Wow, someone was up late last night and in a posting mood.

To me, whether someone breaks a rule or violates some other clearly-stated principle is irrelevant to A.H. status. In addition, why should it be necessary for the site to have to define every bit of bad form in a rule or sticky?

Everyone who comes here is literate to a degree; it's required to be able to participate, although there's no rule that one needs to be literate. Literate people understand that words have power, and they also understand that some words have more power than others. Here on this site they find words that are often the most authoritative available on a Lansing-related topic.

They understand that the use of these words will enhance their ability to sell an item for profit, or enhance their ability to appear authoritative on a topic, or improve their appearance of being literate, or simply will save them time and effort and the tedium of doing any honest intellectual work themselves. Some even enjoy the fact that it's unguarded and easy to steal.

So they just take it.

There's no "Please" or "Thank you."

This is deliberate. It's not an accident. They know that it's a form of theft, that it's dishonest. But they're lazy, or greedy, or ethically dead—whatever.

We can't stop it, though educating them might help some. Education usually has helped me. However, my point isn't about stopping it. It's that these people live in A.H.-dom, as you put it, and I'm just calling it as I see it.

I don't mind seeing information from this site included in honest auctions or postings on other sites if it's credited to the site or to the original poster. That at least is intellectually honest.