Wow, this is still going on? This has gotten way out of hand.
I appreciate Mr. Kingknives contributions and I hope that if he has an interest in balisongs that he will continue to participate here.
As I have said, I do not, myself, have anything against buying and selling balisongs. I've participated with great gusto myself. But, there is a time and place for everything. As I have said, there are at any time, thousands of balisongs for sale on the internet. If we allowed every seller to announce his sale or auction here, the valuable information content of this forum would be lost.
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Dealers, and we have several who regularly contribute to this forum, are welcome as long as they are doing just that:
contributing informational content to the forum.
-- Chuck Gollnick</font>
As I am constantly pointing out to dealers, posting ads in the forums is not a good way to advertise anyway. Why? You can't control it. When Ford Motor Company buys an ad on CBS, they control that thirty seconds within broad guidelines and they also control to some extent what goes on around that time. CBS does NOT follow Ford's ad with time for comments from the audience. If a dealer (or other seller) posts an ad here on bladeforums.com or any other forum or newsgroup, the very next post can read, "I bought that same knife and it's a piece of junk..." or "I bought something from this guy last month and it took forever to come, was the wrong thing, and they hassled me about returning it..." or "here's a link to another site that's got the same item for less!" So, now what do you think about your brilliant idea to get free advertising on the internet? There's a old saying, "you get what you pay for." When you advertise on forums and newsgrous, what you get for free can often end up hurting you.
The internet is a powerful resource and dealers can use it to great benefit. As I've told may dealers, the best advertising you can get on bladeforums.com (aside from buying a banner ad) is just a simple link to your website in the signature line of an intelligent or informative post.
We have several dealers who participate on the forum here and contribute regularly. Mr. ChungSan is one of them.
Contributing can consist of answering a question such as "Where can I buy a Benchmade 42AS?" If Mr. ChungSan happened to have some of those in stock and ready to ship, well, then I'd say it'd be ok for him to contribute that information.
This does raise the issue of shilling, of having someone post that question (or even of registering a second username just to post such a question yourself) so that you can then answer it. However, this is a fairly tight group we have here and patterns of such activity would show up pretty quickly. Furthermore, there is always that possibility that such a thing could backfire. If some disreputable dealer was to register a second username and start a thread "Where can I get a BM42AS" and then answer it himself, well, there's always the possibility that someone might reply "ChungSan has it for less".
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I WAS going to bid on that knife, but I don't think there's a chance that anyone here would now.
-- ChungSan</font>
BTW, bladeforums.com is owned and operated by Mike Turber, who is also a knife dealer and owns OneStopKnifeShop.com which sells, among other things, Benchmade Bali-Songs. Isn't it generous of him to allow other dealers to compete with him by advertising on his own site?
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">I can make a post saying "theres a Balisong at such and such, check it out if your intersted" and that's okay.
-- Kingknives</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Sale or auction spotting posts are a redundant waste of bandwidth. Please don't post "There's a balisong up for sale sale at X site right now..." posts. Again, people interested in buying a balisong can watch the auctions and/or For Sale forums for themselves.
-- Chuck Gollnick</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Comments about or discussions of balisongs offered for sale for for auction are acceptible as long as they are just that:
comments about and not advertisements for that balisong.
-- Chuck Golnick</font>
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Some auctions have been mentioned in the forum but they were debating on how much some fool would pay for a custom bali.
As for the auction post, it wasn't "Hey, there's this bali for sale at
www.x.com It was, "How much do you think this knife will go for and how much is it really worth.
-- BaliLover</font>
Exactly. Posting, "I have a balisong for auction on X site" is a redudant waste of bandwidth since anyone who wants to bid on a balisong can search the auction sites for himself. We also get right back to the original problem: there are hundereds, even thousands of balisongs for auction on the various auction sites on any given day. I don't think anyone here wants to see each of those sellers post an ad here in our forum.
Posting "someone has a balisong for auction on X site" is just the same: a waste of bandwidth. Again, anyone who is looking for balisongs to bid on can search the auction sites himself.
Posting "I have a balisong for sale for X dollars" is fine in the for sale forum, that's what it's for.
In this forum, commenting on or asking about balisongs that are for sale or auction is fine and encouraged as long as it is contributing to discussion here. Examples might include:
"Here is a link to a balisong for sale on X site. The seller says it's a Benchmade 45, but it looks different to me. What does anyone think?"
"Here's a link to a balisong for auction at X site. The price seems to have gotten a lot higher than I think this piece is worth. Am I missing something?"
"Has anyone ever bought a balisong from X site? What was your experience?"
Again, this does raise the specter of shilling. But, again, I'd caution anyone who might contemplate such a ploy that it could easily backfire on you.
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Okay, I get it now.... If someone asks about a knife, "then" you can say one is for sale. But you can't just volunteer the info...
-- Kingknives</font>
Exactly.
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">The rules should be definite and the same for everyone.
-- Kingknives</font>
I agree. One of the reasons that I have taken to so much quotation and especially quotation of myself is not that I love to hear my own voice, but to show that I have tried to maintain a consistent policy. I think that I have been consistent with that policy since the very first day of this forum. I have tried. If I have missed a specific case, please understand that I am human and that, appearanced to the contrary aside, I do have a life outside this forum and am not able to monitor everything that goes on here 24/7.
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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com
