Important news regarding moderation team....

[Titurel]

My best regards to the former mods. If only there'd been a little more space on the moral high ground.

 

[svosprey]

Agreed it's so ridiculous how people make their political beliefs their entire personality. It honestly annoys me to

Are you from the USA? Sorry if you are annoyed but we are about to have a civil war.

 

[PristineSound]

It is with deepest regrets, and immense appreciation for the work that they have done to inform you that Adam, Brad and James have decided to step down from their moderation duties. I respect their decision and have removed them as moderators. So yes, it is just me right now as the only staff member.

I can't understate how indebted I am to them for the hard work, dedication and care they have provided to support me in growing and nurturing the forum to where it is today. I considered them family and continue to have a warm place in my heart for them.

Sometimes the best relationships hit a rough spot and boy did we hit one on the issue of allowing or disallowing discussions around the tariffs US has imposed on the entire world. They feel allowing this means we are violating our rule of no political discussion. I feel that the human aspect of this is so immense that it garners discussion. Heck, I think it demand discussion lest we look like we want to turn a blind eye to incredible suffering that we are causing for many people both in US and around the world. There can always be another place where people can go and discuss audio. But damaged lives can't be repaired.

Normally I don't consider discussion of politics in a forum like this to make a difference. But here, I think we can influence people by bringing better understanding to the issues at hand. And with it, effectuate change. This is already working in real time with government backing off from the strong actions of a week ago.

For their side, the mods feel like I am violating the rules so they can no longer enforce them. I see their point of view.

I always say there is no rule book for running a forum. Every decision is subjective and has a possibility of being wrong, massively wrong. Or the right one. Ultimately you have to trust the wisdom you have accumulated in running such entities and live with the consequences.

So please join me in thanking the team for the incredible work they have done. I will leave this thread open for a while.

Please, please try not to create more threads on these topics. It is just one of me and I need to test stuff as well as running the forum.

Hi @amirm ,

This is CleanSound or formerly CleanSound. I believe I left this forum over a year ago due to exactly this situation of admin/moderator's stance on how to moderate topics and posts that contains politics.

The situation was that there was a member who constantly breaks forum policies and brings politics into discussions, the way how he goes about is always in a manner of attacking other countries, often times comes across to me in a very demeaning way; and in a contradictory way of telling grown adults to not buy Chinese, but yet he only owns Chinese audio equipment. I reported him multiple times, not only does his comments not get deleted, one moderator even hit the like button on one of this member's post with such politics. I was not necessarily deeply offended by the content of the political post, but I was very offended by how the moderator picks and chooses how to enforce the forum rule of no politics; hence I decided to leave this forum on my own accord.

I won't name that moderator, but I do find it very contradictory of that moderator resigning given the history of his arbitrary actions based on his own inner political views. But nevertheless, I know that moderator is deep down a good person (who else would do ASR moderating for free? ) and his work on ASR is invaluable.

Having said all that, I do not believe your posts and topics are political in nature, it is economic and social science in nature, but unfortunately, all things economic and social science can be viewed as political. And for the record, everything you posted is sound logic and conforms with economic and social reality, but atlas, anything that dabbles or comes close to politics is never pretty.

Gosh darn it, I sure do miss participating in ASR conversations, I would love to come back if you will have me.

Sincerely,
The new and improved CleanSound, PristineSound.

 

[jtwrace]

While I completely understand @amirm's frustration, as it does affect me personally with my business; I will also say that I truly come to ASR as the escape from the daily life BS we all encounter. This is a hobby and super fun to learn; IF there's political talk, I'd recommend a section for it which people can opt out if they choose. Further, the issue with that is it will create divisiveness over politics - which sucks. The one thing we can all agree on is that Audio Science is fact and does matter for us.

 

[RickS]

I have agreed to help moderate for now.

Please avoid overtly political posts or you can expect them to be deleted.

Thanks!

 

[GD Fan]

I'd love to see a new review posted just about now. Preferably about something that brings a bit of consensus - like a piggy bank panther!

Fingers crossed.

 

[Sokel]

I was always fascinated by the image of the world coming to an end and me having my last coffee on this earth listening to Rachmaninoff and looking at the view with the loved ones around me.
But that's only a fool's thought, no one can pretend to be careless while stuff around us changing by the day.

We can use audio as an excuse but the sad truth is very different.
Time and time again I have written that all this stuff is for fun for me, the moment they'll stop they'll go out the window.

Big part of this fun is the friends and company we have all this years doing our silly stuff. It's only today we met again and guess what: no silly stuff, only worry cause two of this company are involved with stuff that this new reality can complicate to a degree. You get the picture.

Huge respect for the mods acting with integrity.
But rules can sometimes put aside for a while. Hope we see them again at the mod team.

 

[svosprey]

Maybe we could just continue to discuss audio, with the same usual rules and the same (if possible) great team of moderators, and just open a subforum for discussion of subjects like tariffs, only open for members that register for this particular subforum, and managed by a different moderation team.

@amirm I'm sorry to say that I strongly agree with the moderation staff, and believe you are currently in the wrong! For example, I believe that if members are allowed to openly discuss our points of view on only the "human aspect", nothing good will come of it. I'm sure my personal views would invoke a strong and hostile response from many users.

Imo, if you continue down this road, you will systematically undo a lot of things this site has achieved.

Maybe. I don't want to discuss anything with fascists. If they are wrong about something as simple as freedom of speech and civil rights I don't care to hear their comments about anything.

 

[D2013]

Maybe. I don't want to discuss anything with fascists. If they are wrong about something as simple as freedom of speech and civil rights I don't care to hear their comments about anything.

Maybe they feel the same way about you!

 

[D2013]

I'd love to see a new review posted just about now. Preferably about something that brings a bit of consensus - like a piggy bank panther!

Fingers crossed.

I Really want to see the Adam A7V review!

 

[dualazmak]

I joined, from Japan, in this wonderful Forum in February 2020. At that time, it was the prologue of the unpredictable Covid19 pandemic storm.

Since then, my audio project has been nurtured and grown by ASR during the Covid19 pandemic until now, when disastrous Covid19 is coming to an end, despite the great chaos it has brought to human life.

As a medical and pharmaceutical professional, I have been deeply involved in the tragedy of the Covid19 pandemic, so I cannot express how grateful I am for how much my audio hobby through ASR has helped me mentally and physiologically during that time.

Now, the current political and tariff storm, in a kind of analogy, is similar to the early days of the Covid19 pandemic in that it (tariff issue) is not only the very early prologue but also an unpredictable situation.

The ASR Forum has even survived the Covid19 pandemic caused by unknown viruses that threatened the survival of humanity, so I believe that @amirm and his (returning and/or new) collaborators will keep continue contribute to advancement of this outstanding and wonderful Audio Science platform until (and further beyond) the storm of political tariffs (ridiculous? behaviors of humans) would soon pass and settle.

And, even no-need to emphasize again, but you would please be clearly aware of, do not forget about, that ASR Forum is now very much "international"!

 

[Cuniberti]

It's safe to say that these tariffs will affect the cost of nearly all the audio equipment discussed here. How can that be ignored, and why would it necessarily include a political point of view?

 

[svosprey]

What is your feeling about it

What is your feeling about it?

You didn't say a thing, you spelled out a sound and seem to think it has great import.

 

[Chester]

Am I the only one watching the Masters?

 

[Vacceo]

It's safe to say that these tariffs will affect the cost of nearly all the audio equipment discussed here. How can that be ignored, and why would it necessarily include a political point of view?

I had a fun experience from my classes this last week when I analyzed the case with my students, because I used hi-fi as a example.

How is adding extra taxes on someone buying a Marantz device (made in Vietnam) helping MacIntosh (made in NY) increase and refine their products as the tariffs are currently placed? If you cannot draw a clear line between one and the other, the tariffs are not about what they are publicly said to be about.

This is a very broad strokes case, as even MacIntosh uses parts not produced in the US. For example, if you get one of their class D amps, the amps themselves are made by Hypex in Malasya, so it can get a lot more granular. About services? Dirac is developed in Sweden, so another extra layer...

 

[Somafunk]

Am I the only one watching the Masters?

Golfing?…….my god man, waste of a nice walk

(And I say that as someone from the home of golf, and living within 500 yards of a course)

 

[svosprey]

Maybe they feel the same way about you!

GOOD! We need a block feature. Make it so Scotty!

 

[xanalog]

Sympathies.
If we all self-moderate ourselves a tad bit more... that would allow @amirm more time to keep feeding us with his exceptional reviews!

 

[Somafunk]

Yeah…that^

 

[Salt]

The Day After
the rant of the Boss over tariffs: closed for further comments ... the following >> thread: closed ... the 'political' thread: closed ...
Now: Important news regarding moderation team ...
So far the history, as I followed it.

Objectively Amir's rant was opposite of the general policy of 'no politics', and this arouse some activities, that had to be corrected by the moderators based on the forum's rules, and I imagine their pain ruling the right from wrong.

This is all changing from day to day, but ASR is around for 10 years or so.

I wish Brad always good health, James whatever he wants as he is no baby (modder) anymore and Adam good life without fire ( ) ... but mostly I would wish all players could rethink about what this Institution (don't call it forum, stupid) is.

Would bei nice to meet again, Sire.