 |
PM |  | |
Quote | | |
Reply | | |
Full Topic | |
| Joined: | Thu Apr 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Born: London, England. Live: Boston, MA |
| Posts: | 27 |
| Status: |
Offline
|
What has ensued is an ugly mess that mostly has nothing to do with freedom of speech, or opinions about watches. WUS is a business, and Doxa pays WUS. End of story. Like it, or take a hike. Personally, I find WUS the most informative general-purpose board out there - and plenty free enough. Try saying half the stuff that gets discussed there on TZ.com and see how far you get.
That does not mean, however, that I agree with the way Doxa moderates its own forum. I don't. In business you have to take the knocks, and some of the questions that get deleted are legitimate, i.e., the now infamous post inquiring as to the exact military specs of the MilShark. I think they do themselves a disservice by deleting posts/threads that they disagree with. However, many of the posts that I have read over time on that forum clearly had some kind of axe to grind. As was mentioned by one contributor in the aftermath of the recent crisis, posts along the lines of "If I was going to buy a Doxa, which I wasn't, then the fact that they are obviously made in China, and this guy wasn't given a pay increase, just confirms my suspicions blah blah blah" have absolutely no merit whatsoever. The fact that the poster then gets all indignant when it is deleted says more about his/her motives that it does about Doxa's. Likewise, endlessly debating the rules of that forum is a complete waste of time, and just makes the poster look like a malcontent with an ulterior motive, or worse, like an idiot who cannot understand that his/her admonishment ain't gonna change a thing. A quick trawl across a few of the boards today reveals a lot about the motives of many of the contributors to the recent Doxa debate. Quite how being banned from WUS can be perceived as a badge of honor is beyond me.
As I said, I am a proud WUS member, and the ongoing Doxa saga detracts from my overall experience there. In a post I made in the thread by John P of Doxa, I said that both the company, and the self-styled Doxaholics, need to reach some sort of understanding - to the benefit of us all - given that the former clearly does not understand what granting unique access to the latter sets them up for. The Doxaholics defending Doxa are in many respects as much to blame for the situation as Doxa themselves. They re-define the word "demanding" as a group of consumers, and will hector and badger the company on the minutiae of every aspect of Doxa ownership. This can only act as encouragement to others with a different agenda. And of course, as I also said in that thread, ownership is not a prerequisite for participation in any forum on any board. Just common sense. I don't think we saw a lot of that these past few days - either from a disgruntled former employee, a watch manufacturer, their die-hard supporters, or those who just wanted to have a go.
I enjoy intelligent, no-holds-barred, debate as much as anyone; that is what I hope to find here. But what I witnessed on WUS was something else entirely.