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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
viridian's avatar
viridian
5,297 posts
 

+1 Calvin, well put. And we can all use a reset from time to time.

tony1954's avatar
tony1954
1,272 posts
 

Since my retirement, I have made a concerted effort to rid myself of what I saw as "flaws" in the way I lived my life and interacted with the people I love.

It wasn't that I was abusive or someone that never got invited to dinner. It was just me fine tuning my life.

My motto has been to "make better choices". Whether it is stopping when the light turns yellow or not having giving up gluten or drastically reducing my alcohol consumption, the changes have been 100% positive.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we all have the capacity to change. If you find yourself stepping over the line, just dial it back a bit.

As Mort Sahl once said,

"If you don't think you are a jerk, you probably are."

evanpress
35 posts
 

The nastiness we see is just a small slice of our larger society.  What I see almost daily is that people on TV, the internet, social media etc are nasty and cruel.  Yet in real life, at the market, the gym, or wherever in-person, we are pretty good, polite, helpful, even cheerful.  Just saying....

tony1954.  agreed.  and it is easier to be nice than nasty.

 

calvinj OP
2,597 posts
 

I posted this because of how I’ve seen us go after each other from time to time.  It just Audiogon either. Was on another forum and a response to me was filled with assumptions. The person was a first time responder to me. He was off base on every point he tried to make. That made me realize how many ass sumptions we can make about people we don’t know! 

devinplombier
773 posts
 

There are several audio forums where a vast majority of interactions are civil and pleasant. Folks contributing their experience and helping other folks who are in need of some assistance.

To be fair, these tend to be specialized forums (fora?) focused on DIY or on a single brand or some arcane specialty. Even here on Audiogon, you'll find tube-related threads to be rather sunny and tranquil places.

As far as the general-interest threads on here, too many are like this one: just lit matches masquerading as faux outrage.

 

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