A thread on one of the train forums I frequent mentioned today that the number of listings for Marx trains on eBay is down about 50% over what it was a year or so ago. Not only that, the listings are by and large the common, less interesting stuff.

Meanwhile, a debate rages on another forum I read sometimes, frequented by eBay sellers. On one side are the eBay apologists, saying they'll just change as eBay changes. On the other side, people struggling to make a profit in the ever-changing environment are finding other venues to sell their wares and finding themselves a lot happier.

This week, John C. Dvorak makes a good argument in favor of net neutrality.

I'm going to take it from a different angle. I am a conservative. While I rarely vote a straight Republican ticket, I am registered as a Republican. Republicans generally are against net neutrality.

They are wrong. I will assume it's from a lack of understanding rather than bad intentions, but in this case, wrong is wrong. I'll explain why.

There's something about the Internet that turns people into jerks. Or maybe there's something about jerks that turns them on to the Internet. -- Tim Barker, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

I loved that lead, and the rest of the story is good too. I first started using the Internet in 1993, and I first went online sometime in 1986 or 87.

Steve Pokin, the journalist who broke the original Megan Meier story, published an account today of the decision not to press charges.

Some of the things in the article trouble me.

St. Charles County Prosecutor Jack Banas announced today that he won't prosecute the online vigilantes who drove Megan Meier to suicide in October 2006. Here's the St. Louis Post-Dispatch story, which has more details than the AP story. Not only is the legal system failing Ron and Tina Meier, it's also failing Lori Drew, her husband Curt, and Drew's employee and co-participant, Ashley Grills.

It's been about 10 days since the story first broke about 13-year-old Megan Meier being harassed online by a 48-year-old neighbor posing online as a 16-year-old boy and eventually being driven to suicide. The blogosphere has gone nuts, the story has national and even international attention, and while none of this will bring Megan Meier back, at least there's been some progress.

All indications are that the people who taunted Megan Meier to suicide on Myspace are getting plenty of harassment themselves now. Some would call it karma; but breaking more laws doesn't make things right.

Buried in the comments on a couple of stories, I found perhaps the only legal and ethical way of getting back at the Myspace hoaxers.

In honor of the three-day weekend being over, here's some of the negativity I promised last week.

I've been on a buying spree lately. I've been using Craigslist a lot. But I had one recent experience that was extremely bitter.

Pearl Jam came out in favor of net neutrality after AT&T censored a broadcast a performance they did in Chicago last Sunday. I guess AT&T didn't like Pearl Jam's anti-Bush message.

I don't know if Pearl Jam's sudden embrace of net neutrality is out of ignorance, or if it's retaliation. It doesn't really matter because it should help bring some more awareness to the issue.

Google's corporate perks are the subject of a Fortune magazine article. I'm going to take what I suspect is a contrarian view on this. I think Google's excessive spending on its employee perks is a good thing.

Why? Because I've seen what happens with the opposite.