Should dealers be able to......

It depends, but members should have an opt out option (IMO).

Sometimes, a seller may have a special deal that he/she can put together for someone based on what was said in the forums. That could be good. Sometimes, a seller may have hard won knowledge about a situation that a potential buyer may not know (e.g., Thiel speakers may sound better with MIT cables and there is a 30 day trial) even if it has been said in the forums before. That could be good.

More often, I suspect, a seller is just trying to push their product. That may be annoying, but it is the American way. However, privacy regulations can be pretty strict and I believe that you may ask someone not to contact you again and they need to comply with that request (true for phone and mail -- not as certain if this is true for e-mail). This is a reactive technique that won't stop new companies from going after you.

The proactive way to cut down on these e-mails is for Audiogon to allow each member to opt out of seller communications. I suspect that a notice could be added to the e-mail screen for those who choose to opt out. That would allow each member to decide whether they are willing to pass up the potentially good seller communications in order to avoid the "bad" seller communications. Plus, it would make the folks at Audiogon our heroes. Great question. Sorry for the long-winded response.

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.

I agree with Sdcampbell. Anyone that builds an e-mail list from A-gon members (not easy since the actual e-mail is hidden until you get a reply from someone) and then uses that e-mail to send "this month's specials", or other spam, in my opinion is completely wrong. However, if a dealer reads comments in the forums and believes they have some pertinent information, that would otherwise come off as advertising in the forums, then I agree with SD that this is more showing initiative than being annoying. I also agree that if a user requested not to be contacted, or simply didn't reply to the e-mail, the dealer should take the hint and not e-mail that person again. I've only had one person e-mail me to tell me about a particular product. I wound up trying it, it didn't work for me, and was very easily returned for a full refund minus the shipping. Although I didn't care for this particular product, this person's business practice was such that I would do business with them again.

It is very simple anyway:
Weather you or someone else accept the offer or not before it's being advertised on the web. Sometimes it happens to find it reasonable and go for it and that's for you do decide. The main thing is not to think that you're saving him/her $2 ad fee:)
You're right being not the only one. I get it from time to time as well and deside myself seing nothing wrong in this situation.

I would prefer not to recieve email unless I solicit it. I don't care for the medium,though I recognize it has it's place.