Where has the respect gone?

Heck, considering the amount of people visiting this site, It seems amazing to me that this forum is still one of the best places on the net. I've had nothing but positive experiences with the people here. And since I am living in a hick town where audiophiles are harder to find than Bin Ladin, its my home away from home. As a rule we audiophiles tend to be extreamly civil in our dealings, and I for one am Proud to be a member of this site. Gosh.

Scpetscott, I'll pass on the word to ol' Dubya to move the focus of his search from the Afghan/Pakistan border to your neck of the woods, heheh.

I too have had good luck here as I've come across many friendly and helpful people. Ya there's an occasional jerk but most of the people are just the average folks who are generally good people.

I think the important thing is to step back and try to understand that this is a discussion board and other people have different concerns and opinions. I'm personally an argumentative person so I don't mind arguments but I can understand that some people absolutely hate it. I've gotten myself involved in some of the threads on ethics, which tended to produce the most heated debates because it is the most personal, and it's even more important to be rational and consider where the other person is coming from. A lot of us are strong minded and have our own principles and opinions. If you receive a flame, is it really because the poster is rude or because you've said something that can be quite discriminating to some people? To me, it's always about intentions.

I have been working with a local teenager that is interested in hi-fi. After running through the basics of system building and explaining why it is typically better to deal with "dedicated audiophiles" from Agon rather than Ebayer's, we found an amplifier that was within his budget. I had them directly contact the selling party via Agon's emailer and submit an offer to buy the unit. The Agon seller agreed to accept the offer plus shipping fees and forwarded their address to send payment to. The budding audiophile then responded back with questions to the seller about packing and shipping for the item as i had told them that it was a very heavy piece ( 60+ lbs ) and that taking care of such matters before it was shipped was very important.

After not hearing back from the seller, my "audio student" asked me to drop the seller an email in order to speed up the process. Before doing so, he forwarded me all of the email correspondence between them so that i knew what was going on. Everything looked good as far as i could tell and just figured that the seller had been tied up for a day or two. The next response back from the seller was that he was unaware of any transaction taking place and there was a deal pending on the amp with someone else.

Needless to say, i felt really bad for my "audio student", having picked an "audiophile knucklehead" to conduct his first transaction with. Given that the Agon seller had two positive feedbacks, i had hoped that they were going to be easy to work with. After reviewing the emails, i can honestly say that there was a commitment made between the two and the seller was at fault on this one. Not only was this "audio newcomer" let down in this transaction, we all were as audiophiles and members of Agon.

Like i said in a recent forum thread, "welcome to Audio Review take II". Sean
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I am sure I have been a jerk here on more than one occation. Annoying, I suppose. Never with intent, but perhaps because of general ignorance and carelessness. Most of the time I will observe this- question it (in retrospect) and I do feel sorry when I feel I may have acted in an offensive manner, especially when I have offered an opinion where I am ill equipt to offer one. enthusiasm overrides reason, and I know this is not helpful, and I know it can even be annoying. So, I officially apologize to all those I have offended here. Truly! But my point is, that even as I know myself I know that I am not alone in this sort of behavior. People can act in a disrespectful manner without intent- would, in fact, be upset if they thought they were doing so. Whereas I may not know very much about audio (sigh), I know this is true. I have always been impressed by the way members here seem to understand this, and have by large shown great tolerance and understanding when confronted with disrespectful behavior. Asking for respect is just another way in which people act respectfully. Demanding it is not. If you are asking where the respect has gone, you might also take time to consider where you yourself have placed it.