How objective are people's advice on this forum?

T

thedawg

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In a recent thread a guy asks for a (long lasting knife) and that he is willing to pay 300 to 400 dollars for it. He explains that he is tired of knives that
develop problems after a while of use.

A member of this esteemed forum tells him to buy (a spyderco military) along with three or four other SPYDERCO suggestions.

This is very consistent here. ALL THE TIME. Spyderco is over represented on this forum. I think that every employee in spyderco posts here. Maybe even their family members and people in the neighborhood.

Ask for a knife that will increase your sex drive, someone will say Spyderco.

Shame.
 
troll.gif
 
the question might be what you have against spyderco?
Some like benchmade, some like spyderco, for that matter i rather like CRKT (at least, at the prices i get them for.. m16 and my tighe)

from the other thread..

thedawg said:
Please, refrain from giving people false advice.

the spyderco military is not a hard working knife and will not last 20 years unless you use it as a butter knife.

It is a linier lock. A liner lock will not last more than 5 years or so of hard use......


To the original poster.

with your price range 300 to 400 hundred, get a sebenza or a benchmade 710 for allot less money. Now those will last you along time. Dont listen to the spyderco crowed. They will tell you a goat will fly if it has spyderco on it.
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It was me who asked, I think those people only mean well. And i did ask for alternatives. I personaly heard only good things about spyderco, but the only knife I really like from their line up was bob lum tanto, and when I was looking for one it seemed to expencive. I don't really understand them spidies but i respect them. If people had good experience with something they are willing to share, I mean I tell everybody how happy I am with my Kershaw Splinter, perhaps its not as durable as some spyderco's I don't know but it does well for me. After all I asked for opinions, and some technical info. Plus I asked for suggestions, in the end it'll be me who makes the choice what to get (well I hope its me, and not my wallet)
 
Actually, this is a "valid" complaint, the problem is that the OP doesn't realize that a Spyderco (or a Benchmade, or a Sebenza, or another quality factory knife) will work just fine compared to a 3-400 knife. I deal with this daily - people will want to throw money at problems without educating themselves as to what their true needs are.

Not everyone needs a custom knife. That said, if someone specifically is asking for a custom, that's their choice. If someone has a requirement that they absolutely have to have a $500 knife, that's their choice too, I'm not going to talk them out of it. But if their only criteria is "hard worker, will last for years" then I'm going to try to save them some money and find the right tool for the job.

The first part of the post is fine. The last is objectionable. I'm giving him a warning, but the topic is valid for discussion.
 
I reckon bias do exist especially against Gerber and Cold Steel. If you've owned a Gerber or Cold Steel, then that's fine of course but all too often some people hear the name and automatically dismiss it as junk when they have no actual experience.
 
I do have to say that I agree with thedawg, thats pretty quick to lable as a troll. I also agree with Spark. Most of the time it seems that people always say "Spydies" for whatever you are asking for, even if you don't want one.
 
Spyderco has always been a leader and trend setter in the the sporting cutlery industry and since the company is represented here and most folks that appreciate fine cutlery own at least one of their products you will tend to hear about them.

In the future if you want to know what else to look at specify such in your posts. For example how hard is it to say at the end, 'other than Spyderco what are my choices?' or some other such thing. Most all of the companies making knives have some that will please any end line user. When you post a question here you are hoping to tap into their experiences and feelings on what they have bought and been happy with.

The majority of end line users that buy a Spyderco will buy another later and usually have nothing but positive experiences with their products. However, BenchMade, Kershaw, Buck and many other manufacturers make fine products also and you can sure go to their respective forums and ask about what they have to offer as well or ask specifically about them. Then of course its also easy to limit you questions to customs. The better you qualify your parameters the better the quality of your answers and replies.

STR
 
Of course there is bias on this forum. Is Spyderco over represented on this board? I don't think so. Each manufacture has its fan base, and maybe spyderco has a large one. Rightly so. They make a very good product. Personally, I'm a Kershaw fan, if someone asks an open ended question regarding, "what is right for me?" I'll recommend a Kershaw. So Spyderco has a large fan base. Great for them. If you don't like them, don't buy them. But don't try to dis them at the same time. Sal don't deserve it.
 
Is every one objective? How could they be?
Everyone is biased because everyone is basing their replies on their own experiences and those experiences are limited. But if we have many members having the same experiences, and we base our opinion on that, it is much less biased.

If I have a negative opinion about Gerber, it's may be because the last couple of their knives have not delivered the quality and performance I was looking for at the price I paid. But that was my experience, and if you have had a positive experience with Gerber knives and you comment on it, that's good. Because I only bought two Gerbers that dissatisfied me. That is a tiny sample size. It may be enough for me to decide that I will buy from someone else, but does not mean that all their knives are bad. It just means that the two that I bought in the last few years don't match quality or performance of the ones I bought 20-30 years ago.

So, we pool our experiences and we get a more complete answer. That is why I spend way too much time here on the forums. I will never own all the knives I want or multiple samples of each knife to sample the variation in quality within a single line. But by combining my experiences with those of everyone else, I get a fuller picture of what works and what doesn't. Gosh I could learn that the Gerber LST knife is still a good deal and delivers value for the price. (Which I did a few months ago here.) That means that I might consider buying another one of those if I needed a new knife of that style at that price point. Good boogie. Moreover, I may find out that the two knives I bought were both exceptions to the rule and that most of that model give good value for the dollar. Hasn't happened, but it could. That would be good to know also.

But my single opinion is going to be formed on my own limited experience and is, therefore, biased. The only unbiased opinion will be a shared opinion based on many knife styles and many samples of each knife.

I cannot help it if a lot of us have been disappointed with recent Gerbers or if a lot of us have had positive experiences with Spyderco knives. If there were only a few such reports, it could be due to exceptions or flukes. That there are many such experiences means that the joint opinion is most likely valid.
 
If I asked for a tough knife and someone suggested a spyderco then fine.

If I ask and they gave me a list of 10 spydercos, then something is wrong. As is giving a spyderco for every inquiry.
 
If I ask and they gave me a list of 10 spydercos, then something is wrong. As is giving a spyderco for every inquiry.
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Why is it wrong if they really think they are giving the best advice they can. Surely you can accept they have as much of a right to have preferences or an opinion as you do. You are entitled to give whatever advice you feel is best likewise, reccomending nothing but kershaws if that's your desire.

You really seem to have difficulties accepting that others are free to hold their own opinions. My opinion anyway. Joe
 
It may have helped when Volk asked the original question to specify what knives he has been using in the past that have developed problems, also how he is using them .... I didn't read the original thread, maybe he did.
I think it would help expalin why he felt the need to spend 3-400.00 in order to get a quality knife
 
Knarfeng, you raise some good points. What I hate most is bias regarding specific models. Say someone is asking for opinions on the Gerber Gator. You will always have people who say its junk because of the Gerber name even tho they do not own the particular model.
 
thedawg said:
He explains that he is tired of knives that
develop problems after a while of use.
Click to expand...

Well if he was explaining "problems" that short, it surely is inobjektive or better very much subjektive to just recommend a knive from Spyderco. It would have been with other brands too.

What can be expected from end users forums? End users opinions. It´s up to anybody to read between the lines, wether there´s a fan writung his happiness down on the board or someone trying to write as objektive as he could.
 
Maybe thedawg doesn't understand(or refuses to accept) that some of us have used $300+knives and didn't find a huge difference in terms of performance vs. far less pricey knives. It's like Spark said-not all things are solved by simply throwing more money at the problem. I think if someone says they "need to spend $300-400 on a knife", they're simply being uneducated or a snob. If that person is looking for a custom, that's different. But if not, there are plenty of good knives out there, and yes, some are from Spyderco.

Why does thedawg only talk negatively about Spyderco? And then he says we're biased???:rolleyes:
 
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