Bruce, I think it's your and Mike's establishment of this site which is the key to the integrity of the hobby. It's been a long process, but at this point, we all know the rules and our rules are good.
The shameful Champagne Rune SS ("CRSS") episode is a primer on how we DON'T DO THINGS. As ls6 aptly stated, and Bruce confirmed, we all know that "legacy" is not immunity.
All my opinions: The CRSS hoax showed how forums, moderators, and hobby "bigwigs" do harm to a hobby, which harm was like a 30+ year spooling train wreck and derailment that no one could mention, dissect, study, or question publicly. It is truly astonishing and disgusting that the man who exposed it, DougB, had to do his research behind the scenes, not openly on, say the WAF helmet forum, with transparent, uncensored discussion. I think had it been the "Champagne Rune K98k" we would have exposed it in the late 90s. He had to have his own website, GHW2, in order to publish his findings, which then forced the other forums to acknowledge them. The cat was then too far out of the bag to ignore, censor, or shove back in. There was too much crap out the donkey to shovel back in. One must openly question the competence or integrity of hobby "bigwigs" when the Champagne Rune Fraud was exposed by simple magnification and observation. How long have we had magnification? A thousand years? Those CRSS spray painted decal lids were trafficking for $5,500 to $24,000 a pop. They were in books. Yes, some of the "bigwigs" would post, "I'm not a fan" but that was it. How does that weight against the word of The SS Lid Guru, who takes credit for actually coming up with the name "Champagne rune", who authenticated them in his books and issued COAs for them? Which were then "authenticated" by the "science" of XRFacts? No one thought to simply examine them under high magnification before this? The most absurd thing is after DougB exposed this fraud, there were actually "bigwigs" and moderators who then claimed "well, we always knew they were bad." It was responsible then for you, a "bigwig" not to share this with the rest of the hobby? The bigger your wig, the bigger your obligation to the hobby and those who don't know, the new guys, to expose such antics. What kind of "hobby leader" or "moderator" or bigwig are you if you sit by while members of the hobby you lord over are spending $5,000 to $20,000 on airbrushed fakes worth $300. That's not how we do it. We are not like that. The guys who will take over this hobby and our collections when we are done (literally) are not like that. OK, I'm done.
In my opinion, a definition of "legacy protection" which perpetuated an incorrect opinion of legitimacy; right before the thread was locked on people questioning the "Champagne rune":
The shameful Champagne Rune SS ("CRSS") episode is a primer on how we DON'T DO THINGS. As ls6 aptly stated, and Bruce confirmed, we all know that "legacy" is not immunity.
All my opinions: The CRSS hoax showed how forums, moderators, and hobby "bigwigs" do harm to a hobby, which harm was like a 30+ year spooling train wreck and derailment that no one could mention, dissect, study, or question publicly. It is truly astonishing and disgusting that the man who exposed it, DougB, had to do his research behind the scenes, not openly on, say the WAF helmet forum, with transparent, uncensored discussion. I think had it been the "Champagne Rune K98k" we would have exposed it in the late 90s. He had to have his own website, GHW2, in order to publish his findings, which then forced the other forums to acknowledge them. The cat was then too far out of the bag to ignore, censor, or shove back in. There was too much crap out the donkey to shovel back in. One must openly question the competence or integrity of hobby "bigwigs" when the Champagne Rune Fraud was exposed by simple magnification and observation. How long have we had magnification? A thousand years? Those CRSS spray painted decal lids were trafficking for $5,500 to $24,000 a pop. They were in books. Yes, some of the "bigwigs" would post, "I'm not a fan" but that was it. How does that weight against the word of The SS Lid Guru, who takes credit for actually coming up with the name "Champagne rune", who authenticated them in his books and issued COAs for them? Which were then "authenticated" by the "science" of XRFacts? No one thought to simply examine them under high magnification before this? The most absurd thing is after DougB exposed this fraud, there were actually "bigwigs" and moderators who then claimed "well, we always knew they were bad." It was responsible then for you, a "bigwig" not to share this with the rest of the hobby? The bigger your wig, the bigger your obligation to the hobby and those who don't know, the new guys, to expose such antics. What kind of "hobby leader" or "moderator" or bigwig are you if you sit by while members of the hobby you lord over are spending $5,000 to $20,000 on airbrushed fakes worth $300. That's not how we do it. We are not like that. The guys who will take over this hobby and our collections when we are done (literally) are not like that. OK, I'm done.
In my opinion, a definition of "legacy protection" which perpetuated an incorrect opinion of legitimacy; right before the thread was locked on people questioning the "Champagne rune":
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