Linn forum down?

[Spannko]

Your technical input has always been really helpful Bri, and I’m sorry if you felt my negative comments were aimed in your direction in any way.

[Tony Tune-age]

As far as I know the Akurate Kontrol can still be upgraded, but then again I can't find anywhere Linn told us about the non-availability of the 2250/5125 Dynamik. The Dynamik used for the Akurate Kontrol is a different board so I would think it should still be OK.

How about the Linn Exotik preamplifier? I was told that it can't be upgraded with the Dynamik power supply, or be serviced by Linn now. It's not easy keeping up with these issues.

[Briain]

Your technical input has always been really helpful Bri, and I’m sorry if you felt my negative comments were aimed in your direction in any way.

Oh my goodness, no; I was not thinking of it in that way at all, my friend! I was merely intending to debate the worthiness of community inputs (warts and all, as they say) and of course, as always I was also being a 'devil's advocate' (in my spare time, I'm also his senior barman, by the way). Despite me also being [very] guilty of the same forum silliness, even I sometimes find some of it making me cringe, but then upon deeper reflection (typically aided by a gin and tonic) my view always reverts to being that without such community input, on balance we'd probably be for the worse, IMHO.

Bri :)

[sunbeamgls]

Sound words Briain. A balanced view.

[Wolfie]

I think, whatever the reason(s) behind the downtime, it would be a shame to lose the forum, for many reasons mentioned above, but also, in a small way, the ability to raise issues with beta firmware must be helpful to Linn. I can't see the tech folk wanting to lose this line of communication, although I guess it's possible that they might pull all beta testing back inhouse if they actually did decide to close the forum.

My money's on them just trying to stop info being announced too soon on their own forum, which is possibly a bit of an embarrassment to the company; after all, one dealer did jump the gun there by starting a thread regarding the then forthcoming (and under wraps) Lingo 4 and Urika II earlier this year.

Mick

[Gussy]

I think, whatever the reason(s) behind the downtime, it would be a shame to lose the forum, for many reasons mentioned above, but also, in a small way, the ability to raise issues with beta firmware must be helpful to Linn. I can't see the tech folk wanting to lose this line of communication, although I guess it's possible that they might pull all beta testing back inhouse if they actually did decide to close the forum.

My money's on them just trying to stop info being announced too soon on their own forum, which is possibly a bit of an embarrassment to the company; after all, one dealer did jump the gun there by starting a thread regarding the then forthcoming (and under wraps) Lingo 4 and Urika II earlier this year.

Mick

...but in that case wouldn’t it be simpler just to close a thread (with a friendly warning to the offending party) rather than close down the whole forum?

[Spannko]

Your technical input has always been really helpful Bri, and I’m sorry if you felt my negative comments were aimed in your direction in any way.

Oh my goodness, no; I was not thinking of it in that way at all, my friend! I was merely intending to debate the worthiness of community inputs (warts and all, as they say) and of course, as always I was also being a 'devil's advocate' (in my spare time, I'm also his senior barman, by the way). Despite me also being [very] guilty of the same forum silliness, even I sometimes find some of it making me cringe, but then upon deeper reflection (typically aided by a gin and tonic) my view always reverts to being that without such community input, on balance we'd probably be for the worse, IMHO.

Bri :)

Just to be clear, the humour element is a different issue and one I don't really have a problem with.

It just feels like there's a disconnect between the general tone of the forum and Linns core values. I'm sure a bit of stronger moderation would solve this.

[sunbeamgls]

Your technical input has always been really helpful Bri, and I’m sorry if you felt my negative comments were aimed in your direction in any way.

Oh my goodness, no; I was not thinking of it in that way at all, my friend! I was merely intending to debate the worthiness of community inputs (warts and all, as they say) and of course, as always I was also being a 'devil's advocate' (in my spare time, I'm also his senior barman, by the way). Despite me also being [very] guilty of the same forum silliness, even I sometimes find some of it making me cringe, but then upon deeper reflection (typically aided by a gin and tonic) my view always reverts to being that without such community input, on balance we'd probably be for the worse, IMHO.

Bri :)

Just to be clear, the humour element is a different issue and one I don't really have a problem with.

It just feels like there's a disconnect between the general tone of the forum and Linns core values. I'm sure a bit of stronger moderation would solve this.

The risk of such moderation is that it will end up like the Naim forum, which is waaaaay worse in terms of lack of criticism, inability to post links out to sources of information, being castigated by others if you don't like something etc.
Linn's forum has light touch moderation and you're allowed to criticise their stuff if you want to. That should be applauded - they learn just as much (possibly more) from that than they would from constant praise.

[Wolfie]

I think, whatever the reason(s) behind the downtime, it would be a shame to lose the forum, for many reasons mentioned above, but also, in a small way, the ability to raise issues with beta firmware must be helpful to Linn. I can't see the tech folk wanting to lose this line of communication, although I guess it's possible that they might pull all beta testing back inhouse if they actually did decide to close the forum.

My money's on them just trying to stop info being announced too soon on their own forum, which is possibly a bit of an embarrassment to the company; after all, one dealer did jump the gun there by starting a thread regarding the then forthcoming (and under wraps) Lingo 4 and Urika II earlier this year.

Mick

...but in that case wouldn’t it be simpler just to close a thread (with a friendly warning to the offending party) rather than close down the whole forum?

Possibly, but they'd have to monitor the forum very closely and once the cat's out of the bag...

[Moomintroll]

Possibly, but they'd have to monitor the forum very closely and once the cat's out of the bag...

Yes, at least this way they can feel they’ve exercised some level of control. It’s interesting that they’ve never gone to this level before and seem to have done a really good job of silencing both dealers and the press. It’s impressive that nothing has leaked since the forum went dead. In the past, we’ve had countdown timers or cryptic photos on Facebook, but this time, zilch.

However they could have said that the forum was going to be closed pending a product release on whatever date it appears. I think everyone would have accepted that very easily. It’s not like we are not aware that something significant is in the pipeline, given that it’s been common knowledge that it would be shown at the XFI show next weekend, for some weeks now.

I just hope it’s as exciting and groundbreaking as it’s being built up to be, and not an embarrassing “Oh, is that all?” moment.

‘troll

[Peter@57m]

Personally I'd be very disappointed to learn that they took the forum down to prevent leaking of a product announcement. If this is the reason, they should at least be open about that being the reason and post it as the only item with no replies possible. Post it to Facebook, Twitter etc. As it is there is no explanation at all on their site or any other I can find. Very very poor customer relations and marketing.
I came back from vacation wanting to play with some of the new Beta stuff, IFTTT, Pins and Alexa integration. The only documentation for this is on the forum. If they had planned to take the forum down, they should post some of this Beta doc to the Linn Docs site.
Overall not well thought through if it was taken down on purpose.

[Spannko]

Just to be clear, the humour element is a different issue and one I don't really have a problem with.

It just feels like there's a disconnect between the general tone of the forum and Linns core values. I'm sure a bit of stronger moderation would solve this.

The risk of such moderation is that it will end up like the Naim forum, which is waaaaay worse in terms of lack of criticism, inability to post links out to sources of information, being castigated by others if you don't like something etc.
Linn's forum has light touch moderation and you're allowed to criticise their stuff if you want to. That should be applauded - they learn just as much (possibly more) from that than they would from constant praise.

I’m not convinced that stronger moderation would necessarily make it like the Naim forum.

If we think of forum moderation being on a continuum between a laissez-faire approach at one end to an authoritarian approach at the other, there’s plenty of room for a multitude of different approaches.

The owners of any forum set the rules and are therefore responsible for the type of forum that results. If Linn are happy with the forum as it is, then it’ll probably continue unchanged. Similarly, it’s in their hands to make changes as they see fit. I suppose the reality is that it’s their forum, not ours.

[sunbeamgls]

You'd think there would be a 'read only' mode for cases like this, so all the useful stuff was still available to customers.

[vicdiaz]

Yesterday I had a chat with my local Linn dealer and mentioned that he was flying to Chicago to attend the Linn dealers conference, and that European dealers had already met. My suspicion is that the forum will remain closed until all dealers around the world are presented with whatever news they have, and the NDA signed by European dealers is very strict and may have wording related to termination of dealership rights if found responsible for any leaks.

Does anyone knows of the Asian dealers have already met?

[CJ1045]

It is down to stop leaks

CJ

[Steven]

Sounds like what they are proposing to launch should be a revelation then.

Is this what all the investment in the new circuit board machinery at the factory was actually all about ?

[Peter@57m]

This message now on the forum

Dear Forum Members We have temporarily suspended the Linn Forum during the launch period of our exciting new product and upgrades, which runs until mid-October. As this is a staged, global launch, we want to avoid spoiling the launch for customers through early disclosure and discussion on the Forum. I’m sorry for the inconvenience this causes and ask for your patience and understanding. In the meantime, we’re using this opportunity to review the purpose of the Forum and our approach to moderating it. Best wishes Gilad

[Moomintroll]

LOL, someone obviously reads this forum, anyway!

Well done, Gilad, that wasn’t too hard, was it?

(Interestingly, Gilad refers to “upgrades”. I knew I shouldn’t have agreed to booking that holiday...)

‘Troll

[Music Lover]

Personally I'd be very disappointed to learn that they took the forum down to prevent leaking of a product announcement. If this is the reason, they should at least be open about that being the reason and post it as the only item with no replies possible.

I'm as stunned as you.
Extremely poor customer relations.
And preventing leaking of information - are they stopping Internet?

btw, Gilad has now added a comment. About time

[Andrew L]

Looks like Linn have taken a leaf out of Ryanair's PR guide with this one.

[sunbeamgls]

"In the meantime, we’re using this opportunity to review the purpose of the Forum and our approach to moderating it"

Hmmm, lets hope it doesn't end up santised. They'll lose a lot of valuable customer input if that happens.

[Tony Tune-age]

Thanks for the updated information Peter@57m, much appreciated.

Cheers

[Spannko]

"In the meantime, we’re using this opportunity to review the purpose of the Forum and our approach to moderating it"

Hmmm, lets hope it doesn't end up santised. They'll lose a lot of valuable customer input if that happens.

What do you mean by “sanitised”?

[Flatcoat]

I have owned Linn products since 1980 and am extremely unhappy about the forum being suspended until possibly mid October. It is very sad to say that the forum is an important part of my life and I do not like what has happened. I will contact the help line this week to relate the way I feel. At present, I am questioning if I will invest in Linn in the future.

The only source of any leaks is from Linn employees, so this is what Linn should be looking into to stop.

[sunbeamgls]

"In the meantime, we’re using this opportunity to review the purpose of the Forum and our approach to moderating it"

Hmmm, lets hope it doesn't end up santised. They'll lose a lot of valuable customer input if that happens.

What do you mean by “sanitised”?

As in, cleaned out. Turned into a pure marketing channel. Full of nothing but Linn and nothing but praise. Meaningless to them and us.