I thought Ella had a nice touch: no matter how hard she scolded you, you didn't mind because she was a Sweetie about it.
P.S. Someone - maybe Ella, maybe someone else - talked about an entire LIST of problem children she had encountered. I seem to recall she even knew different IP addresses or maybe modem-ID-chips that they used to hide their seed-scavenging! (That makes me think it was someone more Internet-savvy than Ella, or at least with a better-working PC).
Whoever that was, almost relished whacking each repeat offender when they came back with a new alias.
Whoever that was, and however she did it, I'm guessing that Dave has power tools for suppressing any bad apples that arise. My rule of thumb is "How long ya been a member?" if someone I never saw before wants a big favor. If it's their first day on the site, I think twice, but maybe.
I keep thinking of suggesting "preference flags" for traders who have made more than X posts or contributed more than Y photos to ATP ... but we probably we don't want to be that exclusive.
It finally sank in for me why "fairness" is a big deal. Some seeds really ARE rare and/or precious to the owner. Maybe some are so expensive that one pkt IS worth worrying about the cost of, and the return on investment from.
Then "getting back a fair amount and quality" is a big deal for some, maybe much bigger than the $12 postage.
I hope we eager Betans SHARE some seed interests! It would be embarrassing to find that we all listed seeds that we personally love, but no one else wants! That's why "theme" swaps have a leg up.
