So here is what I am seeing about this... if you have the time to sit and post and the money to buy the knives that are felt to be properly seen to be Kershaw (certain models, depending on cost and place of manufacture) and have spent a lot of time and effort to give a pat one another on the back about your purchases, then you could be a member.
There are no benefits to the group except to recognize the social status of simple ownership of a knife brand and to proclaim your devotion and adoration of the brand in a more exclusive way, just on your end of the playground where others that aren't exactly like you aren't welcome. So if you are on harder economic times, you can't play on the devotee's end of the playground... guess that will keep the non fanatics out.
I am a big Kershaw fan myself. Looking at the drawer with my Tyrade, JYD II combo, my Blurs, and others down to my 30 year old (literally) Whiskey Gap and DWO, I have more Kershaw knives than any single brand. They have been my trusted work knife (construction) for years and have served without failure.
I was turned off to Kershaw years ago when they started the Kershaw Mafia, and so much so that I didn't join Bladeforums. It was like the playground in middle school. Each Kershaw devotee picked out a name from their favorite Godfather movie and thought they actually became that character. I guess here, away from those that "didn't get it" they were. I know it started out as fun, but it got waayyyy out of hand. It seemed that some felt like owning a few Kershaws, being voted in with a picture of your favorite character as your avatar, you had some kind of special status. Heck, you were a "made" guy! There were behind the scenes turf wars, things were said here and in PMs that kept thing agitated until it go quite nasty for some. They fought over who had more status based on posts, amount pictures and even took it to mods, then it filtered up to Spark. That is why Spark shut them down the group entirely archived the group posts.
After a couple of years (give or take) Spark worked out something with Thomas to bring it back. And now that the subforums is doing well again, you guys feel the need to establish a more elitist group, one more time, to proclaim your loyalty and devotion to Kai. Simple high post counts and endless pictures gushing over the product isn't enough. You need a super group that all can recognize as the most serious of people when it comes to Kai. Drive away the casual users ("we do like him, but he only has 4 Kershaws, and a low post count.... that's worse than low T") and folks that are just now learning about Kershaws.
Boy does this seem familiar. I have to ask though, why don't you guys start your own website/forum? Even the guys that make my favorite barbecue pit have one. Even though they got tired of their own limited company soon enough, it is still quite popular. That way you could enforce all rules you wanted, run it your way, exclude\include anyone you wanted and decide where you wanted to go with the forum without permission. Why do you need to have a sub/sub group that delineates you from a regular user?
More importantly, have you contacted Spark to make sure he is ready to do this all over again with the Kershaw guys?
Robert
