I just got a very disturbing note from Mary about a website which
apparently is devoted to slamming Modern Ferret and which has a lot of
garbage (?)/info (?) on it, or as Mary so politely put it: "There is a
post from a person on the AOL boards that has more information about
Modern Ferret than I have.  More than our distributor has."
 
Now here's the rub: if it's garbage then it's possibly slander.  If it's
true then it is someone in the publishing industry (given the types of
things there now -- unless they go and change it).  In that case it's a
highly questionable competitive action and possibly even grounds for a
suit.
 
In light of this I am going to tell the FML something I've kept under my
hat for some time.  A few friends here know about it, but I haven't even
told Mary and Eric so this is news to them.  I did NOT save the mails so I
can NOT tell you IF the person even told me the truth, or who the person
is, and can't even prove that I got these, so you can take this whichever
way you like, and I will try to find a fair balance to it, too, even though
it ruffled my feathers.
 
In a past situation where a few vociferous people were bashing Modern
Ferret for something which didn't desire bashing (What else is NOT new?) I
exchanged a series of letter with someone (who gave a male name, but like
I said I didn't check so that could all have been false, too, I had no way
to even know gender accurately as do none of us with stranger's primary
company that is competing against Modern Ferret and that he was tired of me
praising Modern Ferret and wanted me to praise the other magazines for a
change.  I do NOT recall if he said he works for them, with them, or what.
I don't even know IF he does.  Have had others say to me that I should
write something good about those mags before, but without his claim of
association, so I told him what I told them: I said that I WOULD do so IF
the company sent me a free subscription and I found it fair to ferrets
owners (including protecting those in FFZs who do not specifically not care
about being "outed"), being ACCURATE in the articles which affect serious
issues such as health, and printing retractions when they are wrong.  Said
that from my past exposure to the magazine I wouldn't mind a new editor,
but wouldn't insist IF the editor did ACCURACY CHECKS WITH SOMEONE FERRET
KNOWLEDGEABLE -- could be any of many folks we all know to have great
backgrounds -- I even mentioned names like the two Pams.  (Hey, I'd even
settle for the editor LEARNING as long as accuracy checks were done about
questions.) I was frank about this, but I believe I was also fair and
offered several routed to accuracy.  Anyway, I mentioned that if these
things were done for three months straight I'd post some praise and if they
could be done for a year straight I post strong admiration.  I KNOW they
CAN be done because of the level of accuracy Mary and Eric manage to get.
Now, I PAY to read Modern Ferret and even give it as gifts, so you might
wonder why I asked to have these others free.  The reason is because I USED
to buy them but stopped because of lack of accuracy except in some of the
guest articles.  For Steve and me ACCURACY is THE most important thing.  As
a result I have NOT bought any of the competitor's mags for some time; I
might look at a fellow FMLer's ferret picy at the store, but I expect bang
for my buck and when I don't get it I just don't buy.  Simple.  That means
there might have been improvement but you sure can't prove it by me; there
also might be just as many errors as before which could make these
dangerous at times still.  I can't say; I just plain do NOT know.  Anyway,
the person's response was to stop writing.  Now, I don't know if the
individual was just insulted, or didn't have faith in the ability to
achieve consistent accuracy, or if the person wasn't even with the
publisher so then felt it made sense to back down.  Whatever, that's what
happened.  It's been bothering me for some time whenever people gripe about
silly things but then ignore the important stuff such as the articles which
save lives.  Since then I have personally used an especially large grain of
salt whenever such clap-trap comes up, figuring at least part of it MIGHT
be started or continued by people who have an economic interest in hurting
Modern Ferret.  Oh, one last thing, IF Modern Ferret got driven out of
business by this would I buy the competitor?  Answer: NO, not if I have
evidence that the competitor (ANY competitor) caused the loss of the
livelihood of two people who have worked so hard in business and in their
own time to consistently HELP FERRETS AND FERRET PEOPLE.  I ALSO WOULD NOT
BUY IF THE ACCURACY IN THE COMPETITOR(S) REMAINED LACKING EVEN IF THESE
WERE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN.
 
I HOPE that people will not let shoddy practises by ANYONE, affiliated with
any given company or not, affect their choices of what to buy or sell.  Are
you listening, people here with BUSINESSES/pet stores/connections/breeding
sites?  Modern Ferret EVERY SINGLE MONTH gives the sort of health
information which keeps ferrets alive longer, helps sell your more
expensive products which are worth the cost, prevents deaths which prevents
you from having reimbursements.  This magazine doesn't help only us owners;
it helps YOU through helping ferrets and it helps ferrets because it is so
VERY ACCURATE!  Run some more ads or bigger ones, please, and perhaps
remind your buyers that ACCURATE HEALTH INFORMATION SAYS YOU ALL MONEY so
you NEED to keep Modern Ferret around!!!!
 
BTW, does AOL have any actions it takes if someone prints things which are
bad enough, untrue enough, or sue-able enough on one of it's sites?  Anyone
know?  If so, let Mary know how to tackle this!
 
I'm going to go write some gift subscriptions of Modern Ferret to feel a
bit better.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2790]