Jules wrote on Thu, 28 May 2009 13:17 |
Anyway Sean, now you know I think its two-faced of you to trawl the GS community for sales as 'one of the gang' and then to 'amusingly' carry round a message slagging them all off elsewhere.
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Whoa.
NOBODY from M-A "trolls for sales". We go there to pass along good information while doing "effective public relations". The definition of "public relations" is when you gain "goodwill, acceptance and understanding for your product or service".
Goodwill? Taking the time to explain things, share professional experiences, outline a technique, shoot a joke.
Acceptance? Must be... while I've been banned numerous times, and have stopped posting for a few months here and there when I'd had enough of the bullshit... I get numerous PM's asking me why I've stopped posting... and when I contribute again comments on "how good it is that I'm posting on GS again" [ass kissers... all of them].
Understanding? I think we have established [the Mercenary "we"] that we're pretty "no bullshit" when it comes to this stuff. We don't just have an "unconditional return policy", we live it. We are very discriminating about what lines we will handle, and more importantly, which ones we don't. I have seen numerous posts where people have said "well it's sold in Mercenary... it must be good".
None of those aspects lead to "trolling for sales". They add value to the community [good information, dissemination of ideas, concepts and techniques] while showing that the people who work at our shop actually know what they're talking about.
We'll leave the blatant "pimping" to the Kittonian's and Tony Belmont's of this world. To that end you can very often find someone from Mercenary recommending product that is not listed on our website. You can find all kinds of technique posts. You can also find a whole boat load of posts that say _______ (which we sell) probably won't be the best tool for the job.
With that comes our irreverent sense of humor, we have a severe lack of tolerance for bullshit. It comes with the territory. We have a studio in the building that is used damn near every night and weekend when the shop that shares space with it is closed.
The facility has changed a lot since you were there Jules... what used to be a "machine room" for the bike shop is now a very well stocked, modified LEDE control room. It's kinda like a "home studio" in that it's not very big... but if I do say so myself, it's quite well designed.
The sense of humor part is pretty much endemic to the engineering world. You used to have a quite irreverent sense of humor which seems to have all but vanished. Engineers in general seem to be quite intelligent and observant people. This character trait leads to the observation and dissemination of those observations, especially where irony [and flat out stupidity] is concerned.
With all due respect, I would suggest you take a good hard look at what that site has become. American Idol discussions in a "gear" forum? A little "social" discourse here and there is fine... but it seems to be the staple of "so much gear" these days. RODE mics being discussed in "High End"? Focusrite considered "High End"? Spare me. That forum was once at about the level of this set of forums, but not any more. Now it's rather difficult to tell the difference between that forum and "low end theory".
You have a good product in those forums. Hell, my company was your first advertiser, and continues to advertise 7 years later. We will probably continue to advertise until the day when the forums have disintegrated far below the level of products we provide... how long that takes will be determined by you, and your moderating staff.
I quite enjoy the community you have created... but dare say that as the population increases you should be either expanding your moderation staff... and when you have really good ones [like Chris Lambrechts], it might be in your best interest to find a way to hang on to them.
Peace.