[Captain Quirk]

Originally posted by Bergovoy
You are speaking from the perspective of a sponsor, or promoter or maybe a vendor or manufacturer...

Uh, no, I'm speaking from the perspective of a hobbyist. A hobbyist with more than a 20 second look towards the future of the hobby...

BUT from a consumer point of view, the more events the merrier...

Still disagree. That's akin to the more movies they make the better... I'll take quality over quantity, thank you.

If there are that many vendors willing to promote thier wares and or they feel the need to be front and center to the public, then it will only benefit the end user. I want a devalued product that works like a million bucks...

Don't know how to respond to that... Although I'm not a fan of the way that we often get "gouged" for our stuff just because it's "reef", I also don't see that it does any good to price manufacturers out of the market. The increase of manufacturers is helping drive down costs to the consumer already; this has helped tremendously. I don't think manufacturers will want to be at 12 events a year...

Also, education should be key in anything we do. So many of us look at livestock as just dollars and hence that livestock is "devalued" (to use your term). There isn't enough of a sense of responsibility towards these creatures we all find so beautiful. There will undoubtedly come a day when wild caught specimens will be unavailable or at the least require a permit. Just because it isn't that way now doesn't mean we shouldn't treat our current livestock with the same amount of respect.

Again, not looking at all perspectives will get you only part of the picture...

Undoubtedly. Are YOU looking at all perspectives?

I may not be fully aware of all the aspects involving each facet of the hobby, however I do make an attempt to understand them all to a degree. Perhaps it's my socialistic nature that makes me lean a bit more heavily towards education and conservation. Perhaps I should be a bit less selfish...