I'm glad Stereophile was brought up. Something I have done over the past several years is watch the tide of readers and posters rise or drop. While DIY and computer audio forums are holding their own and bringing in younger crowds. HEA forums are in serious decline just as the expensive products are.
Who would have ever guessed that a forum hosted by TAS would end up folding? Stereophile's forum is almost gone or at least a graveyard. This forum is now on the decline. A few weeks ago a member here had me take a look at the activity here, pointing out how many different posters were posting on any given subject years ago and how now there are the same posters on every thread. I was not surprised, but did wonder why Audiogon would allow this to happen. Maybe they are not paying attention or maybe they are going to let it go until it is too late. Or maybe they have plans in the works behind the scenes. However it works out this forum is hemorrhaging members.
The world has changed and people's priorities have moved on from being involved in the fascination of internet trolling. As I said on Stereophile "if you don't turn away you will die" I also said that to JA directly. The Stereophile forum in a few month's of that became a graveyard. The old saying goes "it's not a matter of if but when".
People are leaving here to sell on Ebay, Audiomart and several other places. It can be debated why, but by the time that debate has concluded the buyers & sellers here will already be gone. I have no doubt at all that the owners of this site are looking to what the future brings. They've got to be aware of the market decline, but what I wonder is are they able to move from negative to positive? Whoever grabs the positive ring first will be the winner.
As for me, I'm sticking with the positives. The negative folks can continue to die off or self implode. They'll go down kicking a screaming and trying to pull down as many as they can, but the end result will be the same. To those folks I say, "Nah". How many senior citizens can you turn from positive to negative? Who cares. For every one negative audiophile there are a hundred positive ones. I've said, and continue to say, "everyone paints their own picture".
I hope Audiogon is able to find that positive place. I know the on-lookers here desire that, but for how long will the interest stay here while trolls run free? Like on TAS and Stereophile, I don't think long.
Michael Green