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John Potis - Rest in peace

Hello.

It is with a heavy heart that I come to tell the Audiogon community that John Potis has passed away last night. As I got to read his work at 6moons.com and Positive Feedback Online, I developed a strong appreciation for his reviews of high-end audio components. I came to feel he was perhaps the best writer in the high-end audio hobby currently. Not only did John exhibit the great skill of being able to balance the artistic and technical aspects of a component he was describing, he also did a bang up job in letting the reader know how it actually sounded.

He was a bull of a man, and it still seems impossible to me that the cancer took him down so quickly.

Though manufacturers/distributors and reviewers are supposed to keep a high wall between them, John and I developed a very close and deep friendship over the almost 2 years time that I came to know him. He was a devout family man, possessed a wicked sense of humor, was a great guy to hang out with, but most of all, he was a genuinely good and decent man who did his best each and every day.

Godspeed to his wife and two daughters,
Joe
trelja
trelja OP
3,223 posts
 
Thanks for all of the posts to this thread. I have been in contact with John's family, and it was an embolysm that took John down, not the cancer.

Obviously, his wife and daughters are still in a state of shock. What concerns me beyond getting them past this difficult time is the medium - long term, since John was the primary bread winner of the family, and their housing was a part of John's employment as chef at the country club they lived. To that end, I am hoping to organize a series of benefit auctions here on Audiogon for the benefit of the family. Hopefully, the site, along with a large number of industry people will lend their hands to help the family. More to come.

Still, none of this feels real to me...
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,388 posts
 
"organize a series of benefit auctions here on Audiogon"

Fantastic idea!

Is suspect many will step up to the plate to help the family of a guy like him!
audiofeil
4,011 posts
 
There's a vendor currently advertising on Audiogon who continues to use John Potis' reviews in his ads.

Don't know about you but I find this extremely distasteful.

What say you Wally?
newbee
4,768 posts
 
Yes, Bill it certainly is distasteful. In fact I think we should burn all of the literature of dead authors and purge historical records of any mention of their existence. Period.

What's the matter, John published some reviews of equipment that you don't handle which are creating some competition for you.

If Wally or anyone has license to use what I assume was copywrited stuff, then why not. What exactly is distastful, or did you mean disrespectful, about doing so?
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,388 posts
 
Unless some copyright or other legal right of usage issue exists, I don't see anything wrong with using another person's endorsement of a product to promote a product. That's a most common occurrence in marketing and generally is a positive reflection of the endorser.
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