During my early years in the player piano hobby I was full of youthful
enthusiasm but knew next to nothing about the workings of these wonder-
ful machines.  I gradually got to know other people who were able to
help me when problems (frequently) arose and am happy to say that not
one of them adopted a mean-spirited, acquisitive attitude to my
problems but willingly shared their knowledge with me freely in a
spirit of brotherhood.

Never once was I rebuffed with, "Yes, I know why your instrument has
stopped working properly, but will not enlighten you until you give me
some money".

Now that I have more than a few years behind me and have acquired a
certain amount of knowledge I in turn aid anybody who asks for my
assistance.  If I cannot give helpful advice, I probably know somebody
else who can; I would never, ever enrich myself at the expense of a
person in trouble, nor would I regard them as being a lazy, good-for-
nothing nuisance who should get out of my life as quickly as possible.

Newcomers to the hobby have no idea where to go or where to look for
solutions when things go wrong.  Heaven forbid that they should ap-
proach the author of yesterday's MMD lead article; he might offer his
help -- but at a price.  The uncharitable "us and them" tone of the
piece quite shocked me.  In my view the opinions expressed were not in
keeping with the ethos of MMD: a forum to which anyone can turn for
help, information and advice.

I hope it is a long time before I read another submission like it.

John Farrell
stridepiano@tesco.net