Despite numerous requests to stop in again since I have moved on, I still hesitated even to follow a link to this thread. My hats off to Nick for being a bigger man than I am and coming back for an attempt at a constructive conversation. Curiosity, not expectations, got me to read this thread, but when I saw it was on its third page and still constructive in nature, I decided to post.
I cant speak for others, but for myself I can say God bless newbies and their questions, because I believe that newbies questions are what these forums are all about. Perhaps it is the teacher in me, but I prefer to be where I can be of help, and nothing spurs conversation more than newbie questions. Think about it, if you are like me when you are around friends on your same level in the business, you talk about cigars, scotch, music, movies, jokes, etc
but rarely do you talk about methods or technical aspects of knife making; it is boring and what is the point you already know what each other will say. It is only when a new maker approaches you with good questions do you talk about knifemaking. So please dont segregate or under-appreciate the new guys, they are the life blood of these forums and the future of our craft.
I can give you the reason why I had to leave BF in one word- stress. I hate conflict, I just want to help people, and losing friends or making enemies for no good reason sucks greater than anything I have experienced in my adult life. There were days when I got a sick feeling in my stomach just pressing enter at this site, because I knew only grief would result. Most people come to these places for fun. I wished I could say that, but when I experienced that level of anxiety I knew I had a different incentive and that was my desire to help others, but there comes a time when your own physical and mental well-being needs to come first.
I would like the opportunity to clarify why, and when, I left BF. I joined BF in 2003 and until late 2008 it was my favorite site on the internet. But then I became the target of endless, intentional , harassment by new members who felt my metallurgical data was a threat to their approach to knifemaking. I was not met with countering data or attempts at valid arguments, just insults and nonsense like posting song lyrics to derail any thread I participated in.
Now let me be very clear about this, by themselves such people would never be able to keep me from helping folks, but when I could get no help whatsoever to stop the trolling I was no longer able to participate as I once did. I had a membership but let it lapse because I was unable to use it when eventually even a single post by me would destroy any thread as soon as my participation was noticed by certain individuals. In the following year, in which I was not active here, a new rule was put in place about posting images without a membership. I have NEVER liked posting stuff about myself or my knives on forums where I wanted to help with education, my philosophy is that advertising and sales tend to taint unbiased information. But I had been asked repeatedly to post my work to help establish that I can do some of what I talk about. So as I was leaving for the blade show, with a knife that I already had sold several times over, I posted an image here in total ignorance of the new rule.
When the violation was brought to my attention I can assure you that I felt sicker about it than anybody, but before I could remove the image (I was at the Blade show), a series of vicious personal attacks had been made against me by some familiar faces. The final insult was when someone who should have stopped the flaming (not Stacy) basically called me a freeloader for not having a membership. Between no hope of being able to post in peace, and the numbers of those who once were appreciative of any help I could give but now valued the outrageous behaviour of the other side more, I realized that despite my willingness to help, Bladeforums no longer had a use for me, and I moved on.
In the past, sites like this made changes in advancing our craft like I never expected to see in my lifetime, I guess that is probably worth saving. I wish you folks all the luck.
