I suppose virtually everyone who spends any time using the Internet has gotten fed up with "spam", so I certainly understand why you might find it irritating for dealers to contact you directly. Having said that, we need to bear in mind that Audiogon is a public forum, and only dealers have to pay to participate.
If a dealer has taken the time to research the posts and see who might be interested in his/her products, that shows some business initiative, and from my perspective is an acceptable practice. It is certainly preferable to the snobby high-end dealers who won't give you the time of day until you have given them a large down-payment.
As others have suggested, maybe an "opt-out" for A-gon members might be an option. I'd only be interested in using that option for myself if I were regularly receiving unsolicited sales pitches from dealers, which I don't. The only time I got a dealer response was after I put a "want to buy" ad in A-gon and got an E-mail from John Rutan of Audio Connections in New Jersey. John is a real audio pro, and he treated me so well that I bought some speakers from him, and subsequently went back to him with repeat business.
If a dealer has taken the time to research the posts and see who might be interested in his/her products, that shows some business initiative, and from my perspective is an acceptable practice. It is certainly preferable to the snobby high-end dealers who won't give you the time of day until you have given them a large down-payment.
As others have suggested, maybe an "opt-out" for A-gon members might be an option. I'd only be interested in using that option for myself if I were regularly receiving unsolicited sales pitches from dealers, which I don't. The only time I got a dealer response was after I put a "want to buy" ad in A-gon and got an E-mail from John Rutan of Audio Connections in New Jersey. John is a real audio pro, and he treated me so well that I bought some speakers from him, and subsequently went back to him with repeat business.