RE: Quattro Quaterly ethical conflict....

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> I am somewhat disappointed in the last issue of the Quattro Quarterly...it
> seems they have a serious ethical conflict going on.  They are publishing
> a
> 
<SNIP>

> Wheels!  I am really disappointed that they would let someone blatantly
> plug
> his own shop and mods in the magazine, not once, but twice in one issue.
> I've
> been a QCUSA member for years, and I am wondering if I should even bother
> renewing next year.
> 
Well, I suppose that this is a decision that you will have to make for
yourself ...

While it is true that there is a fine line to be walked, IMO you must face
the fact that at least until recently Audi was a marque that did not have a
lot of support in the US, mostly due to Audi's low sales numbers.  During
that time there were a few people like John Beckius and Ned Ritchie that
"stuck it out" in the Audi marketplace.  What this means is that if you want
an experienced opinion other than the dealership's party line there are
precious and few sources ... and for better or worse it is likely that these
sources are likely to be folks that make a business in Audi parts and
services.  We walk the same line here on the quattro list AAMOF ... there
are a few folks on the list who have a lot of considered expertise on
various subsystems in the Audi and do offer things that they've developed
... usually off the list.  We here on the q-list are quite fortunate IMHO as
we do have a fine collection of folks with direct expertise that are willing
to hang out here to try to help each other out even though we don't have
product to sell.  One more comment about the vendors though ... one thing
that is true is that if someone offering products or services to a limited
market such as Audi did not really provide some value I really doubt they
would have been able to stay in the market over the long term.  In fact it
is probably true that if they didn't happen to have some twinkle in their
eye toward Audis they probably would have bagged the market for one of the
more lucrative markets with the higher volume marques.  I do not for one
minute think they were totally altruistic though ... nor would I expect them
to be so.  

[Side note - Dan, when you consider the new web structure it might be nice
to include a page for qlisters who operate as I described above ... that
don't have a full-fledged business but might want to have some way to let
q-listers know about products/services that they have available.  ... and
since I'm on a tangent talking about the new list ... I personally would
like to see the "help list" similar to that available on the IBMWR revived
for the qlisters ... ]

You do have a valid point ... while I would expect that most people know who
Ned Ritchie, John Beckius ... and others are, it probably would not be a bad
idea to include a bit of a bio with the column that clearly states that the
author is involved in a business selling parts and services for Audis.
Might I suggest that rather than making an anonymous posting to the quattro
list that perhaps you might want to consider sending this as a suggestion to
the quattro club itself?

Now, how is it that SJ says it? ... my $0.02 arbitraged via the peso ... :-)

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)