Open letter to moderators of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums

I have decided to share a message which I recently sent to the moderators (so-called "gorts", a self-appointed title) of the Steve Hoffman Music Forums (SHMF), in addition to a longer piece of text that I feel must be shared more broadly. Recent experiences on SHMF, particularly with its moderation policies, have led to deep frustration and disappointment from myself and several others. Having participated in SHMF for over a decade, I write the below text not only with those feelings in mind, but also one of sadness, as such broken opportunities are seldom repaired. Nonetheless, like the phoenix, I maintain my voice on a new platform, where speech freedoms are not suppressed for commercial gain.

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Message sent 23 August 2024 at 18:53 GMT
Recipients: Steve Hoffman, bkgMusic, darkmatter, DLant, hodgo, Ken_McAlinden, MLutthans, Peter_R, stereoptic

 

Dear Moderator(s),

As a legal resident of the European Union, I am exercising my right under Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to request the immediate and permanent deletion of all my personal data stored on the Steve Hoffman Music Forums (SHMF) servers. This request includes, but is not limited to:

• all posts on the forums or message boards,
• all responses to these posts, which can reasonably be linked to me and/or contain my duplicated content,
• all interactions with the forums or message boards, including likes and comments,
• all sent and received messages through the inbox / "Conversations" functionality,
• all threads created and replies to those threads,
• all location, geolocation, and date/timestamp data,
• all personally identifying information, including name, date of birth, contact details such as phone and email, and other private data,
• all connections to external accounts and third parties, and any shared data with those parties,
• all information shared with affiliates of SHMF, including XenForo, Ltd.

Additionally, I request that my account be immediately and irreversibly closed.

I want to take this opportunity to express my disappointment with some aspects of the forum's moderation policies. Over the last few years, I have noticed instances where critical posts, particularly those involving certain audio engineers, have been removed without sufficient explanation or reasonable justification. This has led me to question the objectivity of the moderation process and the overall integrity of the forum.

While I once valued SHMF as a reliable source of information, I now feel that the forum's current practices undermine its credibility and discourage open, honest discussion. I hope this will be taken into consideration to improve the experience for other users.

Thank you for your prompt attention to my GDPR request.

Sincerely,
"ThePoodleBites"
 

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Apart from the request above, I feel compelled to candidly express my specific concerns with a broader audience. While the tone of the message below is strong, it reflects my genuine feelings about the way SHMF is being run. I believe transparency and open discussion are crucial, especially in online communities that are meant to foster honest dialogue. Please note that the following content is my personal opinion and is based on my own experiences.

Disclaimer: This post contains strong language and critical opinions regarding the moderation practices of SHMF. It is not intended to defame or harm any individuals or entities mentioned but to highlight my concerns as a former user of the forum. The content of this post is shared for the purpose of transparency and discussion. Readers are encouraged to form their own opinions and engage respectfully in any dialogue that may arise from this post.

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Dear gort-esque individual(s):

I used to view SHMF as a highly useful source of information, generously supplied by users all over the globe, providing a just means to judge music releases on their merits and make well-informed decisions on how to spend hard-earned money. Unfortunately, I have come to realize that this view was naïve. Over the past years, I have seen several posts, which happened to be critical of certain audio engineers, arbitrarily removed for irrelevant or nonexistent reasons. This has been documented on other forums [1, 2]. "Industry sensitive" posts are swiftly deleted from SHMF, usually without alert or justification. Entire threads are routinely trashed when it is revealed by SHMF users that particular engineers made some gaffe, even when minor. Rather than supplying a useful service to SHMF users, this arbitrary moderation of SHMF more strongly promotes cronyism as a benefit to the elder subclass of music purveyors.

Users of SHMF who post criticisms of particular releases, especially those linked to certain record labels or individuals, risk internal labeling by SHMF as a degenerate user, with future posts thus requiring hand-approval by a moderator, easing the uptick in discretionary deletions. Dispute of public opinion violates the unwritten purposes of SHMF; certain facts are unacceptable, because SHMF costs money to run, and it can only be profitable by providing advertising revenue via product placement to an elite class of senior, uber-willing customers, where objective dissidents are quickly and easily silenced, and by brainwashing those customers into supporting the parasitic platform which feeds off content they themselves create. Non-compliance with a set of arbitrary guidelines is randomly referenced for this purpose. Threads are deleted for both subjective and facts-based criticisms of certain engineers. For example, when a well-known engineer publicly critiqued Kevin Gray on certain Analogue Productions reissues, or when a forum-associated record label was revealed to be using an old 1980s CD as audio source for an SACD remaster, the information was quickly wiped from public view. This is consistently done without providing notice or just reason to the user base, contributors, or readers.

A small group of senior engineers are uniquely promoted in part by using euphemisms such as "our host" instead of names, which subconsciously encourages idolization and raises aging audio workers on a pedestal of self-appointed worship. There is a scientifically well-documented connection between age and high-frequency hearing loss [3, 4], which is especially relevant to many of the discussions on SHMF, yet comments to this effect are deleted by moderators without justification, as they not only criticize this exclusive clique of engineers, but the moderators they appointed as well. While there is no such scientific evidence linking the value of speaker cables and interconnects to the sound of an audio system, posts discussing sound quality without publicly sharing this information are in violation of SHMF policies [5] and are discreetly deleted at "moderator discretion." This not only provides an unjustifiable means for senior users to critique junior ones, but is biased by a selection of posts which contain unflattering information: those viewed as disruptive from the capitalistically profitable content of shipping updates and unquestioning god-like praise.

Object cronyism as a means for increasing invisible ad revenue and user donations, while simultaneously masquerading as an unbiased public forum, is deceptive, provides nothing but an illusion of credibility, biases users with half-truths and distorted information, scams readers out of their money, and in an ideal world would be outright illegal. I refuse to continue participating in an ever-growing circle-jerk of seniors unable to hear above 12 kHz partaking in a massively-deceptive pyramid scheme while refereeing opinions on, yet unable to hear what, their oh-so-expensive equipment is literally screaming at them. SHMF is an out-of-control, over-moderated disgrace to a community of listeners and music lovers, and I strongly dissent from its existence.

Sincerest regards,
"ThePoodleBites"

[1] https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/68067-mastering-error-by-vic-anesini-iconoclassic-records/
[2] https://microdynamiks.blogspot.com/2015/07/chapter-8-how-hoffman-invited-and-then.html 
[3] ISO 7029 (2017)
[4] Hearing Balance Commun. 16.2 (2018) 74–82
[5] https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/pages/forum-policies/