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22-rimfire

22-rimfire

Joined
Nov 20, 2005
Messages
19,385
I contributed to another thread and mentioned that I first became aware of internet forums that are interest based (knives, guns, and so forth) from an article in Field & Stream magazine. I was wondering about your history and interest.

How did you start with the internet forums? Me... I first joined HuntingPA.com as that was in my home state and I remain interested in outdoor activities in that state. Then I learned about the gun forums from there with THR and TFL being the two I most contributed to. The Colt Forum was big too and was specifically about one of my dominant interests. S&W less so, but I visit there. Then came along RimfireCentral and I found a home along with BF. I periodically post in other forums, but these are ones I vist the most.

Really like SixShooter, but it died. Another I like is HandgunHunter which tends to focus on hunting and larger caliber handguns. I don't really have all that much to contribute there, but I enjoy reading the posts.

Have you joined any forums only to realize the forum was lets say... a bit jaded against certain religions or people?

Have you been banned on other forums? I haven't. If I get a infraction or warning, it is usually because I was not paying attention to the rules or someone got under my skin.

I hope this is not a taboo topic here on BF. IF so, moderators, please just delete the thread.
 
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I'm 30 years old, and I've been on internet forums since I was probably 13 or so. I was always into cars and stuff, and I feel like car forums were (and still are) very prominent. I recently (in the last 4-5 years) have started to branch out into other types of forums. Yup, I've been banned I think, though I couldn't tell you why or when. But I have literally thousands of posts under my belt. One of the local ones I haven't frequented in about a year, I think I have over 16,000 posts there alone. Haha. But yes, car forums, photography, nutrition, precious metals, investing, knives, etc. I probably get 50+ emails on my birthday each year from various forums I've been on. I quit entering that info after a while, lol.
 
A little time on the early internet, picked up knives when I was living in NYC of all places, and was reading knife magazines when I saw an ad for an internet knife seller. James Mattis of Chai Cutlery. I spent a lot of time and some money on his website, and read that he was a moderator on ... Bladeforums. Been trapped here ever since.
 
I started back in the late 90s, I got involved with rec knives.com which many original BFC members were involved in while researching knives on the internet which at the time was a big thing considering the only resources available were the few shows, dealers and corresponding with manufacturers by phone or mail.

Researching could take months to years back then. Eventually Mike Turber with Kevin started BFC and I came over from recknives in 98 and lurked for a couple of years and finally registered in 01 and have been here ever since. Like many of the old timers here I've seen this place as a resource and clearing house for information along with a place to hang out and discuss knives with the makers and shakers in the industry. I've made many friends over the years here including the likes of Esav, AG Russell, the Daniels family and many members from around the globe.

There are many sites similar to BFC but none have the vast community of diverse, like minded that we have here, I've always felt like I watched BFC grow into the home it is from its infancy and that makes me smile like an uncle whose watched a nephew or niece grow into adulthood. :) Yes in biased. ;)
 
Esav Benyamin said:
A little time on the early internet, picked up knives when I was living in NYC of all places, and was reading knife magazines when I saw an ad for an internet knife seller. James Mattis of Chai Cutlery. I spent a lot of time and some money on his website, and read that he was a moderator on ... Bladeforums. Been trapped here ever since.
Click to expand...

Sadly, I had a bunch of James' old pics saved on a CD that got scratched up. After he passed, I tried my darndest to recover them for his daughter, but it was a no go.

A friend at work showed me a Spyderco knife, and turned me onto the Ruff's Saddle Shop catalog. A print catalog, mind you. With an internet search (Yahoo maybe? It was before Google rose to power), I found the Spyderco subforum and joined BFC. In a few weeks, it will have been 15 years.
 
Guyon said:
Sadly, I had a bunch of James' old pics saved on a CD that got scratched up. After he passed, I tried my darndest to recover them for his daughter, but it was a no go.

A friend at work showed me a Spyderco knife, and turned me onto the Ruff's Saddle Shop catalog. A print catalog, mind you. With an internet search (Yahoo maybe? It was pre- rise of Google), I found the Spyderco subforum and joined BFC. In a few weeks, it will have been 15 years.
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Not to derail the thread but do you still have that disc?
Try some headlight restore polish on it. The 3M 2 piece kit had worked on some pretty wicked scratches for me.
Just remember to only rub from the center to the edge and back, not in a circle.
 
Well, I'm 22 so I pretty much grew up with the internet. Since I started buying knives at 15 I would constantly be searching the web for as much info possible so I could make a good purchase. This is actually the only forum that I'm an active member of. I lurk around many other forums gathering info on cars, wood working, shooting, cooking, camping, etc... the internet has vast amounts of knowledge as well entertainment, they both go hand & hand for me.
 
Yeah the Internet has vast amounts of bs too. Some forums have mods who protect scammers and constantly alter and delete posts for no good reason. Havnt had a problem here though.
 
I have been on forums for almost as long as there have been forums.

I had my first web site in 1996, and I was on motorcycle and car forums.

I found bladeforums when I was researching an old Emerson CQC-7, and have been here ever since.

best

mqqn
 
I was on a couple of boards back in the 80's with Prodigy on my Commodore 128. Those were the days. :rolleyes:
Been bouncing around ever since and usually my interests go in another direction and I wander off.
 
22-rimfire said:
I contributed to another thread and mentioned that I first became aware of internet forums that are interest based (knives, guns, and so forth) from an article in Field & Stream magazine. I was wondering about your history and interest.

How did you start with the internet forums? Me... I first joined HuntingPA.com as that was in my home state and I remain interested in outdoor activities in that state. Then I learned about the gun forums from there with THR and TFL being the two I most contributed to. The Colt Forum was big too and was specifically about one of my dominant interests. S&W less so, but I visit there. Then came along RimfireCentral and I found a home along with BF. I periodically post in other forums, but these are ones I vist the most.

Really like SixShooter, but it died. Another I like is HandgunHunter which tends to focus on hunting and larger caliber handguns. I don't really have all that much to contribute there, but I enjoy reading the posts.

Have you joined any forums only to realize the forum was lets say... a bit jaded against certain religions or people?

Have you been banned on other forums? I haven't. If I get a infraction or warning, it is usually because I was not paying attention to the rules or someone got under my skin.

I hope this is not a taboo topic here on BF. IF so, moderators, please just delete the thread.
Click to expand...

Well lets see..

I think my first was a chicken forum when I was about 8/9/10, then a hermit crab forum when I was 10, then another hermit crab forum when I was 11/12, and then BF last year when I was 14.

The chicken forum died, the first hermit crab forum is still around but slowish, the second I'm not sure about because they rubbed me the wrong way and I no longer visit it (most of them would hang you for even mentioning a religion even if it was pertinent to the conversation which caused me to be banned a few times), and now BF is my favorite.

If you're wondering the point in hermit crab forums, crabs can live a very long life if taken care of properly and they're pretty fun to have, another hobby just like knives.
 
My first forum is my home, here. I've wandered out into other places, but have never found the community we have in this place.

I did start to sort of fit in in a Cigar forum (cigars.com), but that has since become less of an interest for me.

I also dabble in collecting custom playing cards, and there are a couple places I signed up for, but rarely post.

Really, this is my on-line life. I don't even visit my own facebook page more than 1 or 2 times a month. I'm on this place, literally every day.

Heck, I find things to buy, stories to read, jokes, pron, friends, entertainment, social drama, even discussions on food and drink. This place has it all.
 
I have been posting on various videogame forums since my parents signed up for Earthlink in Spring 1999. I began collecting knives in early 2005 or so and discovered BladeForums many years later but didn't register until now.
 
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This was my first forum experience. I have been involved in the knife world since the 80s supplying mammoth ivory for scales. I joined after the death of my friend Rick Fields. Rick was a scrimshander and handle supplier. I am am involved in a Toyota diesel and VW diesel truck forums. I check in regularly but do not post much.
 
It took me a long time to get on Web forums. I started out on dial up BBS systems a long time ago (80's). When I got the internet back in '97, I used to read a lot of the computer groups on the newsgroups. Downloaded a few binaries too. ;) I didn't follow rec.knives much because there was too much traffic every day.

My first forum was candlepower forums. I had a battery charger that wasn't working and google lead me to a fix there. After I upgraded my old Maglites to LEDs I wondered if there was any similar improvements in knives. A few years later I've got a small collection of various steels.

It seems like the big differences in forums are the amount of traffic and the quality of the mods.
 
My need to identify a knife inherited from my father ... via a google search ... brought me to BF - Bernard Levine ... who kindly provided all the information requested in response to my first post here. I so appreciate this.

Then I began reading and found the most diverse, information & knowledge-sharing community that informed my interests that I had ever encountered in my long life. I camp, camp-travel and prefer water access sites, maintain a river-side property and help elders with property maintenance. Knives have always been tools in my life, yet I have come to understand so much more about sharpening, maintenance, uses, carry options, art ... and HUGE respect ... for blades.
I then read and read, and finally managed the courage to post. I had never experienced or belonged to a forum before ... so when I found shared interest in a particular thread, I was encouraged to join simply because the OP was managing the cross-purpose antagonistic postings between several members so well. My sense was that - hey, here, I will not be kicked to the curb. And I wasn't. I was welcomed to the forum.
Thanks Michael, Codger_64
Thanks BF
Susan
 
Started back around '99.... First would have been Combat Flight Simulator-related forums. Big flightsim fan..

I'm on rather a lot...James Randi/International Skeptics, Slinging, a whole raft of guitar forums, about 20 different Reddit sections...And though not technically a "forum" I hang out on Yahoo Answers a lot.
Takes me about an hour to go through 'em all.
 
This thread made me smile, partly because I recognize 22-rimfire from THR and TFL.

I've been on boards of various types "since before the Internet". Really, since before the web as we know it today. I was on a local BBS via dial-up around 95-96.

After the AOL explosion, I was involved in a variety of boards relating to interests. Fitness, gaming, music, basketball... Those dominated my early days on boards. At one point, some friends and I had a forum for a part of the XBox Live community. That was fun, but I stepped away after a short while.

Over the past few years, I've evolved a lot. I'm a gun guy and former shop manager, and most of the boards I'm registered on are gun boards. That interest bled into general EDC, which took me to candlepower, EDCF, and here.

The boards that have stuck for me are BF and a basketball board, for the same reasons: rabid interest, and a wealth of knowledgable posters.
 
I started both here and at KF about the same time. Don't recall which was first.
I've also joined other forums over the years, technology, motorcycles, etc. Some of those came and went, some I'm still active with, and others I only pop in once in a while.
 
RBid said:
This thread made me smile, partly because I recognize 22-rimfire from THR and TFL.

I've been on boards of various types "since before the Internet". Really, since before the web as we know it today. I was on a local BBS via dial-up around 95-96.

After the AOL explosion, I was involved in a variety of boards relating to interests. Fitness, gaming, music, basketball... Those dominated my early days on boards. At one point, some friends and I had a forum for a part of the XBox Live community. That was fun, but I stepped away after a short while.

Over the past few years, I've evolved a lot. I'm a gun guy and former shop manager, and most of the boards I'm registered on are gun boards. That interest bled into general EDC, which took me to candlepower, EDCF, and here.

The boards that have stuck for me are BF and a basketball board, for the same reasons: rabid interest, and a wealth of knowledgable posters.
Click to expand...

That's me. :D I was on the internet a lot from about 1995 forward. Before that my online usage was purely work related. So, I didn't play around. I was aware of message boards early on, but never really explored them. I guess I didn't understand what a message board was at that point. Time sharing was something I did begining in the 1980's and those were the early days. Just having a monitor was a wonderful thing.

I got online at home beginning in 1995/1996. My employer didn't even have any on line capabilities and I used my own email address to communicate. Wouldn't dream of doing that now.
 
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