If you are a Knifemaker....then be a Knifemaker

Bruce Bump said:
I just paid my membership for another year. This is the lowest cost, highest exposure place I,ve found.
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Coming from Bruce, that is a quality endowment, in my opinion.

I agree that there is not a better deal out there. Even if you want to sell one knife at $50.

Mike L.
 
Bruce Bump said:
I just paid my membership for another year. This is the lowest cost, highest exposure place I,ve found.
Click to expand...

Coming from Bruce, that is a quality endorsement, in my opinion.

I agree that there is not a better deal out there. Even if you want to sell one knife at $50.

Mike L.
 
logem said:
Coming from Bruce, that is a quality endorsement, in my opinion.

I agree that there is not a better deal out there. Even if you want to sell one knife at $50.

Mike L.
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logem said:
Coming from Bruce, that is a quality endorsement, in my opinion.

I agree that there is not a better deal out there. Even if you want to sell one knife at $50.

Mike L.
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... and where else can you get two posts for the price of one? :D
 
Would making the "General Knifemakers Discussion" closed to other membership levels (private forum, concealed photos, and read only text, as potential suggestions) fix the perceived value problem some have?
 
ron_m80 said:
Would making the "General Knifemakers Discussion" closed to other membership levels (private forum, concealed photos, and read only text, as potential suggestions) fix the perceived value problem some have?
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Personally, I really wish that a Knifemaker's discussion subforum (shoptalk) was reserved for Knifemaker's only. I know this will offend some, but I'm not interested in the input that someone who doesn't even make knives has with regards to knifemaker questions/discussions. It devalues the experience for me personally and makes absolutely no sense to me. I just can't wrap my head around the fact that the majority of replies, in nearly every thread in shoptalk, is from folks whose names are not in orange and displaying themselves as knifemakers. What's the point of starting a question/discussion amongst knifemakers that is inevitably predominated by those not willing to display themselves as such? Ideally, I would like to see a knifemaker only sub forum (shoptalk) and then a seperate sub forum for those with questions for knifemakers. That seperate sub forum would allow those maker's who wish to help the new guys to do so, but would keep the input from non knifemaker's out of shoptalk. Again, I know this will likely offend some, but it is my opinion on the subject. I really suspect that I'm not the only one who feels this way, and I constantly wonder if more knifemakers would return to shoptalk if they didn't have to deal with the flood of posters who are not even knifemakers.
 
Adam Buttry said:
Personally, I really wish that a Knifemaker's discussion subforum (shoptalk) was reserved for Knifemaker's only
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You should look into a hosted sub forum. Im sure spark would be happy to take your money and set up private/invitation only rules ;0)
 
These questions come up at least once a year, and people get all riled up about them. Then not much happens, it fades away, people get discouraged and a few months later it starts all over again.

Fact is, there's really not a whole lot anyone here can do to address them. Bring it up in Tech Support and/or contact Spark directly... he's the one that must decide if new/different subforums are needed.
 
Referring to the Shop talk section- The awkward part would be that ideally, we're trying to get the least and most experienced people in the same room, along with people who are well on their way who also are learning.
If you make it a free for all, you do get a lot of useless posts- if you restrict it, then the newbies won't be there.
Personally, I'd like to see just the shoptalk area open to all, without worrying about membership levels or status as a maker, but I have no clue whether that's practical, whether things can be divided up in a sub forum.
Come to think of it...wouldn't it make sense just to have the Show and Tell type places and the other selling areas member-only?
Just the places where active selling takes place?
 
I agree with the others. SETLAB - YOUR ANALOGY IS SILLY. NO ONE IS BUYING IT SO PLEASE GO AWAY.

Tim
 
I mistakenly walked the line and possibly crossed it with some of my posts. The recent threads helped me become aware of it. I was planning on holding off on the knifemakers membership until I was closer to having knives for sale, but i went ahead and got it taken care of last night. I believe that it may be the best $85 I spend this year. And it was $85 because I'm also changing my user name to Kloepper Knife Works.

While I agree that free membership without restrictions other than no overt selling would be a way to attract great makers who want to give back to the community, it's not my site. It's also not yours (this applies to all but 1 person). If you don't like how BF is run, go start your own site and show how superior your management abilities are, and give away as many memberships as you want.
 
Adam Buttry said:
nearly every thread in shoptalk, is from folks whose names are not in orange and displaying themselves as knifemakers.
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II personally held off on a knifemakers membership because while I do make knives I don't sell them regularly and I'm still a novice. I want to participate with my >ten years of experience as a welder, machinest and artist without giving someone the idea that I'm a pro knife maker.
I get what you're saying, but honestly any newb with a CC could invade your exclusive sub-forum as much as anyone does now, and probably would if they thought the secrets of the vorpal blade were being discussed in there.
 
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Interference Fit Co. said:
... but i went ahead and got it taken care of last night.
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If you did buy a membership, you need to go to "Settings" at your upper right corner of this page, look to your left listings under "Account" and go into "Permission Groups" and change your member group to the one you just purchased.

You can then go to "edit profile" and add a Custom Title if you wish.... like "Soon To Be Maker of Things That Cut Stuff" or whatever.
 
I am newbie by all standards. I have not made the first sale of a knife I have learned just about all I know about knife making here from very generous people that have shared their knowledge with me and other fledging knife makers.
I am not a rich man by any means, I work pretty much a 9 to 5. My wife does not work, and we pretty much live paycheck to paycheck.
When I first told my wife I wanted to do this it put quite a financial burden on us buying all the things (Just the bare minimum) to start making knives, I was not even sure that I had the skills, the jury is still out on that question.
With all that being said, not sure that I would have even started this endeavor if there would have been an initial fee for this basic forum. I really appreciate all the generosity that has been displayed here. When I start to sell knives I will definitely be buying the knife makers membership. Although even at this stage I feel presumptuous of me to call myself a knife maker. I have learned over the last 54 years, that with any endeavor, that has to be sustained by those that are younger or inexperienced, such as hunting, or shooting sports, or anything that requires another generation to pick up the mantle, that you must make it as accessible as possible for them to get a "Taste" before you put your hand out. JMHO
 
lastbrunneng said:
I get what you're saying, but honestly any newb with a CC could invade your exclusive sub-forum as much as anyone does now...
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They wouldn't need a CC, just an e-mail and a registered (free) account. Running a maker's subforum gives one the privilege to edit out frivolous or troublesome posts. My name shows up in red only because I have my own subforum, so I can clean things up there if need be; I have no "moderator powers" anywhere but there.



Neither Stacy nor the SuperMods who oversee the entire forum have ever said that anyone couldn't share their knowledge and techniques here, and/or show finished work or WIPs, regardless of membership level or expertise. They've explained that over and over and over again. The rules just say you can't advertise or sell without the proper membership. It's really quite simple, and I think it's plenty fair.

I have no idea why that "controversy" keeps coming up, or why someone would need to be "bribed" with a free maker's membership in order to contribute. :confused: As just one example, Kevin Cashen was "merely" a registered member here for years and years, and wrote scads of very useful threads and replies. I for one learned a great deal from his input here and if I'm not mistaken a lot of it is still in the stickies.

There's nothing but themselves stopping anyone from contributing whatever knowledge or guidance they want here... as it should be. If dumb questions and misinformed "answers" annoy you, either reply to them with correct information or simply scroll past them.
 
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Anyone can post knife related content, short of "knife making", even including some knife making in the Maintenance and tinkering. It seems to have grown into a grab bag of assorted stuff. No reason why a beginner, or someone who is unsure couldn't post there content there, and still separate out the folks who are willing to pony up for "knifemaker" status.

I don't like what the idea will do to folks like "12345678910", who help out quite a bit over a wide range of questions posed.
 
James, I was speaking of the change I proposed earlier. Not of things the way they are now.
 
I misunderstood your post Ron :o

Anyway it needs to be dealt with in Tech Support... otherwise we're just going around in circles here.
 
I get misunderstood a lot. Doesn't bother me so much anymore. :D
 
Food for thought: Almost every website that doesn't directly sell you something has what is essentially a mandatory paid membership fee. The cost is your eyeballs looking at the ads someone else paid to put there. I spend a good bit of time on the internet, and I have ways to go around this, but everyone has gone to the page that makes you click past 2 popups after you clicked the "continue to site" button before you have to read around the banner ads. Many forums, even, are MUCH more onerous about this by putting ads in the middle of the posts and plastering the sidebar. I just turned my adblocker off because A. I want support the site, and B. I wanted to see how bad it was. There is one ad. One.

Doing anything costs money. Some things cost more than others, and running a forum with this much traffic is one of them. Spark isn't asking for a firstborn child, he is asking that if you make money off his work, he can make some off yours. It's as simple as that. If you look, this is his policy all over the site. If you want to get money out of your production collection, he charges a little bit. If you want to get money for your own work, he charges a little more. The ONLY exceptions to this rule that I can think of are either features that do not impact the usefulness of the site, e.g. PMs, and places where the membership acts as a solid form of censorship for certain areas of the website.

I might be wrong. Shoot, there is a good chance I am. However, consider what I said next time you use Google in any form and realize that Spark has made a decision that requires the community to be more motivated rather than going the easy path and not asking at all.
 
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