Posted by Wayne Parham [ 70.128.102.212 ] on May 12, 2008 at 13:19:03:
In Reply to: This is not the place for me... posted by Lumpy on May 12, 2008 at 08:54:18:
It doesn't matter to me whether the person I am talking with is a professional designer or a hobbyist. If they have an understanding of audio issues and have good ideas and things to say, what does it matter?
Some people like to talk about various commercially available products. Some like to talk about industry news. Some like to talk about DIY projects. All are fine as long as discourse is civil. The thing I personally prefer is discussion of technologies, design principles, etc. By sticking with the facts, design ideas, mathematical models and measurement data, you can hope to have a meaningful conversation withouit a lot of useless bickering about opinions. But when you start calling people out by name and making ad hominem comments, then you are sure to start a fight.
There is no reason to do this. You don't have to call Fred out on the mat. He has done a lot of DIY projects. Most of his audio is DIY, and a lot of it is his own creations. Even when he gets a kit or finished design, he tends to modify it to see how he can improve on it. So to say he is guiding this forum towards favoring manufacturers is just not true.
Bring up a purely technical discussion and see what happens rather than pointing the finger at someone and making a case aginst them, personally.
Just for a second, I'd like to look at the behavior of manufacturers verses non-manufacturers on internet discussion boards. I'm not including manufacturers that drop a single post in somewhere, perhaps a public statement or an advertisement. That is clearly business oriented, and I don't consider that kind of behavior as "participation" on discussion boards. What I'm talking about are people that regularly post.
Of those that regularly post, I've seen both pros and hobbyists get into ego-driven arguments. That's where the real problem lies, in my opinion. It isn't profit motive. It's an alpha male thing. Both hobbyists and professional designers alike are equally represented in that kind of behavior. You'll see just as many DIY'ers that want to be big shots as you'll see pros. You'll see it from all educational backgrounds too, from guys with a PhD in acoustics to mechanical or electrical engineers to high school dropouts. So it isn't based on background either. It's a personality trait, in my opinion, that drives people to try to be seen as "The Ultimate Authority" in audio and to get into heated arguments on audio discussion boards.
Go to any audio forum and you'll find two or three hobbyists that are always in fights. They're ego driven. You'll also see two or three pros that are arrogant and unyielding, also always in fights. If they were truly profit oriented, they wouldn't act like that because it rarely wins friends and brings in business. They are driven by ego, pure and simple. So I don't believe "the problem" has anything at all to do with a conflict of priorities between hobbyist vs. manufacturers.
What I see as the problem is the actions of certain individuals - pro and hobbyists alike - that, having a certain deportment, will try to make the case that whatever they are focused on right now is the most important thing in the world, all should listen and any criticism should be immediately smashed, naysayers permanently banned from discussion and branded as idiots and scoundrels. That ain't a profit motive, it's an alpha male thing, a problem of control freaks.
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