Hi Richard,
Are you from the trade or just a fan of NVA? Just thought I'd ask so I know whether to upgrade you to Trade Member :)
Marco.
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Hi Richard,
Are you from the trade or just a fan of NVA? Just thought I'd ask so I know whether to upgrade you to Trade Member :)
Marco.
Trade membership is free here and will remain so for a long time yet.
People in the trade can always post as non-trade members anyway. Besides, we are not planning to charge as we wish to encourage the trade to participate here in a way they don't elsewhere.
I take it that's a "yes" then, Richard? ;)
All I'm hearing these days is moans about PFM, Wigwam and ZG. Hey, anyone who's not happy there is most certainly welcome here :)
I'll upgrade you to trade member forthwith. Feel free to advertise or promote NVA in the trade room or wherever else appropriate.
Marco.
It gets more bizarre than that. Because I have made a point of not lying down and putting up with it recently even mentioning nva is now banned and any threads praising it are locked (be rude or critical and it is not locked :(). It is claimed this is because of the forum rules as banned individuals cannot be talked about. BUT nva was not banned, an individual called Richard Dunn was banned for not giving them money. So rules are being bent in order to satisfy the ego and greed of the owners and a fully fledged nazi type sensorship is in place. Sick people in a largely sick industry where behaviour like this is common place amoungst some retailers distributors and manufacturers. Well IMO it is changing, the industry is going back to its enthusiasts roots of the 50's and early 60's, even a lot of product is going back that way as it is realised that in a lot of ways the baby has gone out with the bathwater in the pursuit of digital and other chip based electronics. Convenience and music are difficult bedfellows and IMO will split. Lets face it men are naturally nerdy geeks who have to have hobbies. Well this market is leaving the mainstream and going back to its source nerdy geeks :D I hope this forum will maintain this trend and lets get back to that source, not money, not rip-off prices and products, not 50% mark up retailers, not biased advertising based magazines. But enthusiast builders and designers talking to and supplying enthusiast music lovers - the way it was and should be again!
If others want to comment and this thread is going to run perhaps admin can make a new thread with it as gromit is having his thread hi-jacked.
I think you've made some excellent points there Richard and it's clear that you are monitoring the market carefully.
On The Art of Sound our first prerogative was to get as many trade members on as possible, be it whether they are manufacturers, dealers or press members. Their 'close to the game' knowledge and industry awareness proves invaluable to consumers and consequently we want that accessable to our consumer members (which make up the bulk of course). Now to charge for that information and knowledge would essentially be shooting ourselves in the feet and would neither help those in the trade or the consumers. In this day and age of the internet it's very difficult to get good advice simply because the web is awash with nonsense and arguments so to get good honest advice from decent traders is a real boon to a site like this.
Whether a manufacturer / dealer promotes his or her own products is neither here nor there as an honest trader (and hi-fi is an honest industry) will only promote where there is a potential for satisfaction. i.e. If someone requires an amplifier to drive incredibly insensitive speakers to concert levels, a trader selling 1 watt valve amps is hardly going to suggest his product as a potential good investment.
So with this in mind we aim to get as many trade members in as possible, we won't charge them and we WILL allow them to promote their good wherever they feel their products are of noteworthyness. We will not be banning anyone or bending any rules, we'll simply be embracing trade members knowledge and advice. :)
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Richard,
Sure! Sound like a good idea, as long as it's not a blatant slagging off of other forums. Keep things polite and the criticism constructive and we won't have a problem. As soon as either myself or Rob get a chance we'll move your comments from here and transfer them to a new thread :)
I'm glad you're starting to 'loosen up' a bit now after your somewhat tentative (although understandable) approach before. Don't worry, we don't bite! :D
I think you'll find that The Art of Sound will fulfil your needs nicely. I won't comment on the decisions made by other forum administrators as it isn't our policy.
Marco.