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

eveled said:
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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I do feel strongly, but not enough to be offended by anyone’s posts.
I enjoy discussions, respect opinions, and will partake in disagreements or I wouldnt be here. :)
A lot of the posters in this thread I have respect for, or even know personally or have chatted or bought things from. :) Posters
I dont know also have my respect until it is undeserving. Discussion is healthy if we leave our sudden emotional comments out.
I do value Bladeforums, and believe it is the best knife forum for information and friendships.
I know that the mods have the final say, and that is why I proposed the question in the Kizer thread. I wanted to see their response which will tell me if they are intentionally shilling. The response was fine, they aren’t technically doing anything wrong, so I didn’t see the need to bring a moderator into it.
I was curious to whether or not I was the only member feeling this way so I started this thread.
So thank you all for your opinions. I’m clearly in the minority here. I do check out all aspects of BF and dont just hang out in GKD. I dont post everywhere, but I’ve probably been most places.
I value the subforums, and like to pop in every once in a while...see whats going on with the Brands, and the “little guys”. ;)

ETA: this post isnt written directly at you @eveled. Just the first line. :)
The rest is just me writting out loud.
 
midnight flyer said:
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
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Well thought out and written post. Thanks!
 
I'll admit that at first those recent posts struck me as well, a bit off. But, I gave it more thought and re-read them and basically came down like so many others. All good.

Now, that said, I don't click on them. :)
 
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Eli Chaps said:
Now, that said, I don't click on them. :)
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I no longer click on them either. It felt like an ad to me, one I can choose not to see, quite easily. No big deal. Perhaps those that complain about us defending against the clone promotion could do the same? Not sure why something so important to the hobby insults them so. Oh well, that isn't the topic here....

Now, where it would become a big deal is if every manufacturer did it and the front page of GKD was full of these sorts of threads. That would be a big negative to my enjoyment here. I pay to not see ads and these threads are ads to me.
 
I lot of guys here have various ads in their sig,. See post above this one.

By the same logic this could be seen as the same complaint couldn't it, what's the difference?

Note I am only bringing up a point of logic, not complaining.
 
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I think it depends on the content. This thread was inspired by Kizer's recent presence in the general forum. They've been posting different questions and asking for our opinions on things. They've kept it pretty general and the threads have been fun in my opinion.

As I said when the OP raised this issue in one of those threads: "I'm glad to see Kizer engaging the community here. They get to have fun while they do a little market research. They take the time to read our posts and answer our questions. Ideally, this leads to better product for us, better sales for them, and a nice time on the forum. Everybody wins."
 
I don't have any problem with a knife co. posting general knife topics in the general forum. The fact that they produce knives makes it even more meaningful for them to raise questions than the average "what do you think about. . ." post, because it might influence the products they make. If they were promoting a specific product I would see that differently.
 
Houlahound said:
I lot of guys here have various ads in their sig,. See post above this one.

By the same logic this could be seen as the same complaint couldn't it, what's the difference?

Note I am only bringing up a point of logic, not complaining.
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Here's the difference.

Members (dealers included) with the proper memberships are allowed to include links to their ads in their signatures.

Manufacturers and dealers are allowed to post ads or promotions in the proper forums. (Manufacturers' sub and dealers for sale)

This thread is asking if manufacturers are allowed to start threads here and the mod says that if it's just a generic knife discussion, then yes they are. Once they start doing so to promote their wares they are crossing the line. Same reason that members and dealers are not allowed to promote their deals here (with threads or posts), this is not the place.
 
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Houlahound said:
I lot of guys here have various ads in their sig,. See post above this one.

By the same logic this could be seen as the same complaint couldn't it, what's the difference?

Note I am only bringing up a point of logic, not complaining.
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Nope. Totally different.
 
The way I see it, is that as long as it's a discussion about some aspect of the hobby, it's legit. When I feel I'm being solicited to try out a brand I have no desire to buy, no matter what the discussion is about, it crosses the line.
That may not be the intention, but that's when I stop contributing to the discussions altogether.
 
I haven’t looked at the Kizer threads until now. Let me preface this with a potential bias; I used to call myself The Original Kizer Fanboy (OKFB).

I don’t see a problem with what they're doing. It comes across as one Knife Knut talking to others. Obviously there’s a marketing upside. Kizer can use the info they gain to target a knife market that isn’t currently aware of Kizer, but there’s no blatant attempt to push Kizer products.

Of course, as others have said, this is Sparks house and the moderators are highly paid to deal with riff raff. :p
 
Okay, I just went and looked at each thread. It reads like a discussion topic sponsored by Kizer Brand! They aren't so much pushing a specific model like I thought I remembered, more just the brand in general. They are back to bladforums! It feels like skirting the rules to get their brand out there. Then there is the pushing of their instagram. That really gets me. I stay away from the IG crap and participate in this hobby here. They are essentially putting ads for what is going on with their IG in every "weekly discussion brought to you by kizer!"

Sorry, I see these as nothing but ads.
 
evilgreg said:
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.
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Those video/announcement threads struck the mods as pure advertising and were removed from GF.

craytab said:
I haven't clicked on a recent thread from kizer, but the ones I did click on had a blurb about a recent design with a pic. Felt like an ad wrapped up in an honest thread, which makes it dishonest IMO. There are places for ads. To me, GKD isn't one of them.
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Did you report the post in question and point out the "blurb"?
 
knarfeng said:
Did you report the post in question and point out the "blurb"?
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Nope. I try to save those for clear violations :)

At the time I thought they were walking just enough of a line so I didn't bother. Once I realized these were just thinly veiled ads, I simple ignored them each week. Now, if every manufacturer did this I think you can agree there would be a problem.

That said, after looking at each thread, it looks to me like they are including a clear ad and trying to push traffic to their IG in each thread. That seems report worthy to me so unless you tell me otherwise, I will report in the future.
 
craytab said:
Here's another thing about their weekly "discussion" threads, they don't really participate much. They do mention their insta though.
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I’m just not seeing it. In a 32 post thread, Kizer Cutlery has responded 8 times after the first post. That’s 25% of all posts. That’s more attentive than most OPs.

There is a link to their website and IG page in their sig line. Other than that, they only made direct reference to one IG and that was for a third party modder.

If you have a problem with what is allowed in a BF sig line, that’s a topic for another discussion. I still can’t see anything wrong here.

I did see a bunch of cool mods in the thread they started. I enjoyed the pictures.
 
I’ve been thinking through this with some Maker’s Mark and I may have figured out what’s rubbing Sharp & Fiery Sharp & Fiery and craytab craytab the wrong way. It’s fine and dandy for a manufacturer’s rep to hang out and geek over knives in GKD, but is it really fair for them to get free advertising through their sig line? Especially when they have a sub to promote products?

Does that in any way capture what you folks are feeling when you see the Kizer threads?
 
craytab said:
Nope. I try to save those for clear violations :)

At the time I thought they were walking just enough of a line so I didn't bother. Once I realized these were just thinly veiled ads, I simple ignored them each week. Now, if every manufacturer did this I think you can agree there would be a problem.

That said, after looking at each thread, it looks to me like they are including a clear ad and trying to push traffic to their IG in each thread. That seems report worthy to me so unless you tell me otherwise, I will report in the future.
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I have addressed the posts you just reported.
One was moved offline.
I edited out the blurb on the other.
 
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