.com (garry hodgson)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Re: Tape trades gone bad? Help!
Date: 8 Jan 93 18:45:40 GMT
Reply-To: garry@alice.UUCP ()
Distribution: rec
Organization: AT&T, Bell Labs

In article <9301071810.AA11626@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca> stevep@snowhite.cis.uoguelph.ca (Steve Portigal) writes:

   I've traded tapes with a lot of people over the last 12 months, and it
   has been an overwhelmingly positive experience...I've "met" cool people,
   learned more about the music I"m interested in, got ahold of some great
   stuff and shared tunes that I enjoy with others.

Indeed.  There are a lot of cool people out there.  The trading scene
round here is a great manifestation of the sharing attitude that is
(or should be) part of the scene.

   Nothing is totally perfect
   though, and I've been frustrated by one or two trading attempts that have
   gone horribly awry. In one case I've been waiting 7 months for the tapes,
   each time I send email I wait weeks before hearing back, and am told
   "it's in the mail".

I once waited a year and a half for some tapes from one of the local 
net.gods.  He was up front, though;  his taping queue was large, he
was very busy, and he'd get to it when he could.  He never bullshitted
me with the "check in the mail" stuff.  When I got the tapes, his
enclosed note said, "Now you know why my queue is so large".  He was
right, the tapes were awesome.

   I'm wondering if anyone else has encountered this problem and how they have
   dealt with it. Do you just write it off?

In several years of trading, including running several trees, I've only
been burned for tapes once.  I also had to make some additional tapes
to cover for this person, as he was one of my top level tree branches, 
and had supplied his branch with sub-standard copies.  After failing
to reply to numerous email messages, he finally responded to a personal
on r.m.g.  He'd been busted, lost his tapes, was gonna try and get another
copy of the show i wanted (6/18/74)...  If it's all true, he has bigger
worries than my lousy two C-90s.  If it's not, well, he still has bigger
problems.  I choose to believe it's true, and wish him well.  Maybe 
someday I'll actually get my tapes.

   It's really tempting to blast this
   person's name all over the net with a dire warning "Do trade with XXXXX",
   but that seems somehow vengeful.

I considered that, but it seemed kinda low.  I chalk it up to good karma.
I'd rather lose a tape now and again than alter my world view which says
that people, in general, will usually do the right thing.  If someone
swindles me out of a couple o' tapes, I'm out 3 bucks.  He has to spend
his life being what he is: a lowlife who would sell out someone's trust
and good faith for a lousy 3 bucks.  I know which end of that deal I'd
rather be on...

The vast majority (99%) of the people I've traded with have been positively
delightful.  They were eager to share what tapes they had, or offer suggestions
about favorite tapes to trade.  The people that run tape trees invest
a great deal of their time and effort to spread the tunes around.
Several folks in trees have sent tapes to me long before we had a
"deal" worked out to trade or do blanks; they were just anxious to
get the music around, and we'd settle up later.  Indeed, this is how
I like to run my trees; I get the top level copies shipped ASAP,
then worry about trades. 

So if there's an occasional bad apple out there, don't let it spoil your fun.
Chalk it up to experience, appreciate the good people, and bend over backwards
to make sure you don't do it to someone else.


-- 
Garry Hodgson			A slow winter day
AT&T Bell Labs			A night like forever
garry@alice.att.com		Sink like a stone
att!alice!garry			Float like a feather