Great New Knife Forum: Usual Suspect Forum

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C4

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OOPS>>> not PC>>>>

2nd Edit:

Well, I really put my foot in my mouth.

I posted a link to a new knife site and got a whole lot of "stink" from the new owner (and some of his crew). I took the link off of BFC... only to get a bunch more "stink" from Eric, the "new site guy". (He seems to be in fear of our friend Spark.)

I am sorry if I am not PC like Eric, but I believe in freedom of speech. Let the chips fall where they may....

New Knife Site


Michael
 
You don't have freedom of speech here, this is a privately owned board.

This isn't about PC, it's about common courtesy. I pay a lot of money to operate BladeForums.com, and I don't appreciate it when people try to cash in on our popularity to promote their own competing sites. I expressed this to Eric in a short email. I don't understand why Eric would be afraid of me - there's nothing to fear here. But, I'd appreciate being shown the proper respect on this site.

Folks, this has been done before. There's plenty of room for other forums out there - I just don't want them advertised here, especially when their aim is to compete with us.

Kevin
 
I think there is room for everyone here on the net.

BF has already proven it is here for the long haul. I would think they would not feel threatened. I enjoy and frequent a number of forums. This does not diminish my loyalty towards BF.
 
Originally posted by Spark

I pay a lot of money to operate BladeForums.com, and I don't appreciate it when people try to cash in on our popularity to promote their own competing sites.

Kevin
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Kevin,

I have nothing to do with this site and am not promoting "[my] own competing site"...

Just fell under "interesting Knife information", delete it if you want to...

Michael
 
He was just seeing how long his post would last. :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by Spark
You don't have freedom of speech here, this is a privately owned board.
Click to expand...

Correct.

This isn't about PC, it's about common courtesy.
Click to expand...

Correct.

I pay a lot of money to operate BladeForums.com,
Click to expand...

Don't know how much and don't need to know, but I imagine you are, correct.

and I don't appreciate it when people try to cash in on our popularity to promote their own competing sites.
Click to expand...

That never happened. More on that in a moment.

I expressed this to Eric in a short email. I don't understand why Eric would be afraid of me - there's nothing to fear here.
Click to expand...

He's not and that's it. This is a personal thing between Michael [C-4] and what he believes to be his "right" here as a paying Member as he expressed to me on the phone last night.

But, I'd appreciate being shown the proper respect on this site.
Click to expand...

I hope that is a reality for you in this matter.

Folks, this has been done before. There's plenty of room for other forums out there - I just don't want them advertised here, especially when their aim is to compete with us.

Kevin
Click to expand...

I don't know that the other site is "aiming" to compete with you or this site. It did not start out that way and whatever way it ends up, I don't know about that end of things.

You expressed a desire for people not to promote the site on this site. I thought that was a request that should be honored. So much in fact that when this happened, I E-mailed Michael [C-4] to that effect. He then E-mailed me back his phone number and more for YOUR benefit than Eric Blair's, in the interest of not having some stupid controversy, I paid the money to call him.

He was basically belligerent and incorrigible for the most part, hard to get a word in, then he sort of came around. I came back online and saw that he had made a post in the Custom Knife Forum and had went back and re-posted in the General Forum, editing his post he had edited earlier. He placed the link in, took it out, then placed it in again as he did not like something Eric Blair had to say to him in E-mail...

It is YOUR site and you can handle things as you wish to. That is absolutely a fact. He does not seem to grasp that and quite frankly, he has every appearance of someone who is just bored and wants to start trouble.
 
Spark,
When I received your letter requesting that we do not advertise our forums on your forums, I promptly posted a thread in our main lobby urging everyone NOT to advertise our forum on your forum for two reasons.
1. Because of your request.
2. Because we don't want a ton of members, especially the dregs like C-4.

You can still find this thread over at our forums, but I have moved it from the Main Lobby to the Troll Hole. C-4 has not been banned by our forums YET, but he has earned the title of Troll and is now limited to posting only in the Troll Hole BECAUSE he thinks for some reason that he has a RIGHT to post whatever he wants in any forum that he chooses, which is not so. He also thinks that he can send me numerous e-mails in which he acts like a ranting psychopathic loon. I sent him ONE e-mail initially, asking very politely that he remove this thread that we're speaking within right now, and he proceeded to get his panties in a bunch and start this fiasco.
C-4, I'm not afraid of you or anyone else, and it would be my pleasure to one day discuss this with you in person.
Spark, I've always enjoyed your forums, and that is why I paid for a Gold Membership. But it's Trolls such as C-4 that gave us the reasoning behind opening our own custom oriented forums.
From this point forward, if anyone from our forums comes over here to yours and openly advertises or promotes our forums they WILL be banned from our forums altogether.
I've never had any problem with you whatsoever Spark, and I hope to keep it that way. But I also hope that you keep your trolls over here where they belong.

Sincerely,
Eric Blair
 
C4, what is your problem?
Glad to see Spark and Eric roll serenely over this speed bump.
 
I think banning people would be a bit heavy handed, Eric, but that's just my personal experience - take it for what it's worth.

Banning is a tool of last resort, which is why we don't use it except for when we have to.
Everyone acts like an idiot now and then - nobody's perfect. But there is a difference between someone being stupid and a true blue troll. Determined trolls are almost impossible to get rid of, you need look no further than Ghostsix to see that.

There is no true panacea for the troll situation, short of moderating each and every post (something I have neither the time and inclination for). So, you deal with each situation as it comes up. I've found ignoring the idiots to be the best way to handle them - I still fail to understand how & why people get worked up over small stuff. TTO / IS / whatever his name is what I would consider small stuff.

Good luck to your forums, and I appreciate your efforts.

Kevin
 
I don't understand why Eric would be afraid of me - there's nothing to fear here.
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He's obviously never seen you in your TuTu.

(I told you at the time that you'd never live that down. It's been two years almost and people still insist on bringing it up. If anyone deserves to be banned, it's people who refuse to let the TuTu incident drop.)
 
Thanks for the advice, Spark, and especially thanks for the "Good luck". Blade Forums is a great place for knife enthusiasts, and I've always felt that way.
The digital age amplifies our choices and furthers the entire experience for knife guys in general. I'm just glad to be a part of it. :)

Feel free to send us your trolls and we'll use them to hone our skills. :D
 
You have to hand it to the leaders of these two forums.
It is much better for all involved with knives when the information and sources complement each other rather than take on the roles of adversaries.
 
Cool site guys. Good luck with it. As far as I can see, since your not SELLING anything on the site they shouldn't be hasseling you. I mean you have no store, so nobody can buy knives from you right? No banners, so your not making money from it. The only way you can hurt Bf.com is by providing an area where people are allowed to freely (used to be the same here) sell knives, or by attracting people to post knowledgeable information therefore drawing more readers. I give alot of credit to BF.com though. Most website staff wouldn't allow their, "dirty laundry", if you wanna call it that, to be aired this way. They would delete everything pertaining to it and deal with it through e-mail.

I have been a member here since bf.com's inception and plan on keeping it that way. However it is not the only place on teh net to find info. I am sure that the usual suspect guys will keep surfing/posting here as much as they do on their own forums. I mean look at how many posts they have compared to when they registered. This is a win-win for everyone IMO.

JC
 
There are a lot of knife-related forums on the net, and more starting all the time. That's a good thing; it gives us choices. One of those choices is to go to them all -- that's my choice! (I can't keep up with them all any more, but I try....)
 
Spark, I agree with your assertion that this is a "no free speech zone", but I'm confused when you call the other site(s) "competing".

Of the boards I've seen this is by far the best, but it's also the only one run as a loss-leader for a commercial enterprise (1SKS). You've acknowledged that BFC is not self-supporting, but has a symbiotic relationship with 1SKS. As far as I can see, the other sites must run on fees, donations, or as a labor of love for the admins, since they're not attached to online dealers - how does that put them in a "competing" position vs. BFC?
 
First of, BFC isn't a loss leader for 1SKS - that is a mistaken impression. 1SKS was in fact opened to keep BladeForums.com open, it just spiraled out of there and became a major shop.

If BladeForums.com was just a tool for 1SKS, I'd shut down the For Sale area entirely, and instead of discontinuing banners in April, leave them with just 1SKS banners. I'd also have 1SKS be listed way more prominently all over the site. You'll notice that I've refrained from doing just that.

So please, do not imply that BFC is simply some sleazy marketing tool that I use to line my pockets. I'd like nothing better than for BFC to cover it's own bills and make enough money to support me as well.

Second, we pay a lot of money to keep this site open. I don't want anyone leeching of our traffic to promote any other sites to take it away. Like it's been said in other posts in this thread - there is only a limited amount of time in a day, and it's <b>wrong</b> for <b>me</b> to pay to advertise <b>someone else's</b> forum site. That's rude, and I politely asked Eric to discourage that. We both agree on this, so I fail to see why anyone else would have a problem.

Third, there is other "dealer involvement" with other forums. If it's not spelled out, you just have to look a bit further than the surface. I won't comment past that.

This thread has outlived it's usefullness. Eric and I agree on the basics, so I'm closing it at this point.

Kevin
 
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