Manufacturers pushing their products and agenda in the forums.

viridian

Something to keep in mind is that Agon and the audio professionals here are in conversations about this issue on going. In fact the conversation started when the Audiogon Forum first began and has never stopped.

Michael Green

http://www.michaelgreenaudio.net/

Hi viridian

I've probably had several usernames as I'm notoriously forgetful about usernames and passwords. But they all would have been something to do with the business or me personally. Michael Green, RoomTune, MGA or something along those lines.

I've been a part of several of the marketing campaigns here while in discussions of how best to promote using Agon as well as being in discussions about Agon itself within the industry. I don't remember all the names of the marketing ventures Agon has done, but recall the Marketplace one, Dealer Showcase was another and the Banner system where we as advertisers would buy credits and go up and place our own banners in different places on the website. I'm sure there were other programs that we did with the Gon, but those are the ones that come to mind. I believe my last in person meeting I had with Audiogon was during the 2005 (I think maybe even 2004) show when we were at the Vegas Towers. I remember meeting with Steven and Alan stopped by to take pictures of the place for their show report.

I'm happy to share anything that I can to add to the mix. I came on board as an HEA designer in 1989 and quickly became part of the reviewing scene and as quick had 650 dealers carrying RoomTune in the US and distributed to over 30 countries by the early 1990's so was pretty up on the industry's MoJo at the time. Before that was a dealer myself so I got to see the hobby as a hobbyist, dealer then designer, three completely different mindsets btw. My first store was started in 1981, while I was sound engineer at Turner and In Touch and for the Atlanta Symphony, as a little background.

Always thought Audiogon was a cool and unique place and have seen it's development as an important part of the HEA chapter of this hobby.

Michael Green

http://www.michaelgreenaudio.net/

A question for you viridian. (very timely and important thread btw)

When you joined years ago have you been an active poster ever since?

I haven't been obviously but am interested in Audiogon as a whole ever since I have started posting here regular in person. I started my own audio forum in 2004 "TuneLand" and learned many things about forums in general. TuneLand the current version is a much smaller hangout vs the first one which out grew me quickly, but visiting other forums is very informing and shows the trends of the hobby's personalities and do's and don'ts. I say do's and don'ts in reference to things I would never do on my own forum but see practiced elsewhere.

My "other forum" experiences include a few but the ones that caught my attention were the Stereophile and TAS and here that I jumped in and participated in Starting with TAS which folded, then Stereophile (troll city) and here, still very much seeing the potential but as this thread is pointing out may want some changes. One of the them being thread building issues.

Michael Green

http://tuneland.forumotion.com/