- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
Sorry mods, this is a bit off topic, but the thread was started as a direct response to 'What do you want from the maker's' thread by PitDog. I think it is on topic to the effect that I am soliciting owners of outdoor blades to broadcast their reviews in other parts of BF. I want them to discuss what makes a good outdoor blade and provide some of that information in general discussion.
Okay - as per my moderator disclaimer above, I was moved by the discussion about what do our maker's want and how do we help them in a pinch. Everyone knows that times are tight and we are all making do with less disposable income. That is clear. Depression consumerism is the vogue of the day. What is also clear is that we can't financially support our 20 or so regular makers/contributors with our 70 or so regulars. Even the guys who regularly buy knives can't regularly buy knives from everybody. The most positive responses in the 'What do we want from the maker's' had to do with increasing their market share and market visibility.
Some maker's have their own sub-forums but unless they maintain constant activity on their sites to show up in the 'new posts' list for 60 s or so, this advertising venue quickly gets lost. I almost never see makers with subforums posting in the general discussion. There are reasons for that and they are also busy trying to keep their areas tidy, on-topic and moving.
What better way to do this then to start by educating the BF-forumites. That will probably sound ignorant to a regular from a different forum who happens on this page by the 'new posts' route. However, where I would like to see us targeting our efforts are 'General Knives Discussion'. This is the repository of the new members where they read, get their first bits of cutlery education and then either move onto more specialized forum areas or make their knife buying choice and cure themselves of our disease.
In the past year I probably responded to 20 or so threads asking about "a good fixed blade for camping" or "hunting" or "outdoor tasks". Inevitably the responses are peppered with suggestions for production knives almost always in the $80-$100 range. There will be the odd regular from these parts that chime in about a good custom fixed blade but they are so swamped by production recommendations that inevitably the effort is lost.
Here is my suggestion. W&SS regulars, as in knife owners, make it a service to try and provide 1 review thread per week featuring a custom or group of custom knives by a maker. Really it could be any maker, doesn't have to be our regulars per se. The review can be partly recycled from past ones we've done over here. Look most of them don't come to these parts anyway. Knifemakers can perform reviews of other peoples knives and keep it positive.
The goal is that we always have constant presence of a thread reviewing custom fixed blades targeted to the outdoor knives audience in general. The review can be honest but shouldn't be overly negative in tone. If you want to post a negative review, go ahead and do so, but don't claim you adhering to the objective of this thread. The review should discuss the attributes of the blade and what makes it a good outdoor knife. Remember that many readers in GKD are new members and do not necessarily understand the subtleties of grinds, swedges, fuellers, sheath styles. Think of your review as partly an education as a product feature. You should provide a general price point, doesn't have to be an exact price paid, but key to the success of the process is that readers of GKD get a sense of cost and value. If they come away thinking that was a great blade but probably costs $300 plus when it really only costs $100 then a disservice has been done. Finally, you should provide some ways in which the readers can find out more information. This gets a bit sticky in terms of avoiding the anti-sell rule of GKD. If the maker has a subforum or webpage than you can direct them there. Also, don't forget to direct them to W&SS to ask more about the blades in question and their performance attributes.
So really, this is an informal marketing campaign. Actually more like a W&SS lobby group from users. I think if the new members get used to always seeing reviews of custom fixed blades this will have several net positive effects.
i) it might recruit W&SS a few new regulars (don't forget to plug W&SS).
ii) it might pick up a few extra sales for our makers and direct them to appropriate places like their subforums of the 'for sale by maker area'
iii) three the constant reminder that there are quality, economical custom fixed blades out there may just cause the General regulars to begin switching their responses from predominately production to a better mixture of production + custom blades.
iv) it gets W&SS regulars posting outside of W&SS. I know a few mods have commented on our 'in-breeding' tendencies when it comes to posting
So this is a direct call to W&SS regulars and custom-blade collectors of outdoor knives to provide a service and preserve their own market economy.
Afterall, I can point to a couple of Bearthedog reviews and JeffH which were responsible for nudging me into the territory of customs.
So who is in?
Okay - as per my moderator disclaimer above, I was moved by the discussion about what do our maker's want and how do we help them in a pinch. Everyone knows that times are tight and we are all making do with less disposable income. That is clear. Depression consumerism is the vogue of the day. What is also clear is that we can't financially support our 20 or so regular makers/contributors with our 70 or so regulars. Even the guys who regularly buy knives can't regularly buy knives from everybody. The most positive responses in the 'What do we want from the maker's' had to do with increasing their market share and market visibility.
Some maker's have their own sub-forums but unless they maintain constant activity on their sites to show up in the 'new posts' list for 60 s or so, this advertising venue quickly gets lost. I almost never see makers with subforums posting in the general discussion. There are reasons for that and they are also busy trying to keep their areas tidy, on-topic and moving.
What better way to do this then to start by educating the BF-forumites. That will probably sound ignorant to a regular from a different forum who happens on this page by the 'new posts' route. However, where I would like to see us targeting our efforts are 'General Knives Discussion'. This is the repository of the new members where they read, get their first bits of cutlery education and then either move onto more specialized forum areas or make their knife buying choice and cure themselves of our disease.
In the past year I probably responded to 20 or so threads asking about "a good fixed blade for camping" or "hunting" or "outdoor tasks". Inevitably the responses are peppered with suggestions for production knives almost always in the $80-$100 range. There will be the odd regular from these parts that chime in about a good custom fixed blade but they are so swamped by production recommendations that inevitably the effort is lost.
Here is my suggestion. W&SS regulars, as in knife owners, make it a service to try and provide 1 review thread per week featuring a custom or group of custom knives by a maker. Really it could be any maker, doesn't have to be our regulars per se. The review can be partly recycled from past ones we've done over here. Look most of them don't come to these parts anyway. Knifemakers can perform reviews of other peoples knives and keep it positive.
The goal is that we always have constant presence of a thread reviewing custom fixed blades targeted to the outdoor knives audience in general. The review can be honest but shouldn't be overly negative in tone. If you want to post a negative review, go ahead and do so, but don't claim you adhering to the objective of this thread. The review should discuss the attributes of the blade and what makes it a good outdoor knife. Remember that many readers in GKD are new members and do not necessarily understand the subtleties of grinds, swedges, fuellers, sheath styles. Think of your review as partly an education as a product feature. You should provide a general price point, doesn't have to be an exact price paid, but key to the success of the process is that readers of GKD get a sense of cost and value. If they come away thinking that was a great blade but probably costs $300 plus when it really only costs $100 then a disservice has been done. Finally, you should provide some ways in which the readers can find out more information. This gets a bit sticky in terms of avoiding the anti-sell rule of GKD. If the maker has a subforum or webpage than you can direct them there. Also, don't forget to direct them to W&SS to ask more about the blades in question and their performance attributes.
So really, this is an informal marketing campaign. Actually more like a W&SS lobby group from users. I think if the new members get used to always seeing reviews of custom fixed blades this will have several net positive effects.
i) it might recruit W&SS a few new regulars (don't forget to plug W&SS).
ii) it might pick up a few extra sales for our makers and direct them to appropriate places like their subforums of the 'for sale by maker area'
iii) three the constant reminder that there are quality, economical custom fixed blades out there may just cause the General regulars to begin switching their responses from predominately production to a better mixture of production + custom blades.
iv) it gets W&SS regulars posting outside of W&SS. I know a few mods have commented on our 'in-breeding' tendencies when it comes to posting
So this is a direct call to W&SS regulars and custom-blade collectors of outdoor knives to provide a service and preserve their own market economy.
Afterall, I can point to a couple of Bearthedog reviews and JeffH which were responsible for nudging me into the territory of customs.
So who is in?
