You're being deliberately obtuse, I explained it in the same line.
Good luck with this thread, I'm glad that no one agrees with you, I can't wait for this to drop off the recent discussions.
My wording was bad. what I should have said is, why do you consider your example a "false" 3-star trade when the system says it's a 3-star trade? In Open trading you have the right to call it whatever you want, but in the current restricted trading system you get in trouble for pointing out the unfairness of leading people to believe this or that trade is fair based pretty much on the production costs alone.
As for "no one agrees with you," I'm wondering how many do, since, in my part of the world I see more cross tier trades, more 1 and 0 star trades, and more 3 star trades AND my trade board is more robust. I've been encouraging my neighbors and fs to change their ways and now I see a LOT of large 3 star trades and even some large cross tier trades being posted. My fs trade board is very short and it's usually less than an hour that my trades move, -- even the large ones, though sometimes, I admit, the large cross tier ones take a few hours. I've never had to pull a 3 star trade for lack of interest because I've learned that the market wants 3-star trades and I can even use scrolls or anything else to rapidly get what I and my fellowship needs. I hear all about people having all kinds of trades they don't like on their board and complaining about it. So? Do you take every trade? Of course not. You take the ones that either benefit you or benefit somebody you'd like to benefit. That's great.
But do you also get mad because there are trades you don't like and find beneficial on the boards? Do you then turn around and put social pressure via rules on players to make only trades you like and find "fair?" Do you post rules for your fs, communicate that those rules are "fair" and otherwise encourage and sometimes enforce your standard of fairness? If you support the restricted cross tier or no 0 or 1 star trade, you do.
No, because I get no enjoyment out of endless semantic debates until all but two of us have long since tired of the game. That's more Ash's thing, to each his own.
And I'm sure as heck not going to get into dissecting Uncle Milty here.
I'm sorry if my posts sometimes seem like "endless semantic debates." But words do have meaning and sometimes more than one, which means you do, on occasion, need to enter into at least a discussion of semantics. Sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, but it makes me uncomfortable to see almost every player taught when they get here to trust a system of rating trades that is patently inaccurate. And to have rules to enforce that, overall, harmful system.
I am still going to play & trade how I see fit...IDC how many times other people try to impose and/or project their will on me(or whatever the heck it is). If I see trades & I want to take them. Guess what? That is MY business. If I see trades and don't want to take them. Guess what? That is MY business.
How is it you've missed my many declarations that Open Trading is all about doing what you want? You want to (in my opinion, unwisely) uses the star system to measure the fairness of your trades? Knock yourself out! You want to reject cross-tier trades? No problem, Open Trading is " free trading." But if you want to go around telling others the star system is always a fair and useful measure of trades, or even most of the time fair and useful, and then have player
imposed rules about that, then I get a bit upset because it
imposes on others needless and unwise rules. Don't be disingenuous by insisting these rules stay in place. For if the players
impose these rules then they are
imposing! Open Trading is informed trading. Informed about how the star-system is based upon a faulty measure. Informed about the range of trades you can make, and about removing the
imposition of bad rules upon new and old players.
To all posters.
I get that you don't like cross tier trades. I get that you don't like 0, 1 star trades. I get it you don't like the trade boards filled with trades you don't like that you have to scroll through. I get you want to trade however you want to trade, without a lot of extra work. And nothing I have said, other than to point out that such attitudes may be hurting you and your fellowship, has said anything about restricting how YOU trade, though, of course it might take a bit more time if the trade boards become loaded with
more trades you don't like (you don't usually take ALL the trades you see, do you?). Open Trading is about freedom from social pressure and imposed rules telling others how they are allowed to trade and calling their trades "unfair" because you wouldn't take them given your current circumstances and belief that the star system is the best we can do. When you label a posted trade as "unfair" you are, as I believe it was Soggy who said it, making a moral judgement. Most of us believe we ought not post an "unfair" trade and use words like "gouging" to describe them. We think, therefore, the person posting the trade is morally suspect since he/she just did an "immoral" thing. Sadly, this is not healthy in any game. And rules which impose a moral standard upon people should do so because the lack of that moral standard hurts the people rather than harms them. The current player imposed rules do the opposite. They harm the freedom to trade as you wish and thus the freedom of the players.
AJ