Manufacturers pushing their products and agenda in the forums.

From the OP:

Manufacturers now post into the forums dogmatically espousing their myopic view of the hobby, shamelessly pimping their own products and view of the audio world and, even more disturbingly, running down opposing brands.

IMHO, it may be time to throw the baby out with the bath water and ban manufacturers, distributors, retailers and importers. If they can’t get their act together they should take it on the road.

FWIW, my perception has been and continues to be different. Certainly what you describe in the first paragraph I quoted occurs on a fairly regular basis. But nevertheless it seems to me that the contributions that are regularly made here by those who are part of the industry on the whole provide value that far outweighs those negatives.

A much more significant problem, IMO, is the non-constructive and unpleasant turn many threads take, which as I see it is generally attributable to the personalities of some of the posters, whether they be members of the industry or not (and in most instances they are not, if only because most of the membership is not part of the industry). But of course that is inevitable to some degree at any Internet forum, and under the circumstances I think the moderators do about as good a job as could be hoped for in drawing a balance between controlling that kind of discourse and stifling discussion.

Best regards,

-- Al

     We live in a country that's the poster child for free enterprise, freedom of speech and mildly restricted capitalism.  We're bombarded almost from birth with thousands of advertisements on a daily basis for every product under the sun on every available medium. 

     Being good capitalists, some manufacturers/retailers/non-hobbyists have recognized the opportunity that audio forums represent for a bit of free marketing.  This has been going on here and elsewhere for many years and, personally, I don't think it's a big deal.  I've grown rather fond of identifying 'shilliness' attempts and calling them out when necessary.  
     Why's there a sudden interest and urgency to stop this practice now?   Unless you're from another planet like elizabeth,  it just becomes 2nd nature to ignore these ads or forum shills and quickly move on unless you're interested. 
     Wait a minute, the OP who instigated this manufactured issue has the user name "viridian".  Do you think he's one of those whining little green lizard-like slimy crybaby type creatures from the planet Virid?  

Tim

     I just wanted to add that I think we're lucky to have industry insiders, like almarg and others, post on various subjects here on Audiogon.  I've found their contributions, based on years of experience and accumulated knowledge, to be very valuable and hope they continue to post as long as they're willing and able.

Thank you all,
      Tim