i can't wait for andy to pop back up and be like "Just picked it up at the post office! Sending it back with tracking and insurance!"... but then again I'm an optimist
Frankly, nobody in this thread, on either side of the issue, has handled this appropriately. What bothers me is that there are a lot of very junior members participating, who probably don't feel confident enough to provide their perspective in a battle between big guns, and at least some of them are probably falling on the side of the fence that feels slighted. That's not good for this forum.
You've all handled this crappily at points, but frankly, the carelessness that actually resulted in the loss of the diode is Andy's. I don't know Andy, but I trust ARG's assessment that Andy is a veteran with credibility and good character. Given that, I don't understand why Andy isn't contributing in some meaningful way to a replacement. I would have, in his shoes. The loss is his fault, or his assistant's. Nobody else's. If ARG had consulted the thread before sending the diode off, then he might have saved himself some headache because he'd have the thread on record agreeing to it, but it is Andy's mistake that very directly caused the loss of the diode.
In any event, madmacmo has proposed something very generous. I suggest that everyone, regardless of your side of the fence, embrace this sentiment, and try to make something work (without the cost falling on just him). It doesn't need to be a polarized issue going forward, the key objective now is just to fix things. The idea of getting together a replacement is a good one.
Vets should view the remedy of this situation as important to the forum as a whole, particularly in light of all the junior members who are probably keeping their views silent, but may have strong feelings one way or another. Many of them probably think that the more senior members, as a whole, suck royally in terms of how they've all handled things.
I'm not in this GB, but I'll put together a package of stuff FS thus weekend, and have payment go directly to this cause.