Things should probably cool down in here or people are liable to get banned...
And I don't want any of my head-fi brothers to get banned.
(except maybe a few of you
)
Sam
The mods must not have noticed this thread yet.
As for the advertising/merchandising angle, there's another perspective you all should consider.
It goes without saying that there are costs involved with running a website. Servers, bandwidth, professionally administered software, and much else are legitimate expenses. This site would not be here if someone wasn't paying those bills. Advertisers and sponsors help out a lot. So do the individual contributors, who are genuinely appreciated.
Now, where do all of these marketers come from? If you go back a couple of years, a new Member of the Trade ("MOT") showed up once or twice a month.
Today, we're tagging one or two MOTs every day.
The MOTs are not massive retailers with 400 outlets in the United States. The MOTs, by and large, are Head-Fi members. You guys. Lots and lots of people are trying their hand at starting and running a small business and they've chosen to use this community.
So the big commercial push is - for the most part - an internal one. The community here is sprouting new businesses. That's because people here buy from their friends and people they know, so, naturally, you're going to get startups.
Let me be clear: I think this is a good thing. I like to see small businesses and startups. It's healthy and many of the biggest companies here started out of a garage. We're getting some great products from this - look at what Audez'e has done.
The tricky part comes in managing the combination of business and social activity. Like I said, Head-Fi needs revenue to stay online. That revenue comes from advertisers and sponsors. Unfortunately, we are not able to let people advertise for free.
If you were paying to sponsor your own forum and supporting Head-fi, how would you feel about free advertising given to someone else? You'd probably want to stop paying for advertising, right? So we have to keep tabs on who is a MOT and make sure those who pay for advertising get what they paid for. Otherwise, there won't be any money to keep the lights on.
There have been a lot of comments about Huddler. If you find a bug or have a feature suggestion, please put it in the Bug/Feedback Forum. People are paying attention there and there is a good deal of work going on behind the scenes. Nothing I can reveal, but I'll see Jude and others working here, quietly, at all hours of the day and night. Everything won't be perfect tomorrow or next week, but it is being worked on.