I typically remain clear of forums, and seek the refuge and safe haven of direct communication with the folks that reach to me for help on my Pro-Bono web pages.
My only skin in the game is the satisfaction I feel when helping others who regularly reach out to me.
My decades of hand-on experiences and million dollars of sophisticated electronic equipment I have enjoyed and have had the privilege to work on have exposed me to fixing stuff from the US Navy Submarine Systems that transmit on 20 KHz to tugboats when the Subs are submerged, to our cherished PAS3 Preamps.
Since 1996, my website has helped out literally hundreds of people across the world, in many countries, by simply giving away my time and energy for free.
This was evident to me when once I visited Brussels on a Business Trip, posted on Audio Asylum (now that is a strange Forum) and was invited for Dinner at the home of an Audio Enthusiast, who thanked me for my website and the good will I created. How often does that happen to the know-it-alls? I bet every other week according to the responses I am getting.
But, I feared that posting again on another forum after being away for years, was going to attract the same attitudes and responses that are counter-productive, opinionated and basically lacking in basic courtesy.
As if I has never ever replaced a burned out component, fixed a Tube Amp or by just looking at a PC board for 30 minutes under a bright light, found the problem without warming up a Soldering Iron. This is humility.
Unfortunately, my troubleshooting suggestions, insights and value are creating the opposite reaction here, that in my mind, is just more of the Forum Hate that is free and all over the Internet.
I contribute and participate for fun and do these things for fun, not to impress, to help.
But as they sometimes suggest "bow out gracefully", and as one philosopher stated "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know"
My only skin in the game is the satisfaction I feel when helping others who regularly reach out to me.
My decades of hand-on experiences and million dollars of sophisticated electronic equipment I have enjoyed and have had the privilege to work on have exposed me to fixing stuff from the US Navy Submarine Systems that transmit on 20 KHz to tugboats when the Subs are submerged, to our cherished PAS3 Preamps.
Since 1996, my website has helped out literally hundreds of people across the world, in many countries, by simply giving away my time and energy for free.
This was evident to me when once I visited Brussels on a Business Trip, posted on Audio Asylum (now that is a strange Forum) and was invited for Dinner at the home of an Audio Enthusiast, who thanked me for my website and the good will I created. How often does that happen to the know-it-alls? I bet every other week according to the responses I am getting.
But, I feared that posting again on another forum after being away for years, was going to attract the same attitudes and responses that are counter-productive, opinionated and basically lacking in basic courtesy.
As if I has never ever replaced a burned out component, fixed a Tube Amp or by just looking at a PC board for 30 minutes under a bright light, found the problem without warming up a Soldering Iron. This is humility.
Unfortunately, my troubleshooting suggestions, insights and value are creating the opposite reaction here, that in my mind, is just more of the Forum Hate that is free and all over the Internet.
I contribute and participate for fun and do these things for fun, not to impress, to help.
But as they sometimes suggest "bow out gracefully", and as one philosopher stated "The more I learn, the more I realize how little I know"
