Knifemakers Membership Changes (was Knifemakers)

Rusty McDonald

Rusty McDonald

Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Messages
1,171
So how many here have Knife makers accounts?

Read something this morning that shocked me a bit. Your Knife makers account will go up by almost 100% according to this post. read #107.
 
i have a knife maker membership and I've yet to make a knife. i chose to pay and support the site because of all the information i receive but if it goes up much more i just wont be able to afford it period. it wouldn't be an attitude thing but a serious money issue..... i couldn't hardly afford to pay for this year!

i hope they leave it alone

Jake
 
WOW! I was a bit shocked to read that post about the Knifemaker memberships going up.....and 100%+ to boot!!! If that occurs, it will mean the end for me. I personally thought that the current rate was a bit steep for the meager benefits it entitles one to...and I suspect that with the current economic times, I won't be the only one.
 
Luckily, my membership runs out in 2 days...and I just purchased another year at the current price.

--nathan
 
All I know is the last time I paid it was $40, from $40 to $75 is kinda a big jump. Hell I have plenty of other dues to pay other than this ABS, AKA, web site. I'll just be a regular member I guess.
 
Wow....even though I make knives, and like to try to sell one here and there to cover stuff in the shop, it's by no means a major part of my livelihood...I can't justify paying more a year than I'm likely to recoup. Looks like I'll drop out as well.

I understand that running this site costs Spark a good bit of coin, but driving prices up that much will only drive people away...

-d
 
Yea, I can't justify that. KnifeDog's is free for up to 12 sales a year, $30 for KnifeMaker status.
 
Thanks for letting us know, Rusty. Guess I'll be sticking to Tracy's forum.

And if the knifemaker ones go up, platinum will too, because platinum has all the benefits of knifemaker plus a larger mailbox.
 
I’m not sure that things are carved in stone yet, and the better place to address the price and your concerns is in the thread in Service and Support. I hope that what ever is decided is more understandable than the dealer/supplier/purveyor membership level and rules have been so far. I think everyone here is willing to play by the rules, I was shocked a few weeks ago when I looked at the supplies for sale forum and it was full of locked threads, locked not by the mods, but by the original posters to try and comply with the rules. As I understand it, at least for now, you only need the knifemaker membership to sell, if you aren’t selling enough to justify that, a lower level of membership would still allow participation in the discussion.

I was going to post this in the Service and Support thread, but it died down before I had time to type up my thoughts. Now I’m not sure raising the prices will do much but drive away some members. Off the top of my head I can think of 4 or 5 members from platinum down to registered user that may be type the changes could be meant to address. I don’t think any of them participated in the other thread, and none of them either directly do business here or do so at what I would think of as a “supplier” level. Yet they are sources that are mentioned when someone asks about tools, supplies, or materials, and/or they have a signature line mentioning their business. Heck, so far this year I’ve done $1500 or more in business with 2 of them. I haven’t spent much time on other knife forums for quite a while, but the For Sale: Knifemaking Supplies & Tools is, or was one of the best resources on the web.

Todd
 
This is where most of the KNIFEMAKERS hang out, not in service and support. Therefore I thought it best to let them know.
 
I was thinking about getting a knifemaker membership, as I just started trying to make knives. I doubt that I'll get one if the price goes to $75. It's probably not that bad of a price if you sell a lot of knives, but I don't plan on making that many.
 
Even I'm broke, i would renew my membership but 75 is lot higher than I'm ready to spend. Is inflation that high in USA???
 
OMG folks, it is $75 freaken dollars. :rolleyes:

The problem is, dealers have to pay a lot more for basically the same privileges as knifemakers. The knifemaker rate really is set too low, but I think the purpose of that was to encourage a lot of folks to get the knifemaker membership, which helps make this a vibrant community.

Here you get a forum with lots of traffic to sell your knives for $40 a year. That is really cheep. If it goes to $75 and half of you drop out - well, I guess I'll have less competition selling knives here. But I hope it doesn't mean there are also fewer people here buying knives. Time will tell. If the price goes up, I hope the mailbox size goes up also.

Folks like Ed Caffery probably don't need a knifemaker membership. I don't think he sells knives here (I think I would have noticed that) - and I think about everybody understands he is a knifemaker. Kevin Cashen and Tai Goo are "basic member".
 
I'm trying to see this from all the angles. I'm certain that Spark's costs have gone up but like someone mentioned, a good deal of that certainly must be due to increased traffic. I think we can all agree though that this place has improved technologically a great deal over the years. Reliable infrastructure is not cheap.

That being said, people are feeling the crunch. It's not easy for me to come up with $40 every year for my membership, which is entirely for support of a good place; I don't sell anything here. Well, part of it is so that I can 'say' I'm a "knifemaker." ;) But that ain't worth forty bucks, much less seventy five. I won't renew if the price goes up and I suspect that my attendance here might diminish as well. "Registered User" does not ring many bells in my ego. :) Perhaps many of those who have been around for a while won't ante up. The last price increase was hard for me to swallow, and almost doubling it will be the deal killer for me. Any increase actually, would be a deal killer for me. Having a cool tag by my avatar is not rationally worth much money.

But the thing is, there's a lot of good information to be found here if you can filter out all the noise. This is where I learned pretty much everything I know about making knives, and I've made some of the best friends of my life here. But Shop Talk is the only forum I spend any time in, and there are other choices elsewhere that cost less than BF does today.

If paid memberships decline here they will likely be made up by those who do pay the higher rate. But possibly it'll be at best a break-even proposition for Spark, with the same amount of traffic - at least in the short term. One thing about the internet, no one has figured out how to lock anyone into anything; as soon as someone thinks they've found a way to secure an enhanced income stream everyone goes off to the newest, greatest free thing. Or in this case, find a less-expensive alternative. But I doubt there will be another forum with as much diversity as this one anywhere for quite a while. To the extent that's valuable, folks will continue to use this service and many will pay the new rates.

Honestly, it might be worth the price for those who sell their knives here. Many makers have built good careers at BF. Seventy five bucks a year is really not much for the kind of exposure a maker can achieve here, if that's what they're paying for. In the end business reality will dictate the charges for services like those we pay for at BF. Other forums that charge less may find that's not workable long term. Those will either fold or increase their charges to a sustainable level. True competition really does work to create the best - and most - alternatives.
 
Folks, Before you all start running around and yelling the sky is falling, read the entire thread. There are some folks who are running wood businesses, steel businesses, and other supply businesses who are using a knifemakers membership instead of a dealers membership.These folks are cheating the system, and part of the cause for increased rates. The increased traffic and bandwidth costs money. Those who sell knife supplies and such as a business are dealers, those who make and sell knives are knifemakers. If you want to have a site to sell things at a profit, there is no better place than on the BF. At $75 for a knifemaker, or $200 for a dealer, it is a real deal. One show table is usually around that.....for two days selling time. ( A table at the Blade show is 10 times that price)

As Nathan pointed out, the knifemaker deal is really cheap for a maker to be able to sell his wares.

If you don't want the benefits of being able to sell on the for sale forums, just get a regular membership. If you want to sell some knives that you make, get a knifemaker membership. If you want to run a business in knife supplies, you are a dealer, get a dealer membership. I think if you are a full time maker, that makes you a dealer,too.

I agree that the "For Sale" forums are a bit confusing and all. If you can sell something there it seems OK, but the original idea of this place was to be self enforcing. That has not happened, and Spark has to figure other ways to even the load.

I do understand that this is a big deal to some folks, but I would bet the main portion of those waving their hands and screaming that this is just unfair, spend that amount on recreational entertainment monthly.

There are memberships at $10 and $25 for those who don't want to spend the higher fees for those who sell things..

Stacy
 
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if spark would impose a $5. fee for registered users after a trial period that might work better. it seems there are more registered users compared to basic members. its the paying members supporting them being here. if someone really likes the forum i dont think $5. is that much for a years membership.
 
It hasn't been worth $40.00 to me, I have yet to sell a knife on here, I will let mine run out.
 
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