Dealers hijacking the discussions

@p59teitel  +1. I think Johnny provides great information without trying to sell his products. A mark of great character.
Bob

Audiogon’s policy as long as I have been around (2008 or so) has always been to let dealers participate freely in the forums and not require any disclosure. So it is what it has always been. The shilling factor has seemed to have gone up over time but who knows for sure. Its just one more murky area among many that high end audio enthusiasts choose to deal with or not.

IMO,  the real issue here is dominating the discussion, getting argumentative, or obvious shilling.  Industry people who post should identify themselves as such (most do and most of us know who they area), provide their input quickly and succinctly and then step aside.  In some cases, they have very detailed technical knowledge and can offer valuable education to many of us who do not have that technical background. 

A similar issue is associated with concealing one's identity.  We've seen it happen but most times, someone is able to discern that and alert others. 

In general, I agree with those who say to ignore the posters who annoy you for any reason, but I agree that it can be difficult some times if they dominate a thread.  Perhaps a feature could be added to allow the OP to request that a certain person not be allowed to post to their thread.  OTOH, we're all free to ignore anything we want. 

With my new PC and Mc power cables, dealer bias is automatically filtered from all forums. 

+1 @swampwalker very reasonable idea and great points.