Ronny wrote on Fri, 20 October 2006 01:40 |
"Censorship can never be a good thing."
Exactly.
Not only does PSW censor members that don't post agreeable posts to the moderators, but they delete some of the moderators posts when they aren't agreeable with the owners. We aren't dumb asses, we know that you make money on the advertising and over cater to some manufacturers who pay the bills. It's obvious what's been happening for quite a while now.
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Actually Ronnie, I didn't want to get into this, especially on this forum because this is a non-tchnical topic [which in my opinin is best suited for the "Saloon"... but that is my opinion and we will leave this quandary in the hands of this forum's moderator as to the disposal of this thread].
Let's hit the "rewind" button for a couple of minutes and look back to the formation of PSW's recording forums back in like 2001.
I was contacted by Ken Berger who at the time was the owner of PSW to put together a set of recording forums. I took the challenge for a monthly stipend and complete autonomy. I received an adequate stipend, and the complete autonomy [which to me was actually more important than the stipend part but I wasn't set to tell that to management at that point, and seeing as I had both all was good].
Within a year we built a pretty good environment. We had "Mixerman" and "Harvey Gerst", "John Klett" and "Seva". We were able to build a site that was based around the community that at the time was indeed "professional audio".
Time went by and the infamous "Mixerman Diaries" lifted the fame and I dare say infamy of the old "recpit" to the point where in January of '04 it was decided that the recording forums had to split. 1/2 of the "recpit" became "MARSH" led by "Mixerman" and his crew. Its a pretty cool site on the more social aspects of what we do. It is a place where there is a social order and structure which R/E/P doesn't have where mud can be slung with out penalty nor much backup from the management of that section of the website.
When the "recpit" split R/E/P was formed as a more technically oriented site where decorum was not only expected but enforced. When George Massenburg first opened his forum he had a pretty strict policy that you had to include your name and professional affiliation to post. Anyone could read, but to contribute you had to be A) identifiable; B) accountable for your statements.
Klaus Heyne has continued that tradition in what I feel is absolutely the most authoritative forum on the subject of microphones in the world. Ross Hogarth, Terry Manning, Dave Hecht, Steve Albini, and yes, Mr. Lavry have produced what I would like to think are the most civil and authoritative set of audio production forums available on the internet. These forums are indeed about facts and opinions that have a basis in fact more so than myth.
What happened with the original thread was that Mr. Lavry decided to edit several posts made by Lucas (sp?) from Apogee Electronics. Now Lucas is also a respected design engineer, he too should have had the ability to voice his full statements without interdiction from the forum's moderator. This did not happen, which in my opinion diluted the value of the thread in question because of the censorship of a view that opposed Mr. Lavry's view.
Whether Lucas's words were spot on or not is a matter for greater minds than mine to decide. It is my job and position to see that those words were available in the thread as this site, and these forums are to enable open discourse on any topic by those qualified to make those comments. It was indeed Mr. Lavry's censorship of the fore mentioned statements that prompted not only the closure of the original thread [by me] as well as the thead's subsequent repositioning in "The Saloon".
Had Mr. Lavry refuted the statements with his own words and not the reactionary censorship of the words of a colleague this discussion would never have taken place.
When Mr. Lavry was added to the R/E/P forums I took a tremendous amount of pressure from several manufacturers as well as one of our former moderators and would not waiver on my stance that Mr. Lavry had a right to be heard. When Mr. Lavry edited the posts of a fellow designer that poisoned the thread in my opinion, which meant that the thread was no longer of fact but skewed in a manner that only supported Mr. Lavry's position. Right or wrong, all voices should be heard on these forums in their entirety or these forums become nothing but a shill point for their moderator's firm. I won't permit that on my own forum, I will not permit that on any other forum on the R/E/P board.
To this day, my stipend, while greatly reduced from what it was when we started this project is still in tact. To this day my autonomy on these decisions is still mine and mine alone. I have people with whom I consult on these matters, like Mr. Blackwood my co-administrator, but when the rubber meets the road these decisions are mine and mine alone. The buck stops here.
I do not bend to threats from manufacturers [of which there have been many], I do not bend to threats from moderators [of which there have been fewer than those from the MFG's but they have existed none the less]. I enjoy full support for my decisions from the upper management of the PSW site and its parent company Huge Universe Inc. [which I think was just sold but it doesn't affect me or our forums in any manner other than the neat little symbols that now accompany each forum].
Again, this kind of bullshit has absolutely no place on a technical forum such as Mr. Lavry's. Y'all requested an explanation so an explanation is what you have received. This is indeed an abridged version of that explanation but suffice it to say that there are absolutely
no commercial motives in any of my decisions as it applies to the administration of these forums.
Peace.