Hi Everybody!!

[skeptic]

You are entitled to your opinion but in my view your posting is pure rubbish. There isn't one scintilla of truth in it. I don't think you can point to even one actively running thread right now where DBTs have even been mentioned let alone have "become the primary focus for all of the other boards" or any thread on any board. I challenge you to mention just one.

" We used to have more action on just one board than we do on the entire forum nowadays"

That was before people were required to register at all. You just chose a moniker and could say whatever you wanted. That changed about two years ago.

"It is no secret that we've lost a lot of really knowledgeable people who were regular contributors to these boards."

The only one I can think of that could conceivably fit that discription in anyone's mind but only in the most warped way was Jon Risch. And he left not after I took him to task for being a "Nazi mind control gestapo" at CA for denying others the intellectual freedom he was granted in order to get an education but only after I demoloshed every one of his crackpot technical arguements about audio cables. And I used his own quotes from his own website for much of it.

"On more than one occation, I made the argument that this is suppose to be a "hobbyist" forum and not a laboratory."

We often discuss the technical performance of equipment and how it relates to its audible performance because that is the basic nature of electronic equipment. It's unavoidable. I don't recall anybody refusing to explain a technical statement that he made when someone else said they didn't understand it. If you remove the technical disucssions from any of these boards, they will be dumbed down to the point where only the least knowledgable participants will be interested in them.

"I think that was the reason for the mass exodus that we saw, as people just got feed up."

Judging from the fact that there are sometimes more than a thousand participants who view an individaul thread, this board seems to have very good participation. Especially when a debate heats up.

"I recall many times that someon who posted a simple question would get totally ignored - no helpful or practical advice given at all "

You were here, you said so yourself right at the beginning. Why didn't you volunteer to help? Not enough technical knowledge to contribute?

Actually, lots of people come here even for the first time and get tons of sound practical advice. Here are just a sample of a few threads running right now where advice is being given;

This Guy has just asked for advice about buying a subwoofer and already 5 other participants have responded.

brian_tr has asked for advice on a problem with his Yamaha receiver and has gotten responses from 4 participants

grampi has asked for advice on the best way to connect his television set and has gotten replies from two participants.

cam and phw03 asked for advice about projection tv and got advice from woodman who knows as much about television as anyone I've met on any board.

Lord Nikon asked for advice on the best receiver under $600 and got many responses.

IRG asked for advice on a 26"/27" TV monitor and got many responses.

r.bowen asked for advice on his Paradigm speakers and got a response from topspeed.

saul asked for advice on selecting between two Yamaha receivers and got many responses.

Lord Nikon asked for advice on a cd player for under $600 and got many replies.

And that's just a partial list of what's currently running on the HT board. I think only one request didn't get a response and that was about a computer monitor. Probably nobody knew the answer.
Just about every other board on this website is filled with these kinds of requests and replies.

"I would just respond by saying that although for some, it may be hard to distinguish between the two, freedom and anarchy are not the same thing."

We have never had anarchy here. Even before the registration and change in format several years ago, people who were abusive beyond reason were warned and if they didn't change, were thrown out. Censorship, trying to steer discussions to one side or another by limiting the intellectual freedom to explore ideas, to challenge statements, to not allow a drift in the topic because that is where the participants want to take it is unacceptable. It is the mark of a totalitarian dictatorship usually because the points of view being favored can't stand up to the rigors of evidence or intellectual challenge. This is exactly why the anti DBT rule exists at CA IMO. They do not want their sponsors products or the rationale behind them maligned because they have absolutely no defense to the arguement that there is no scientific basis for them.

If censorship of this kind happens here, I will leave and for once, I will use whatever influence I have with people who ask me for advice to steer them away from the products advertised on this site.