For several years, I have subscribed to a couple specialty collector forums. One of my myriad collecting interests is military history, and that is an area where the risk of fakery and trickery abounds. The forums are a great place to learn from those who have invested time to understand the arcane aspects of certain types of collecting. I follow some regular contributors like a rock groupie because their knowledge is so deep. Reading what they say has saved me money and prevented me from making bad buys. It has also cost me money insofar when I did not read their advice until after making a bad purchase. One painful memory was the discovery that a very expensive group of medals that I purchased had been fraudulently assembled onto a long bar for formal wear. The forum writer showed how to tell that they were fake, and, sure enough, my piece fit the bill. It was an $800 ouch and a lesson about doing my homework. That being said, I also follow the forums like one might follow a car or bike race, in order to see an accident coming. What I mean is that when collectors of varying backgrounds get into a debate, well, it can turn pretty ugly pretty quickly. I have seen it reach a point where people were ejected from the forums and threatening legal action. Mostly the fights seem to take place when collectors write at cross-purposes to each other and noses get out of joint. This is the curse of the internet world. One cannot always discern nuance and behavior in a typed posting. Thus, my cynical funny response can be misconstrued as nasty bullying. I see it happen a lot, and it makes me want to tell some folks to take 12 hours before nastily responding to a posting and cool off. A recent example was where someone inadvertently claimed a photograph as his own that belonged to someone else. The owner of the photo went ballistic and, despite apologies from the first party, things got out of hand really fast. Another aspect of online forums is the ubiquitous pile-on when someone shows an item and the first responder calls it a fake. Often the item is fake, but I have also seen cases where the pile-on occurs and the item is genuine. In the world of antiques, a sin is to call something real when it is fake. A mortal sin is to call something fake when it is real. I just saw a medal posted that everyone called a fake until the real expert jumped in and pointed out that it was, in fact, genuine. Things ended well, but it was a lesson about the pile-on. The online forums are very useful tools and I hope that I have not scared people from joining them. I just think that like anything, one needs to filter the forum before accepting things as real. Born to collect should be the motto of Peter Seiberts family. Raised in Central Pennsylvania, Seibert has been collecting and writing about antiques for more than three decades. By day, he is a museum director and has worked in Pennsylvania, Wyoming, Virginia and New Mexico. In addition, he advises and consults with auction houses throughout the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly about American furniture and decorative arts. Seiberts writings include books on photography, American fraternal societies and paintings. He and his family are restoring a 1905 arts and crafts house filled with years worth antique treasures found in shops, co-ops and at auctions.