Any good video sites out there?

@cleeds Yeah, I read those. I'm not seeing how I'm in violation at all.

@artemus_5 I hear you. My point was not just that my ox got gored -- though, you're right, it DOES sting more -- but that I raised a topic worthy of debate for this community of hobbyists.

If I can take one thing away from @cleeds point, it's that "this is a business site." I suppose that criticism of businesses -- which the YouTube channel is one, clearly -- is not tolerated. This seems short-sighted because businesses get better with competition, don't they? 

@rsf507 Thanks. I try to be polite but that doesn't mean I have to only compliment things. No pain, no gain, as the weightlifters say.

Sometimes the people we think are big and thick skinned are the first ones calling the hall monitor. That said, I don't actually know who called the hall monitor.

@cleeds You’re cracking me up -- because I cannot see how you cannot see. Then again, you may just be pulling my leg. Good one, buddy!

@facten Hans Beekhuyzen, John Darko, A British Audiophile, Goldensound, Pearl Acoustics, Pints with Ayre, Audio Architekt, are a few. I also get a lot out of the conversations on Audio Excellence, Thomas and Stereo, too. Jay’s Iyagi can be good as can Acoustics Insider.

@mahgister We agree on the notion that a hobby is more than the stuff people sell in it. That's why your voice is such a valuable one, here. What seems interesting -- from the standpoint of cultural analysis -- is how *touchy* sellers can be. They dominate the world (in the process of using up the resources and polluting it) and yet if you make one criticism, they get so angry. Why would that be? Maybe, as you surely have said many times, it's because the house of cards falls down very easily when criticisms are made.

So, I found out why the thread was removed. Someone complained.

They said

"I would like you to check out a new thread. It is under 'mis-audio' and the title is "Why YouTube can seem a ridiculous venue for reviews". The OP (hilde45) has decided to bash another member by creating a thread to ridicule and bad mouth the OP of one of the most popular threads on Agon....'jays_audio_lab'. Jay started a very popular YouTube channel in addition to his Agon thread where he reviews audio gear. Is it OK to start a thread on Agon just to bash someone? I mean this OP hilde45 has gone out of his / her way to put down and demean Jay. If he doesn't agree with Jay then don't follow him but to intentionally create a way to put him down doesn't seem like it has a place on Agon."

All I would say about this is that I was not bashing a member, but rather raising a critique of this channel's tendency to be hyperbolic -- and I gave the evidence. This channel is a business but also a site of journalistic opinion. For some reason it requires special, extra protection.

My post was raising for consideration the proliferation of hyperbole in the video opinion realm. Anyone who read that knows that.

Why it's possible for a member on our site to call this "bashing" is beyond me, but I guess I didn't count on feelings and sensibilities being wounded so easily. 

I guess I found out the reason. 

@artemus_5

Many do not understand nuance.They equate all actions as one in the same.

This is pretty much the last thing I’ll say on this issue.

Artemus -- Agreed. I’ve done many posts and have been misunderstood at times. When I’m misunderstood, I first look to see if it was how I initially put things. In some cases, I have clarified, in some cases I have retracted, and in other cases I have stood by what I said. In this case, I stand by what I said before, and now.

In my initial post, I did not us the Agon user name or his channel. I did list some of the hyperbolic titles, some of what had the name "Jay" in them. I kept the title verbatim because I was quoting. Sleuths here figured it out.

Some here rushed in to "save" Jay from my "bashing." But Jay wrote those titles, not me. He has 10k subscribers. He is engaging in public discourse, open to all. My calling attention to title that *he* wrote on a *public* channel is not bashing. Do his friends and followers believe he is so vulnerable as to need their rescue?

In my little opinion, the strategy of clickbait titling, on a pubic-facing audiophile channel, contributes to an issue discussed very often on this forum -- the tendency for industry participants, including reviewers, to promote gear with hyperbole ("the best ever" "the greatest" etc.). It is a way of doing things that I think dilutes and cheapens conversation about the hobby. Disagree? That’s fine. What are your reasons? But clutching your pearls and calling me a "basher"? Grow a pair.

I’ve explained this position to the moderator who understood what I was up to and promised to pause a bit longer before deleting another post of mine.

Again -- I know this site is a "business." But I’m not a business. I’m a person, engaging in conversation with others about an art form -- living in a culture. Culture trumps business in my book, and I don’t ask permission from "business" for what I say. I say it and see what happens. There was blowback. Fine. But some understood what I said, why, and they took away something to think about. I don’t care about convincing the close-minded or other angry keyboard warriors looking to fight a battle. No need to waste time.

@t_ramey  Yes, and that comment, too. Well done.

@teo_audio 

Being boxed in and drawn out by the depth of inclusion of the internet, in our lives, has only exacerbated this normal human relational set of issues. Most importantly, and dangerously, it has put a set of filters in place that many/most are only marginally aware of (consciousness issues in individual level and type) and created a deep capacity for coloration, by others, the ’others’ who control and shape the given ’internet’.

Well said. I love to hear your voice and learn from you. You are a part of the internet that makes me feel less boxed in. Thanks.

@jjss49 

and regarding censorship, it is no more wrong for someone to call out click bait than it is for someone to put clickbait out there in the first place... free speech should cut both ways yes?

Agreed. Indeed, my influence is minuscule and I make no money by calling out clickbait. Whereas the other individuals are making money at diluting the conversation with clickbait and hyperbole. If anyone stands on weaker normative grounds, it's the carnival barker. But it's all "free speech." Those who think it's "no big deal" are welcome to think that; I have a different set of standards for what I think constitutes real discussion.