Am I... where?
Yet, you're a
forum donor here, John. Did you think Amir was in dire need of financial assistance?
OK.
You have a point for sure.
More like a subscription to a magazine like Stereophile I guess. I used to subscribe to plenty of electronics and HiFi magazines back in the day. They gradually all lost my money, even ones where I had loyally subscribed for many decades (and have the boxes of magazines to prove it). Publications ultimately became parodies of themselves as they tried to "adapt to new paradigms" and "reimagine themselves" etc. Sad to watch.
ASR is at least "nimble" enough to adapt and embrace new ways of doing things and much as it isn't perfect (what is?), it's pretty good and probably deserves our ongoing subscription/s. Plenty of members think so. Like many things in life, it is a transaction. If you feel you put in more than you get in return, you should be compensated and vice versa. A generous anonymous member clearly felt my contributions to ASR had some value, so that's why you see 'donor' on my tag.
I like to contribute in my own way to ASR, just as you do. For me, it trying to provide some perspective, historical information, technical repair help and some hands-off analysis/opinions of gear people ask about. I don't want to be a celebrity reviewer, I could easily go that path, but too many cooks in the kitchen comes to mind. Especially when all those cooks want to put their own "spin" on the dishes...