Regarding the first complaint of commercialism on this site,

Mr. MacDonnell's recent postings of alleged concern about commercialism on
this site is surprising because he is in fact the TOP commercial
contributor.  He makes it a point to solicit sales of his "inventory" or
"books" at the end of all of his postings and even places a direct link to
his website in every message.  He also advertises his membership to
professional bookselling organizations at the end of all his messages (what
does that have to do with Mark Twain?).  Recently he promoted his business
by distributing limited edition "freebies" to forum members on a first come
first serve basis.

In fact, he is the author of the most commercially pithy message ever posted
to this site [See the FORUM ARCHIVES for FEB 21 2004 under the heading
"change of email address" wherein he 1. Reported on his own commercial
activities, including a statistical analysis of his personal Mark Twain
dealings with Sotheby's in June 2003.  2.  Advertised his issuance of a
catalog of 700 Mark Twain items for sale. 3. Solicited the sale of about 40
boxes of Twain material. 4. Notified the forum that if anyone had any
"specific need for yourself or an affiliated library, do let me know."  5.
Asked members to contact him via phone or email to buy such Mark Twain
memorabilia directly from him. ]

It is important to note that no one ever complained about his or anybody
else's commercial activities on this site.  To the best of my knowledge no
one posted a single complaint about any solicitations of  "wants" or "for
sales" posted to this site.  That is because those postings haven't posed
any problem.

Now, all of the sudden, Mr. MacDonnell acts as if there is some sort of a
problem?  How can he justify this hypocritical behavior?  He is smart enough
to be able to place a link to his commercial website on every posting, yet
somehow is ignorant enough to ask the moderator for help in explaining the
forum rules which are easily found on the homepage.  The issue at hand is
Mr. Mac Donnell's own problem and his abuse of this site. It would be a
downright shame if Mr. MacDonnell's highly selective attack would scare
anybody from posting legitimate Mark Twain messages of any sort in the
future.  Mac Donnell's hypocrisy sure doesn't scare me.  Mr. MacDonnell
should take a good look in the mirror and apologize.

Bob Slotta