Geddes forum closing

I would also really like to know the cause for this.

From what I've read to date I think its a case of Dr.Geddes wanting (needing?) to devote his time to his own forum, although I don't think that is "live" just yet.

Why Dr Geddes Forum Has Been Closed

DWR said:

Steve can a reason be given as to why the Geddes forum has been closed??????

Click to expand...

To our members

Thanks for your interest in knowing the motivation behind the change and obvious appreciation for what Dr. Geddes had to offer our forum. We miss him as well.

I hope you appreciate that we prefer to not make this an open book story fit for either TMZ or The National Enquirer and talk at length about what occurred . So take this as a brief summary which hopefully satisfies your curiosity and clarifies our views.

As with anyone creating a forum, we have certain goals in mind when we started. We wanted a place that was both friendly and informative -- characteristics that are hard to come by elsewhere. We also "innovated" by creating our expert forums. The idea there was to maintain an extreme level of decorum and politeness so as to optimize the chances of our experts hanging around thus increasing the information flow. To wit, we have slapped the hands of quite a few people who did not follow that rule when posting in Dr. Geddes forum some of who decided to leave the forum as a result.

Bringing it to the here and now, and without getting into the details, we couldn't get agreement between us and Dr. Geddes on the best way to run his forum. Given a choice of conforming to the style and tone we wished to have versus having his own forum where he sets all the rules, he has chosen the latter.

We appreciate that smart people may look at the same issue with a different eye and conclude entirely different things. Such is the case in this instance. As a result we decided to agree to disagree and part ways rather than continue to have discord between each other on what is correct.

Let us finish by saying that this conclusion did not come easily -- not even close. All three of us spent incredible amount of time discussing the issues at hand but in the end we had to conclude with the decision you see now. We hope Dr. Geddes drops by from time to time to contribute to questions relating to his product and areas of expertise but of course, the choice is entirely his. Until then, we look forward to a number of new experts who are helping expand our expert forum, some of who are already in full swing (Gary and Vincent) with several more to come in the near future.

Thanks as always for your support and understanding.

Steve and Amir

Was Geddes forum meant to be a place for completely open discussions or more a place where Geddes could share his philosophy/thoughts only? I noticed that questions that were asked and opinions shared, for instance in the active speaker thread, were not met with an open arm even though they were written in a polite matter. It felt at times more like a commercial forum and I would like to know the intend with the different dedicated forum corners here. Are the "experts" paying you to have theirs "corners"?

The experts pay absolutely nothing to us financially in any way.

Expanding on Steve's point, our goal for expert forum is for expert to share information broadly. It is not meant to be a customer support or pre-sales forum whatsoever. While we allow some amount of deviation which involve the specific products or services the expert is involved in (as examples, or answers to direct questions), it is essential that the bulk of discussion be broad and even include competing products as the topic dictates.

Of course, it is hard to always enforce the above rule. But if an unbiased observer stands back and evaluates the whole picture and the expert forum looks like an extension of the company's web site, then we have violated the above rule. And with it, only serving the interest of the few people who are interested in that product, rather than the field in general.

amirm said:

Expanding on Steve's point, our goal for expert forum is for expert to share information broadly. It is not meant to be a customer support or pre-sales forum whatsoever. While we allow some amount of deviation which involve the specific products or services the expert is involved in (as examples, or answers to direct questions), it is essential that the bulk of discussion be broad and even include competing products as the topic dictates.

Of course, it is hard to always enforce the above rule. But if an unbiased observer stands back and evaluates the whole picture and the expert forum looks like an extension of the company's web site, then we have violated the above rule. And with it, only serving the interest of the few people who are interested in that product, rather than the field in general.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the explanation and I heartily agree that a forum should always be open to competing thoughts. I understand quite well why you decided to go in a different directions now.

Thanks for your understanding Bjorn. I can say however to stay tuned to our Expert Panel for the addition of another well known speaker manufacturer here in the next several weeks as well as other Experts involved in various aspects of the industry. I am confident everyone will be very pleased

I know it won't be Vince Bruzzesse from Totem Acoustic as he barely posts on his website blog!

Vince would be a great addition . BTW, he answered an email from me about their speakers in all of one millisecond and on the weekend from what I recall. But you are right, it is not him.

But I can say that he is well known and very innovative

Steve Williams said:

But I can say that he is well known and very innovative

Click to expand...

Ah, a teaser!

Speaker or gear?

Let's leave it as a teaser until things are formalized in the next few weeks and said manufacturer clears some prior obligations from his plate. I promise you won't be disappointed

I think Seigfried Linkwitz would be great.

I have no doubt he will be a wonderful addition and I look forward to meeting him and possibly asking some questions.

Well not Linkwitz but I promise you will be pleased

BTW, if any of you have relationship with industry experts who would be interested in having their area, please bring them to our attention using PM. We see nothing but goodness by having more expert areas.

I'm not saying that I know anyone, but are you talking about manufacturers only? Could it involve, distribution, marketing, dealerships?

He's a manufacturer