Propeller Head Plaza

Posted by Posy Rorer (A) on April 09, 2007 at 13:50:15

In Reply to: Can I plead for a cessation of personal attacks. posted by May Belt on April 9, 2007 at 03:07:32:

Re: Richard Bassnuts Greene: If I worded anything to suggest I had deleted the troll's post, then what I was implying was that I had asked the moderators to do so. Of course after he saw this, it sparked Mr. Bassnuts to go on a runaway crusade against PWB, adding post after post in an effort to be as abusive and aggressive as possible toward the company, while dancing around the AA policies. (Which are only sometimes enforced for serious defamatory accusations, but as Mr. Bassnuts has figured out, rarely ever enforced for "C. No flames, personal attacks or contentious off-topic comments". If it was, I don't suppose you'd have had a reason for writing this message). He was being so purposeful and vindictive about it, I couldn't resist the temptation of responding to him in kind. But I will avoid his trolling campaign and let him spin his wheels until he gets bored of himself and finds a new shiny toy to focus his attention on.

I also found it disturbing when I discovered that the threads that were on Prop Head (or possibly other forums) were segregated to a single forum for so-called "controversial tweaks". Like as if they were "The Elephant Man", that no one wanted around, but you could always go to a special place "called "the Isolation Ward" and gawk at them with the freaks who might advocate them.

These esoteric products are simply different approaches to the same thing that everyone here is interested in: improving their sound. While the staff and the majority of members may be unfamiliar with them, and for that reason, not "believe" they should be of any consideration, that is no reason to apply a lower status upon them, stuff any discussion of them in a truly out of the way place (a -sub-section- of the tweak forum!). That makes it harder for people to discuss them openly in the more well known forums, so that they are better understood. There's nothing more evident around here than the fact that so few people properly understand these alternative audio products. Eventually, like spikes and cables were pooh-poohed by conventional minds, these products will come into general acceptance; but forbidding certain audio products to be spoken about in any location but the back alley by the dumpsters, significantly delays this process and does not do anything good for the progress of the audio community.

Furthermore, I take exception to the fact that the forum references the PWB foils in their forum description as "magic foil". I don't know any PWB products that work by "magic", nor any that even use the word "magic" in the name. "Magic" is often an adjective used by ignorant naysayers to denigrate these products they know nothing about. Nor for that matter, do I know of any "mystical tweaks", so God knows what -that's- supposed to refer to. I think this really shows just how much bias and prejudice on the part of AA went into this decision to relegate an important category of audio products to a sub-forum, called "The Isolation Ward" no less. Which by the way, no one seems to know what to put in it. I've seen people ask "What defines a controversial tweak" and received no good answers to that. Hence, that must be why I see people posting to the "Isolation Ward" subjects like Musical Fidelity headhpone amps and CDs. These are "mystical controversial tweaks"?? In fact, there's only about 3% of the posts in that forum that could even come close to being described as "controversial tweaks". I'd say it's a failed idea, it was a bad idea to begin with, it's a useless forum as it stands, and get rid of it already!

As to my own experiences here, by various people, I've been called "an idiot", a "poser", a "con man" (despite the fact that I don't sell audio products) and accused of using "con artist tactics" (for offering to buy "Pat D" a GSIC chip, if you can imagine). And I haven't even gotten started yet. (I've only been back on AA for all of about 2 weeks now). In fact, in my very first post here, I was welcomed by Jim Austin as being an "ignorant", and by some peculiar quirk of his imagination, was immediately accused by him of trying to defend you, and he even suggested I was asked by you to do so. As if! I found it interesting how Jim's language betrays his mindset, where he characterized this process of me weighing in on the subject of the Belt phenom as a 'defense' of his message to you. Which implies he was busy "attacking you". I don't see where this idea of "defending yourself" and "attacking the other" has any place on a serious discussion board among mature audiophiles who should be respecting each others views. Particularly by a degreed audio journalist. Is this an audio forum or is this the battle of "Braveheart"?

But this Jim Austin-style speculation of people or audio (presented as true) without knowing the facts, this belligerent mindset he has, these groundless attacks on others who have opposing beliefs, these attacks on character without a second thought... These are the typical elements you see on all the audio groups. Fully grown men acting no differently than boys with toys. I heard there were some serious audio people on AA, so I presumed it would be different.... but it isn't well moderated, so I found it isn't much different than the Wild West. It seems "reasoned productive discussions" on audio can only be had here by people who already share the same beliefs. I've avoided getting into debates with some people here simply because I can see they have a nasty hostile attitude right from the beginning, and I already know debating these people is going to be a waste of time. This has caused some of them to be even nastier toward me, which further exemplifies their problem.

I see this across all the other audio forums on the net, people are rarely ever open to learing new things about audio. Only interested in defending the precious children they've carefully nurtured all these years, namely their beliefs. Moreover, if you so much as express a belief they oppose, even if not to them, you will often get attacked for it.

Although each audio group has its own "flavour", other than the PWB discussion group, I have not seen -any- audio discussion group on the net where these very same attitudes are not prevalent. Including Audiokarma which actually promises "audio without the attitude" in their banner, and yet has plenty of it (the only difference with them is they just refuse to recognize or acknowledge it). This is why I opened up my own discussion forum for those who wish to have serious discussions about audio, where you have a serious chance of learning from each other, how to improve reproduced sound. Minus the attitude.