Why is the snake oil topic closed?

" Debussy understood that a work of art
Or an effort to create beauty,
was always regarded by some people as a personal attack."

...one's 'snake oil' may be another's 'essential oil'...and vice-versa, of course...

Any attempts at humour can be construed as an application of ground glass into the potion at hand...

...which is why (IMHO) this topic was doomed from Post #2.

(I'm generally surprised that topics of this nature go on as long as they do, but...some things are just like that....) 

@moderators

Please, this thread has no technical merit to this "Tech Talk" forum and is polluting it, please move it to "Misc Audio" where it belongs.

Cheers George

Anyone who wants to make a quick easy buck in this industry can try their hand at the following time honoured practice. Get a deal with a manufacturer of cheap electrical cables to supply you with a variety of cables. You can specify various design criteria, braided, coloured sleeving, different termination etc etc. 

Now you can sell them at whatever markup you fancy as long as you have a USP (unique selling point - marketing jargon) for each one.

All audio products sound different no doubt, but the only ones most humans can easily distinguish between are loudspeakers. You can also include Tube amps and turntables/ cartridges if you love analogue - who doesn't?). You can pay more for build quality, aesthetics and features and if you wish but don't kid yourself you're getting significantly better sound.

It seems criminal that some engineers are working extremely hard to further standards in these areas, often with little financial gain, whilst purveyors of snake oil rake in easy money.

Yet this is the way of the world and its only fair that newcomers to audio get a fair warning. Things were even worse before the age of the internet. Or were they? I guess on balance they were because in those days there was very little information outside magazines, a whole different world of hurt.

How many of us eventually leave this hobby due to disgust at being swindled? 

Let’s see, maybe we should establish what it is all of these people are complaining so bitterly about. I’m sure there must be some specific things that really get under their skin. Or is it just a general paranoia? Who knows? My guess is there's gotta be something pretty reprehensible, disturbing, out there to produce so much angst and anger. Sure, everyone gets a little upset over super high cable costs and aftermarket fuse prices have really gone through the roof. But, geez, there must be some other things out there that are really bothering people. Maybe some uh, criminal things. Hmmmm, I wonder what they could be....

So, without further ado, your humble scribe, and a prime suspect in the hunt for purveyors of dreaded Oil of the Snake, presents The List. In no particular order, the list of really, really obvious and noxious Snake Oil products. By the way, PWB Electronics of Leeds England, another primary Purveyor of Oil of the Snake, (Peter Belt RIP) is still going strong, cranking out gallons of the stuff as we speak.

The List. These are the ones you really have to be careful about. The ones with the snake 🐍 next to them are from Machina Dynamica (blush).

THE LIST
Mpingo disc
Shakti Stone
The Green Pen (Audio Prism)
Red ’x Pen
Cream Electret
Silver Rainbow Foil
The Teleportation Tweak 🐍
The Clever Little Clock 🐍
The Quantum Clip
Franck Tchang’s Acoustic Resonators
Original Cable Jacket
SteinMusic Harmonizer
Brilliant Pebbles 🐍
The Intelligent Chip
Super Intelligent Chip 🐍
Golden Sound’s Ultra Tweeters
Flying Saucers for Windows 🐍
Morphic Message Foil
Shakti Halographs
Schumann frequency generator (Acoustic Revive)
Xtreme AV Tourmaline Gun
The Photos in the Freezer Tweak (courtesy PWB Electronics)
C-37 Lacquer
VPI Brick
Marigo VTS Dots

HONORABLE MENTION
Tip Toes, aluminum cones, the first
Audio Technical wet playing system for vinyl records
Herbies Audio Lab Tube Dampers
Iconoclast ionizer from Mapleshade
Auric Illuminator CD treatment, one of the first
Extreme AV Liquid Resolution CD treatment
Audio Deske CD Improver (edge beveler)
Extreme AV Quicksilver Gold contact enhancer
Nimbus Sub Hertz 6 DOF Isolation Platform 🐍

to see those all listed on one page, and think of all the damage they have done to unsuspecting audiophiles...