Dealer affiliations and attitudes, assumptions and lack of respectful engagement in audio.


When I started in Audiogon 20 years ago it was a different  place. There was pretty civil discussions with fellow audiogoners. There were audio dealers on the site and there were also hobbyists and it wasn’t a big deal.  I been on the dealer side/business side the last 7 years. Here is what I find. A lot of us tend to be quickly negative and nasty to those who disagree with us. We don’t have the sharing of knowledge spirit that we used to have.  A lot of us want to show others how much smarter than we are than them. In addition to that there seems to be an attitude that if you are a dealer you gotta be shilling instead of just telling the truth. More importantly there seems to be an attitude that audio is the only thing you do. I have a firm in my professional life that I have ran for 25 years. I’m smart enough to know you never know who you are talking to. I just think audiogoners have repeatedly started to step over the line and become HABITUAL LINE STEPPERS and not engage with the necessary level of respect.  A lot of us in the hobby just want to meet and have positive audio and music experiences. Not rage debate! WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS EVERYONE? 

calvinj

Showing 1 response by bipod72

Over the decades of joining and leaving forums like this, I've found that there are always a handful of people that love to troll. This was true of a cycling forum I used to be on in the early aughts. Inevitably, I learn to ignore them and engage with the those that might be able to part with the wisdom I seek. What I also realized is that phrasing questions or opinions in the right way so as not to come off as smug/aggressive/troll-like is something learned. If you have to deal with prickly clients or consultants in the "real world," you learn how to communicate in a clear manner that can be informative and diffuse a situation.

However, on forums like this, tone can be hard to determine. And oftentimes, sarcasm isn't readily apparent. That too is a skill that you can't get over-night. It's like the on-line discourse of Gen-Z and Millenials that think punctuation like periods and exclamation points and thumbs-up emojis are like a slap across the face.

At the end of the day, social media has removed the veil from many people's abilities to be calm, respectful of others' opinions, and being tactful.