I'm afraid I wouldn't buy a card that didn't have gold fingers either.
So, all the barb trading aside, what gold can be mined from these
exchanges?
Well, Paul presented a list of simple improvements to Bill's card.
That's the gold. It would be tough for Bill to focus on the gold
while ignoring the other, personal strife...
But, Bill, are improvements to your card something you are interested
in doing? I think that's all a reasonable person can do.. is just
ask. It would be great if you made some or all the improvements, but
your contribution is up to you to define.
In a competitive and active marketplace, someone would simply
outcompete Bill... thus providing incentive for him to improve his own
products. As someone else pointed out above, we don't have an active
marketplace... or at least, a highly active one.
While I agree with all of PZ's technical suggestions, I don't think we
can tell someone who kindly brought food to our party, "Ok.. I see what
you brought here.. But why the fuck didn't you bring more wine, and
better bread, and even some high quality raspberry spread?"
The only gold here are PZ's suggestions, and whatever gold Bill CHOOSES
to GIVE us as a result.