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My summary opinions on this subject are these:

1] Frank Baxter and this site should never have been part of this discussion. The agreement he has with PB is of no significance to anyone. Business happens and in this case it is marginal and inconsequential.

2] Same is true for Larry Fine and PB. We ave long accepted and very much APPRECIATED Mr. Fine's work for what it is. Never portrayed as perfect or all-inclusive, it is as good as it gets. Once you get in this type work, it will never be completed, fully up-to-date or will 100% accurate.

3] The onus in this debate IMHO is entirely on Mr.Cohen.

In his new role and as "contributing Editor" of PB he has to show much greater restraint.

His own retail business is all Japanese and Korean pianos.

Mr. Cohen's website is uniquely strong worded against Chinese pianos, creating an outspoken negativism against a large segment of pianos on market today. Pianos which are constantly and rapidly being re-developed, creating advancements on the market. As such they will *have to be* continuously re-assessed in Mr. Fine's PB.

The mentioned circumstance of strong anti-Chinese propaganda in Mr. Cohen's own website is not only peculiar, it is in essence "hostile"
And this is clearly where the problem starts, certainly in regards to his new role as "Contributing Editor" of P.B.

In addition and as part of his new function as "Contributing Editor" Mr. Cohens' tone towards others here needs to be restraint, moderate and considerate. As "part time judge on the bench" one cannot say all one wishes [or feels like] unless one is willing to make oneself susceptible to exactly the type suspicions expressed.

"Interference" in things is one thing - power wielding, bullying, outright criticism and subtle manipulating of others, is quite another.

We all can make up our own mind about pianos and that's' something that Mr. Fine has always encouraged himself.

What was a small bon fire has become a bush fire.

By all parties adopting a more restraint, thoughtful, mutually respectful and co-operative tone, we should be able to move forward.

I certainly *will* - and hope others will follow suit.

Cheers to all.

Norbert

This is not about a better business model...never was. Here it all is in a nutshell:

If you own a piano rating guide and take advertising dollars from piano manufacturers you have a conflict.

If you own a piano dealership and sell pianos in the rating guide while simultaneously have a financial interest or any other interest in the publication you have a conflict.

If you own a dealership that sells pianos and have a financial or other interest in a publication that rates pianos, further, are a member of a piano forum and post favourable things about the guide that you have an interest in you are so hopelessly conflicted it is abundantly clear then you do not understand the conflict guidelines.

But I believe you do understand all of this Mr. Cohen and simply are obfuscating the reality that some of us have attempted to demonstrate to you.

It is how the world views this..These are not my rules..I don’t make the marketplace I just like everyone else try to live within it.

I am sure you involvement with Fine is somewhat benevolent because he wants out of the business. I just think your approach is somewhat misguided.

In the one forum, yes you are correct. I look at the bigger picture as visitors rarely limit themselves to one forum.

If you look at the last box on the bottom of the right column, it gives a snapshot of the current count for registered and unregistered visitors. Those numbers are generated directly from the ubb software.

The numbers below come from the analytic software on our servers.

Here is a SnagIt screen capture of the 12 months of 2009, including the totals (it also shows the breakdown for Dec. 2009).






This one might be easier to read:

Thanks.

I think this topic needs to be put out of its misery.

Ken