Quote:
Originally Posted by Fortis
In reality, a lot of people believe that these things have some sort of official status. In the UK we have had newspapers (typically tabloids) that have had stars "named" after the tragic victims of horrendous crimes. To my mind, someone is being exploited here.
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Yeah. And ften times it's distraught people, or people who are trying to perform some sort of grand gesture who haven't been told that the only thing they've actually purchased is a piece of paper and a little bit of ink in a book no one will ever see. People aren't getting what they think they're paying for, and no one on the receiving end of the money is piping up to fill them in on the details.
It's just like people who go have psychic or astrological readings. You can say "Oh, it's all in good fun," but not everyone is in on it. They don't put up big signs saying "This is fake. Don't heed our advice."
So, what ends up happening is someone names a star after someone for their birthday, or they name a star after their friends just departed daughter, and those people go to a nearby observatory, or even to an amature star party and ask to see their star, or their daughter's star. They're not in on it. The observatory coordinator, or the Joes at the star party have never heard of the "Cynthia" star. What do you tell these people? That they've been scammed? That they bought a piece of cardboard? That something they thought would be recognized the world over, and possibly for thousands of years to come, will never be heard of by anyone outside some dusty room in offices of the "International Star Registry"?
It's not all in good fun when the only people having fun are those who collect the money.