Article: Become a CA Subscriber Today!

[AudioDoctor]

Mav, do you not have flash installed? Or a flash blocker? Some of the ads here use flash.

[ringenesherre]

Ghostery is a very nice addon, whose main purpose is to alert users to being tracked on the web and allows to block such tracking behaviour. I have it enabled as a privacy thing, but it actually keeps out almost all ads as a side effect, as they all exhibit some tracking behaviour :-)

[mav52]

Mav, do you not have flash installed? Or a flash blocker? Some of the ads here use flash.

Just checked my programs for a flash program. None. Just using the default settings in Firefox.

[Esprit]

• Subscriber Only Discussion Forums

 

Then we will lose the opportunity to exchange views with each other... it's sad.

[The Computer Audiophile]

• Subscriber Only Discussion Forums

 

Then we will lose the opportunity to exchange views with each other... it's sad.

 

Hi Esprit - This is not the case. Every forum previously available to everyone remains available to everyone. The subscriber only area is very small and doesn't include core content.

[AudioDoctor]

Just checked my programs for a flash program. None. Just using the default settings in Firefox.

 

What happens when you try to watch a youtube video? Do you get a video or a message where the video should be?

[XP9433]

What's critical mass got to do with anything? Why worry about being a subscriber one way or the other? If you want the benefits, mainly the sell function and discounts, subscribe, if not, don't.

-Chris

 

Crisnee

There is a subscriber only forum, isn't there, or have I got that wrong? Anyway, that is of prime interest for me, but only if there are enough contributors. That is why I think "critical mass" is important.

Frank

[madi]

Thanks for the recent upgrades. I am excited with your decision to grow your business by adding new features. Hopefully more revenue will allow more reviews of both equipment and music. For the past few years, I have enjoyed visiting your website. Hopefully those who might be offended by my referencing CA as your creation will accept this as reality. This is your baby, created with passion and the desire to offer a service to the audio community. For me to expect that all your hard work was done in order for all of us to receive free knowledge and entertainment indefinitely, would be unrealistic. Chris, you alone have taken the risks and carried the burden of making decisions pertaining to the ongoing success of this site. It is only fitting that you can now, after many years, enjoy the rewards associated with the success.

 

On a sidenote, I had the opportunity to meet Chris, at an audio event in NC. He was invited to share his knowledge of computer based audio and did so passionately. Chris is a very unique person. He is incredibly gifted, but also sincere and humble…a rare combination in today’s world.

I wish you continued success during this evolutionary process.

Yes, I am a new subscriber.

Madi

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks for the kind words Madi.

[REShaman]

From one to another subscriber, welcome, Madi.

 

On a sidenote, I had the opportunity to meet Chris, at an audio event in NC. He was invited to share his knowledge of computer based audio and did so passionately. Chris is a very unique person. He is incredibly gifted, but also sincere and humble…a rare combination in today’s world.

I wish you continued success during this evolutionary process.

Yes, I am a new subscriber.

Madi

 

Thank you for sharing your experience(s) of Chris, whom I have never met except through his posts and by the fit and feel of CA. You've captured a good sense of Chris as far as I can tell.

 

Change evokes a spectrum of reactions from people. Usually in time what concerns that may have been elicited by change becomes the norm, suspicions are quelled, a unity of varied interests refocuses and CA grows. As the membership is entitled to subscribe or not, for a month(s) or a year(s) with access to the core categories except those sections spawn by the changed but intended to remain open to anyone who cares to join, I continue to regard the evolution of CA in the most positive light. Win-win for Chris and us, only his commitment is huge compared to mine. All the more for me as long as I care to be a subscriber to support him and thus me.

 

Sincerity is measured by time,

Richard

[crisnee]

Re Polls, as I see it, the only conclusion on can logically draw from the number of participants in a poll is the number of participants in that poll. Anything else is making unsupported assumptions.

 

 

That's why I used the word speculation. I drew no conclusions, and only expressed surprise at the small number of voters in polls in general, not in how they voted.

 

I'd appreciate if you read what I say a little more carefully before responding.

 

And for those interested, I was very careful not to slant the subscriber's poll in a negative direction (negative being slanted toward favoring a "I don't want to subscribe" vote). That's why I gave it a whimsical title and as many "positive" response choices as I could think of. If anything, I may have slanted it toward positive.

 

And Paul, as to polls favoring negative responses or whatever you exactly said. I think that would be less the case in this instance for the above reasons and because we're not talking about a return of a defective product, or a poll on a company's product support, where people had tangible and oftentimes time consuming negative experiences that drove them to participate.

 

-Chris

[crisnee]

Hi Esprit - This is not the case. Every forum previously available to everyone remains available to everyone. The subscriber only area is very small and doesn't include core content.

 

So Chris, if this is so small and seemingly unimportant in your eyes (you keep downplaying its importance) why keep non-subscriber's from it, especially since non-subscribers can still post whatever they want (all over the place instead of in an organized area).

 

It seems like your being either stubborn or disingenuous. There's this major objection that many non-subscribers have, you say it's really nothing, but....

 

According to these non-subscriber's (check the poll) that is the reason they are non-subscribers (if that's true is another issue). But, whatever; clip the nose to spite the face? Some secret reason? Doesn't seem like good business to me.

 

-Chris

[crisnee]

Crisnee

There is a subscriber only forum, isn't there, or have I got that wrong? Anyway, that is of prime interest for me, but only if there are enough contributors. That is why I think "critical mass" is important.

Frank

 

Frank,

 

Yes there is, but Chris C (the owner of the forum) says it's small, and basically of no consequence. Besides you can post whatever you want wherever you want, and if you posted it in the subscriber forum, non-subscribers wouldn't be able to see it. So why bother posting there?

 

-Chris

[crisnee]

And one more from the inveterate crisnee.

 

Re polls, generally like Barry, I'm not much interested in polls, but I do look at them and vote when they seem well designed and have a useful function, or might give off some interesting/useful info.

 

I think, if lots of people vote, the subscribers poll could be quite useful/helpful/interesting, even to Chris C.

 

Just measuring eyeballs and page views, as services do, only supplies minimally useful info, as many internet companies have discovered. Getting more in depth info is usually better, particularly when large numbers of hits are involved (again this all depends on what kind of site one is surveying plus other details)

 

-Chris

[mav52]

What happens when you try to watch a youtube video? Do you get a video or a message where the video should be?

 

On what website, on the sports websites I visit I get Video.

[Paul R]

 

And Paul, as to polls favoring negative responses or whatever you exactly said. I think that would be less the case in this instance for the above reasons and because we're not talking about a return of a defective product, or a poll on a company's product support, where people had tangible and oftentimes time consuming negative experiences that drove them to participate.

 

-Chris

 

Nope, that is, in general, true of all polls. There are special weighting formulae that account for that trend polling orgs use. Nothing aimed speifically at you.

 

Were I to look for a factor to judge interest, I would look at the number of views of this topic, but Chris is the only one with enough data to make any conclusions, even very tentive ones.

 

Paul

[Esprit]

(check the poll)

There is a poll? Where?

[REShaman]

There is a poll? Where?

 

Perfect timing.

Best,

Richard

[bdiament]

Hi Chris,

 

That's why I used the word speculation. I drew no conclusions, and only expressed surprise at the small number of voters in polls in general, not in how they voted.

 

I'd appreciate if you read what I say a little more carefully before responding...

 

I'm sorry if my post upset you but it was that "speculation" I was addressing.

It contained the (in my opinion) logically unsupportable connection between the number of participants in a poll and the number of subscribers to the site. And in suggesting the low poll response equates with a lower number of visitors, it contained an inherent question of a man's Honor.

 

Perhaps you were not aware of it and did not intend it but such is also suggesting dishonesty on Chris' part with regard to the number of visitors he says the site has. If you're going to call someone's Honor into question, it might be a good idea to have evidence and not speculation. Again, I don't think that was necessarily your intention but that's what the your words said.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

[Jud]

So Chris, if this is so small and seemingly unimportant in your eyes (you keep downplaying its importance) why keep non-subscriber's from it, especially since non-subscribers can still post whatever they want (all over the place instead of in an organized area).

 

It seems like your being either stubborn or disingenuous. There's this major objection that many non-subscribers have, you say it's really nothing, but....

 

According to these non-subscriber's (check the poll) that is the reason they are non-subscribers (if that's true is another issue). But, whatever; clip the nose to spite the face? Some secret reason? Doesn't seem like good business to me.

 

-Chris

 

Stubborn or disingenuous? I just have to say I disagree strongly with that characterization.

 

Chris C has already made a number of changes (e.g., non-subscribers being able to view the buy-sell forum; the "Subscriber" badge removed from avatars) in the space of what, a week? I'd call that very reasonable, and the opposite of stubborn.

 

As to the much more (in my view, at least) serious accusation of calling Chris C's honesty into question, I don't understand where that's coming from. Chris has posted a screen shot of the subscriber forum topics. He did not say the topics were unimportant. He said they were not "core content," which to me means discussions about audio - primarily the music we love and the equipment that serves our love of it. So what topics in the subscriber forum do you feel constitute "core content" to such an inarguable extent that the only possible explanation for Chris C's not acknowledging it as such is that he's out-and-out lying?

[4est]

Chris C has already made a number of changes (e.g., non-subscribers being able to view the buy-sell forum; the "Subscriber" badge removed from avatars) in the space of what, a week? I'd call that very reasonable, and the opposite of stubborn.

 

As one of the vocal opponents to subscriptions, I must say that I appreciate Chris' efforts in these changes.

[bdiament]

Hi Chris,

 

It's a cache issue on both the client & site. Under certain conditions the issue manifests as posts not immediately visible to some users.

 

Can anything be done about this?

I posted over half an hour ago and when I'm logged in, the post doesn't show.

However, if I log out, I can see it. Log back in again and it's gone.

 

Best regards,

Barry

Soundkeeper Recordings

Barry Diament Audio

[Esprit]

Perfect timing.

In Europe we have a different time zone (and an economic crisis: we pay the gasoline 2euro/2,4$ per liter).

 

I have not read all the 3ad so: there is or not (a/the poll)?

[Esprit]

Found and voted.

[Paul R]

Stubborn or disingenuous? I just have to say I disagree strongly with that characterization.

 

Chris C has already made a number of changes (e.g., non-subscribers being able to view the buy-sell forum; the "Subscriber" badge removed from avatars) in the space of what, a week? I'd call that very reasonable, and the opposite of stubborn.

 

As to the much more (in my view, at least) serious accusation of calling Chris C's honesty into question, I don't understand where that's coming from. Chris has posted a screen shot of the subscriber forum topics. He did not say the topics were unimportant. He said they were not "core content," which to me means discussions about audio - primarily the music we love and the equipment that serves our love of it. So what topics in the subscriber forum do you feel constitute "core content" to such an inarguable extent that the only possible explanation for Chris C's not acknowledging it as such is that he's out-and-out lying?

 

Add a +1 from me on this.

 

Also, Chris, the only "Subscriber Only" thread I can think of that is chomping along is one on Gun Control. I am sure there were would be many MANY more screams out here if that topic were in the general areas. It is, as the topic header describes, "Anything But CA."

 

Why would anyone complain that a subject like that is in an area people pay a token amount to participate in? It really isn't about CA.

 

And actually, I even disagree about removing the subscriber tags, now that I have had time to think about it. I have a sticker in the window of my truck that declares I am a supported of KMFA, and KUT here in Austin. Why in the world would that make anyone else feel "excluded?"

 

-Paul