List of audio "VIPs" and commercial affiliations?

[mr_push_pull]

being a member of diyaudio since 2004, it occurred to me that we have among us a lot of audio "celebrities" and/or users with commercial affiliations.
what about making a list of these users? I've seen it done on other forums.

I'm not trying to promote the argument of authority neither suggest that all things coming from said users should be taken with a grain of salt. personally I find that the involvement of certain people in a discussion correlates (to a point) to its quality level but it's not a rule.

what are your thoughts about this? is there any reason we shouldn't do this publicly? would it break forum rules? other thoughts?

[DF96]

It would reduce the risk of marketing under the guise of discussion.

Sadly, it might also expose how many people making their living from audio don't actually understand what they are doing. I don't mean esoteric stuff which people argue over; I mean basic physics and maths and circuit theory.

[mr_push_pull]

one other problem I can see is that it could create a wave of private messages towards those people, asking details about products etc. or maybe not?
too bad I didn't add a poll.

[wintermute]

I think that some probably prefer to remain anonymous so that they can engage in "normal" conversations. Some people get all funny when a high profile person is present.

The results could be either stifliing of the conversation due to people being too afraid to post alternate view for fear of being shot down (not necessarily by the celebrity but by their fans), or quite the opposite where things get ugly because people want to try and find some fault with the celebrity.

There are of course many high profile people here who do not hide who it is they are. It's everyone's individual choice as to whether or not they reveal their identity.

Tony.

[mr_push_pull]

I agree (mostly).

but some of their identities have been more or less divulged in the course of discussions so it's public. I'm not talking about stalking people's details page, that's something else. OTOH the description page itself is public.

[Cassiel]

Haha, audio VIPs sounds funny. IMO the term is wrongly applied here because VIPs enjoy certain kind of privileges and I just don't see...I mean....you just write stuff here. That doesn't make you a special person, does it? Haha.

Hmm... the only thing I can see is that some members know more than others and that gives you extra freedom. Freedom to avoid foolish conversations, for example. That is a privilege.

[mr_push_pull]

Originally Posted by Cassiel

Haha, audio VIPs sounds funny. IMO the term is wrongly applied here because VIPs enjoy certain kind of privileges and I just don't see...

hence the quotation marks: Quotation mark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

semantics aside, you get my point.

say, Charles Hansen of Ayre is a "special person" in the context of audio because, unlike me for instance, he sells audio equipment and customers seem to be happy.

[SY]

From the standpoint of a technical forum like this, it doesn't really matter. Your arguments hold water or they don't, what you do for a living is irrelevant.

[Cassiel]

Yeah, you talk crap or you don't. End of story.

[mr_push_pull]

Originally Posted by SY

From the standpoint of a technical forum like this, it doesn't really matter. Your arguments hold water or they don't, what you do for a living is irrelevant.

here I disagree.
over time I noticed that most of the discussions certain people get involved in are different. not necessarily for the better, not always. [later edit] and that's because no argument is exhaustive[/later edit].

there's a good reason I haven't posted the list without asking first and that's because I anticipated disagreement. I'll happily obey the majority.