I've been following this discussion (and past ones which it much resembles) silently. Like one poster I've been puzzled that some of those complaining most loudly clearly lack professional level writing skills. Perhaps it's true that standards are different for forums...but I'm a dubious sort who'd feel more credulous were there evidence at hand...and I'd certainly not tout my skills loudly in public while offering concrete evidence of their absence.

This aside, I find the larger question far more intriguing: do I, as a hypothetical non-professional, owe it to the pros to keep silent? Should I refrain from submitting my (hypothetical) written work or photography at less than professional scale in order to protect those who feel they're worth far more than I? It's an interesting question

Well, what happens if I apply the same standards to other realms: shall I not re-shingle my roof when it leaks, to protect the carpenter who might suffer for lack of work (or, a better analogy, to prop up his wages by increasing demand for his services)? When I was younger and more vigorous I used to rake leaves, shovel snow and help people move households to and from the neighborhood; was I unfairly undercutting the professionals who were then charging substantially more than I?

What about later in life, when I became a tradesman myself; should I have responded angrily to those who offered what was generally lesser quality work for far less money than I? I mean, instead of what I actually did, which was to figure out how to offer what they could not, and to make the case to my employers that this made me worth what I charged, and preferable to those who charged less. Successfully, I might add.

I'm prepared to question my assumptions, but at the moment I continue to believe that if the professional laborer, carpenter, photographer and/or writer cannot offer more value in some recognizable form than I, the not-entirely-hypothetical amateur, well, it's not my job to preserve their earning power for them. Rather, it's wholly their job to find some way to capitalize on their presumably better skills, connections, insight, experience....or whatever it is that makes them believe themselves deserving of a certain level of compensation. If the market (a dubious concept indeed, but useful at times) doesn't agree with their elevated self-assessment, it is not up to me to prove them correct.

In the present instance, if there are people here with something special to offer--something which has real value to the reading public--by all means sell it to whoever is willing to pay for it. Some of you are already doing this. But if what you're offering isn't worth very much to those holding all the cards, or if a great many people on any random website could do just as good a job as you.....well, maybe you won't be able to earn a living as a writer. To get paid you've got to offer something for which there's a demand, something special. It's not enough to complain that other people are doing it more cheaply, and that they really ought to stop.

The problem with all this is that I agree, in a general sort of way, that the situation with regard to writing standards pretty much sucks. There is a lot of written work out there, and most of it is badly conceived, badly written, badly edited, badly executed in more ways than I can count. The reading public---which includes all of us, I gather---doesn't have much patience or taste, and we don't look to be developing any in the near future. It's a shame that good writers aren't paid more, and that poor writers soak up way more than their share of the limited amount of money available. It's a shame that the good magazines are all going belly-up, and that mediocrity prevails over class and substance. There's a lot of shame to go around, no doubt about it.

Yet this doesn't alter anything I've written above; if you want to earn a living at writing (or anything else), you've got to offer something that others don't, not try to persuade them to refrain from competing with you. And you've got to connect with someone who's willing to pay you for that something special. At least, that's how I've always seen it.

I hope this post, rambling and disjointed though it may be, is taken in the constructive spirit in which it is intended. No insult or disrespect to other posters or their stated positions is intended....and I'll look forward to hearing more from any and all.

Safe journeys!

Mark