First post ever here, wish it were under more reasonable circumstances, but I am certainly not here to start a fight, not going to participate in a huge amount of back and forth either.
32spoke is not me. My guess is that this is a customer of mine who emailed me this thread. So there’s misconception one that needs to be corrected.
Primetime, as adamant as you are and as convinced as you are about my involvement with your issues at Audizine it’s just not correct. I had zero idea that you were producing or selling any product on Audizine. I can’t stress this enough, I did not contact Audizine, not a moderator, not Anthony, absolutely no one concerning your shift paddles. If I did I would tell you as I have told other sellers directly on several forums that I’ve had problems with their actions in the past.
Since this is all born out of assumptions when even the Audizine staff told you had nothing to do with it and no one has said otherwise I can only try to convince you through some logic:
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I never saw a post or anything concerning your shift paddles. The only reason I was made aware of you having an issue with Audizine was when someone in another thread mentioned “Alex” getting you kicked off or something to that effect. I had to ask the poster what they were talking about.
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Your shift paddles are for the stock round S4 steering wheels. The shift paddles I resell are for flat-bottom steering wheels. Not directly competitive product.
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From what I was told after the fact you had a thread or a few advertising the product (maybe this isn’t correct, but I never saw anything about your paddles). I have never had a specific thread advertising shift paddles I sell as they were only offered with flat-bottom steering wheels.
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As you’ve stated, your shift paddles are magnitudes lower in price than the paddles I resell. Totally different price and target audience.
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Your paddles are metal, I believe. The paddles I resell are carbon fiber. Totally different look and feel.
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I have suggested your name and where to find you to several customers privately and even publicly if they want something like what you have. I do not have a competitive product to yours, material, price or fitment wise.
The conclusion you should draw finally is that there was never a reason for me to contact Audizine over your shift paddles. The product is not competitive, the target market is different and if I had known you were being hassled by Audizine about it I would have happily offered to resell them for you at a small margin.
As much as you have all of these notions about my business and me personally it just seems a bit over the top to be this bothered without a shred of evidence of my involvement. The assumption I make large profits off the community is incorrect. The assumption I complain to the Audizine staff often is incorrect. In fact I have been speaking to Audizine staff about how advertisers have run amok of the forum over the passed year or so. We do in fact have rules the govern how we post, how often, etc. There is a private forum for advertisers and staff so you can’t see my views on what is going on with Audizine, but I in fact want advertisers to stick to specific guidelines we are supposed to follow about posting because without those guidelines it makes the forum more like eBay than anything else. I’ve got the same issues with R8Talk where I also advertise, it’s become a marketplace without any guidelines to keep advertisers in check and users are leaving which doesn’t help that community or make it worthwhile to advertise there.
Audizine is very strict with it’s users about advertising and I know they’ve been involved in pushing more than a few people who are valuable off the forums because of those rules. As an advertiser who spends a reasonable amount to be able to post product I do become bothered by companies or individuals who don’t follow reasonable rules. I find myself stuck in between in some situations where people or companies that are valuable aren’t willing or allowed to work with Audizine to advertise because this pushes some smart and talented people off the forums. Personally I’ve always thought Audizine should offer a much lower cost way to advertise for users who happen to come up with a good product that isn’t available elsewhere, like a limited advertiser account to use the PM system and classifieds with a product announcement that has a limited run time. Anything that allows valuable users to stay around, because generally valuable members of the community tend to come up with solutions to problems for themselves where no solutions already exist, then they’d like to offer to other owners which is totally reasonable. The costs and requirements to be a full tilt advertiser keep these people stuck in a position where they have a product but can’t market it. The other solution is always to offer it through a company that does already advertise and please know that not all of us are margin hoarding, competition quelling, non-return policy monsters, especially small guys like myself. I help as much as I can, but yes I do need to make a living though I won’t do it at the high cost of losing valuable members of the community. I came from these communities, started on the Quattrolist at 17 years old, then to Audiworld, then I started Europrice and the whole relationship with forums unfortunately had to change, but it doesn’t mean I can’t be helpful.
All I ask from you, please take your time to critically think through what I’ve posted above and try to rethink your assumptions about what happened. You don’t have to, you can believe this is all just a way for me to save face, but if that is what I was doing I wouldn’t waste my time doing this. You aren’t a customer of mine, there aren’t people clamoring for my head on a stick because they think I hurt you, but I am doing this because I believe it’s not right to blame someone for something they didn’t do. If I had contacted Audizine about you and your shift paddles I would take your lumps and keep my mouth shut hopping it would just go away someday, however again I did not contact Audizine concerning you or your product. Hell I’ve even suggested your product to people looking for paddles on the round steering wheels publicly and privately. So again, please just take a moment to think critically about the information above, what I’ve written and what is logical about the situation.
Cheers,
