Opinion: Is it poor taste for a production knife company to post in General Knife Discussion??

Sharp & Fiery said:
And lets not kid ourselves, these brands are not here to help us, or to understand how to ano or what-have-you.
They are here for our money. Plain and simple.
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Solving problems and meeting wants/needs for customers is crucial to the success of any business. IMHO coming to general discussion to ask questions will give a maker a different set of data that polling and focus groups just won’t get them given the people that frequent this forum. I.e.: “Whats more important: a quality steel or premium scale material” or “what is the most frustrating problem with framelock knives”. Every little bit helps, and of course profitability is important if you want to keep making knives.
 
Kenpo149 said:
Solving problems and meeting wants/needs for customers is crucial to the success of any business. IMHO coming to general discussion to ask questions will give a maker a different set of data that polling and focus groups just won’t get them given the people that frequent this forum. I.e.: “Whats more important: a quality steel or premium scale material” or “what is the most frustrating problem with framelock knives”. Every little bit helps, and of course profitability is important if you want to keep making knives.
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Those are “general questions” that help them make money. I stand by my opinion...they should be posting those questions in their subforum.
 
Sharp & Fiery said:
Those are “general questions” that help them make money. I stand by my opinion...they should be posting those questions in their subforum.
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But it’s already been noted that the people in their sub forums could be biased if they are big fans of the brand.
I’m not trying to change your opinion... just showing the different angles.
Imagine asking the larger knife community what it thinks of compression locks for example... and imagine asking in the Spyderco forum.
Different audiences.. different answers... maybe.
 
Kenpo149 said:
But it’s already been noted that the people in their sub forums could be biased if they are big fans of the brand.
I’m not trying to change your opinion... just showing the different angles.
Imagine asking the larger knife community what it thinks of compression locks for example... and imagine asking in the Spyderco forum.
Different audiences.. different answers... maybe.
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This is a good point.
 
Imagine if every manufacturer that has a sub here did what Kizer is doing. A weekly "discussion" thread in GKD on a valid topic, but with a line or two blatantly advertising a new product. GKD would quickly be filled with company threads. Is that what we want? Just a thought.
 
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craytab said:
Imagine if every manufacturer that had a sub here did what Kizer is doing. A weekly "discussion" thread in GKD on a valid topic, but with a line or two blatantly advertising a new product. GKD would quickly be filled company threads. Is that what we want? Just a thought.
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Thank you. This is what im trying to say. :)
 
craytab said:
Imagine if every manufacturer that has a sub here did what Kizer is doing. A weekly "discussion" thread in GKD on a valid topic, but with a line or two blatantly advertising a new product. GKD would quickly be filled company threads. Is that what we want? Just a thought.
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If it generates traffic and promotes the exchange of good conversation, I don’t see the issue.
 
It's not just Kizer; I remember when "industry icon" EE posted some "watch my video that I made about how awesome I am" type stuff a time or two as well.

Better to take the Spyderco approach, I think; be helpful, be nice, chime in where appropriate without looking like you're actively trying to use the forum as a marketing vector.

Then there's the KAI approach, send in someone in management's feeble-minded cousin to be your brand ambassador with a focus on leaving no bridge un-burned.
 
As someone who is not as deep into the details of the industry I would never think to go to a brand forum because I do not even know most of these brands exist. If it's not a reasonably popular production brand then I probs never heard of it until I lurked here for years first.

Therefore I mainly have only hung out in general from which I have heard a bunch of other brands discussed.

People like me rely on claims to be made by anyone and those claims to be dissected, discussed,.refuted, supported, validated....etc by anyone with an opinion. It's my job then to take what I want from the discussion.
 
I don't like seeing numerous posts by knife retailers or makers, to be honest. It gets to the point where it feels like a covert form of advertising. I understand most of them are well-intended members of the community but I think they should understand how it looks when they constantly leave comments and posts pertaining to products they sell.
 
I think it depends on what is being discussed. I imagine people that make, design, and sell knives are probably knife enthusiasts as well. Selling of wares should be confined to the sales forums and r&d should be confined to the “official” brand forums but for knife talk I see no problem with community participation.
 
rxavage said:
whats there to elaborate on? It’s pretty self explanatory.
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As in “Bladeforums” is only here for our money? No need to be condescending.

ETA: we are discussing GKD and subforums, so I didnt know what you were referring to because you said “forums”.
 
rackness said:
I think it depends on what is being discussed. I imagine people that make, design, and sell knives are probably knife enthusiasts as well. Selling of wares should be confined to the sales forums and r&d should be confined to the “official” brand forums but for knife talk I see no problem with community participation.
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If the owner of a Brand had his own account here and was posting in GKD about things that interest them without bringing their brand into it, but as a knife enthusiast. No problem. That’s cool. I support that.
But when the actual representative of the Brand with the brand banner posts in GKD...advertising attempt in my opinion.
 
SnF, I kind of understand what you are saying, but then again, Spark and the mods are the final say so. We are their guests, and this is their house. If they are fine with it, I am too. I have my own self editing rules, and that is I look to see who posted the thread, then take a look at the participants (the same guys grind the same sausage on just about every thread) and then read the thread. You can easily stay away from the Kizer post by looking at his logo on the thread title, no reason to open the thread.

I took a look at the last Kizer moderator started thread, and I have to say it was a breath of fresh air. The folks that posted, the folks that posted and included pics of their knife mods were really positive, upbeat and seemed to be really enjoying themselves.

Compare that to YET ANOTHER EXCUSE TO BASH GANZO/CHINA/COUNTERFEITS/CLONES and anything else the groups decides to absolutely pound to dust. I think some of those topics need good attention, and I agree with some of the posters. Clones, wrong. Counterfeits, wrong. Got it. Agree. But recently, three hundred posts of the same old tripe, reground and spewed out for the hundredth time each. Every post an earnest attempt to get someone to see the real truth, the truth as they know it. I have read a couple of these where people get sick of the snark, the hubris, and the stupidity and quit, but never seen anyone change their minds. Yet the same guys never get tired of attacking one another, attacking someone that the think is too stupid to see the real issues they way they do (you know, the right way), doesn't understand the difference between a clone and a counterfeit, doesn't have the same finely tuned moral compass as an upstanding knife owner, and finally..... 'merka. Anymore, NOTHING seems to get the immediate attention (certainly not knife related issues) as a politically centered thread.

Personally, in these nasty virus related times, I am fine with something positive. I can give the source a little leeway.

Robert
 
If they're posting General topics in General, I don't have an issue with it... when they're promoting their brand - especially new products or sales - I do.
 
All good points. I certainly see both sides. I stand corrected saying that they pay was an assumption on my part. I apologize.

Sharp & Fiery Sharp & Fiery obviously feels strongly about it. Which shows how much he values the forum.

I’m sure if it becomes a problem Spark will put the kibosh on it.
 
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