What to do about the forums? What changes need to be made?

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Make me a moderator at the "Knives For Sale/Trade:Individual" Forums and I'll clean it up alittle by removing some of the OLD posts, where the items have been sold</font>
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Don't ever do that! The For Sale/Trade forum is a searchable archive of knife values. It's the closest thing the knife business has to a "blue book".

I've got to agree with Mr. mpayne. I don't see a whole lot broken around here.

We've talked about fees in the past, even tried it once with the Classified Ads. I didn't work very well. I have suggested, in the past, creating several honorary "member titles." Non contributors would just be members. Those who contribute $25/year (a little over $2/month) would become "supporting members." Those who give $50/year would maybe be "sustaning members". And those who contribute $100/year would gain the title of "pillar member". The titles would be purely honorary. Just a decoration for your profile, but a way of showing your support for the forum nonetheless. I'd suggest only one possible exception to that. Perhaps we could require that a person must be at least a "supporting member" to post in the for sale forums. If you sell more than a few knives on eBay or any of the other auction sites, you'll easily exceed $25/year. So, such a requirement wouldn't be unreasonable.

My last suggestion is for a larger role for the BladeForums Marching Marimba Band. So far, we've only played at one event (the 10,000th member). As far as I know, we are the only marching marimba band in the world. Certainly, BF.C is the Internet's only forum site with it's own marching marimba band. I think BF.C should capitalize on that more. We could go on tour and promote BF.C, for example. We've been thinking about branching out into vibraphones too, but we keep getting the extension cords all tangled up.

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Chuck
Balisongs -- because it don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing!
http://www.balisongcollector.com

[This message has been edited by Gollnick (edited 05-06-2001).]
 
Spark: Only one suggestion. The search program. Is it possible to search more than one forum at a time? It is painful when you cannot remember the exact post, so you have to search several forums individually before you find what you came for. I would enjoy the possibility of searching several posts at the same time. I still think that BFC is # 1.

Doug
 
Hey Kevin,

I don't see anything broke from where I sit...Keep up the good work!

On membership fees, I think the forums need to remain free. BUT, maybe a second tier of membership would be helpful for cash flow. Maybe a BladeForums Club; with a forum just for paying members (password protected?). I'd sign up! Just thinking out loud...

Oh, one last thing that could use change...drop the funky pink attire.
wink.gif


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Ron Andersen
Consumer Services Manager
SOG Specialty Knives, Inc.

Website: www.sogknives.com
Email: ron@sogknives.com
 
Spark,
not sure what needs to be fixed, but I can tell you what I like about BFC.

The General for fourm for keeping up on what is happening in the world of knives.The Spyderco forum because they make most of the
knives I currently own or want to own. The tactical forum for info on self-defense, without the bias that other forums, have as to one style or way. Last would be the Fillipino forum, because I have some
training in that area.

Keep up the good work and do whatever you feel you need to keep the overall status que
of Bladeforums going.
 
Spark,
I can't say that I really see anything wrong with the current format. I think splitting the For Sale forum into Customs and Production knives is an excellent idea. I would like to see the FAQ's expanded or perhaps creat a forum/site called "Knife care". Make it highly visible, so the new members can see it and stop some of the repetitive topics from being posted. It is easy to miss the FAQ's as things are now. Not anything is really broken, just some ideas. Keep up the good work.
smile.gif


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A Pat on the Back is only a few inches from a Kick in the Butt.
 
Spark,
Everything looks OK to me. If doing away with the archives would cut down operating costs, I wouldn't have a problem with it. As newbies cme in, a lot of the same quetions get asked and anwered anyway. This is good as it keeps everyone up to date with changing opinions and trends. Keep up the good work.

Paul
 
Kevin,

I think that this place is very good, a couple tweaks here and there (i.e. the sale/trade type stuff) wouldn't hurt, always room for improvement.

While I prefer the current 'free forum' (it allows for new blood, and I have seen little 'trolling'), I would support the forum with bucks if it was needed.

Thanks for asking.
smile.gif


Steve-O
 
I'd like to see the FAQ's expanded to include more topics, pictures, diagrams, etc. The FAQ on blade profiles doesn't have any pictures, the one on sharpening doesn't have any diagrams of bevels, etc., the one on steels could be greatly expanded to include charts with the elemental composition of all commonly used knife steels & their properties. Perhaps send an automatic letter to everyone as they register explaining how to use the FAQ's & search function as well as some tips like, "For every thread you start, read at least 25." We could also really use an FAQ on the proper use of the apostrophe. And a spell check. I like the online magazine and would like to see more of it. Many forum members would be glad to write articles, and we could actually get honest evaluations rather than the fluff that's in most of the existing mags. Link each article to a thread so it can be discussed, the author and maker answer questions, etc.

I strongly recommend keeping the archives online. I just got through reading all of year 1 and have started on archive 2. There's a lot of good information there that shouldn't be lost. I would also like to see all of the now closed forums visible as archives - CSSD, Chai Cutlery, even the short-lived Cold Steel forum.

If BFC needs more money, many of the current members (myself included) would have no problem paying a membership fee, but a lot of newcomers wouldn't be into it. I'm guessing that charging a membership fee would cut our current membership # in half. I know that you, Spark, were quite into the idea of charging for the exchange forums, and I recommend not trying that again. It didn't go over well, pissed a lot of people off, and just sent them to a still free similar site. Some good ideas for making more money include voluntary paid memberships, selling more special edition forum knives, BFC T-shirts, perhaps link voluntary form membership with AKTI membership. A rating system similar to that on eBay might be a good idea in addition to GB&U, but that brings up a lot of other problems as well. I know the auction software never took off, and I don't even know if it's still around, but there's no reason that quality knives are auctioned on BA & eBay when this is the place to go for knives anyway. I think the auctions here could be a huge source of revenue if properly promoted.

Another idea I've been throwing around, and I don't know if this would cost a lot of money, but have BFC host knife photos. This would make it easy to post pics in threads. And when a photo is submitted, the maker, model, owner, and other info about the knife be entered, so BFC could have its own searchable photo database. Once it got big enough, anyone could find a picture of any knife here.

Could 1SKS make money selling custom knives as well? I know there are sites that do, and since everyone is already here, the chance to buy customs without the wait could be appealing to some.

Overall I'm very happy with this place, I think you're doing an excellent job and I hope things don't change too much.

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Jason aka medusaoblongata
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"Is not giving a need? Is not receiving mercy?" - Thus Spoke Zarathustra
"Cutting his throat is only a momentary pleasure and is bound to get you talked about." - Lazarus Long
"Knowledge is not made for understanding; it is made for cutting." - Michel Foucault
 
Rather than paid memberships, I wonder if it would be practical to create a simple "BFC Sponsors" page. You could keep it real low key and uncomplicated; just a simple, "Click here for the names of all members who have donated $10". You could have another page for those who donate $25, and another for $50, and so on. Sponsorship would be totally voluntary, and it wouldn't buy you a thing other than your name on the list, and the knowledge that you've helped to support the world's greatest knife forum.

I like the idea of splitting up the "For Sale" forum into custom and production categories provided that doing so wouldn't inadvertantly set the stage for huge pissing contests regarding which specific knives are customs and which should be defined as production. Maybe this wouldn't be a problem, but before you dismiss the possibility too quickly, remember that we occasionally run into problems here just trying to determine who are "individuals" and who are "dealers".
wink.gif


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Semper Fi

-Bill
 
Hello everyone. I think that fees would hurt membership, and stunt the growth of Blade Forums. What I mean is this. If I am searching the web looking for knife information, and I happen upon this site, and I saw that I had to pay a fee just to take a stroll, and see what this site is all about, then I myself personally would just go some where else. Now, if fees are going to be charged, then there needs to be a trial membership or something of that nature, so a person will at least get a test ride. Otherwise than that, I hope the fee will be a reasonable amount because if you all have not noticed lately, a lot of internet sites are starting to charge fees, and it is going to get worse, and that is for sure. Take for instance, Photopoint, which a lot of you all have used in the past. It is like they(site owners) get you hooked in, then they drop the bomb on us. Anyway, I love Blade Forums, and it is a site that I would absolutely pay a fee to be a member of a helpful and knowledgeable knife community. Good day.
 
I think there shouldn't be any major changes to the forums. Yes I'm new here, but on the other hand I just chose this place because I liked it best.

Here are some spontaneous thoughts I just had reading some of your suggestions.

Membership fees: For us non US residents it would be rather complicated to pay them. If I had to pay 2$ a month my bank would probably earn another 2$ in fees.

Also I think it is dangerous to make the forums too exclusive. The more open they are the easier it is to show other people that we are harmless collecters and knife users and not murderers who exchange tips on how to slice people up. And the more people the merrier the discussions. Wouldn't it be boring if only a certain kind of people frequented these forums?

Somebody said everybody should post a valid email address. Well, everybody has to give a valid email address to become a member. As to making it public, I see certain problems there. Not everybody wants it widely known that he/she collects knives. For example the guy who had his knives taken from him by college.
http://www.bladeforums.com/ubb/Forum61/HTML/000125.html
Somebody ratted on him. If you email address is in your posts everybody who can use a search engine can find your posts and report on you. I'm just thinking of ever so many posts here where people admit to wearing knives that aren't allowed by the local laws or are not accepted by people they have to deal with or are dependend on.

Please don't take the archives offline. I second a better search enigne that can search different forums at once.

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Seek simplicity, and distrust it.
Whitehead, Alfred North (1861 - 1947)
 
Just keep it simple, split the for sale forums into categories. A nominal fee shouldn't bother anyone. Being a member of this community is special for a lot of people and theres a wealth of information and entertainment here, so what if it costs a few bucks.
 
One function that I'm sure more than I would like to have is to be able to save/export an entire thread to a local disk file. This would include pictures.
 
I liked Gollnick/Chuck's idea of a voluntary membership idea before and still like it now as a way to support the forums.

Spitting up the "for sale" forum into categories might be helpful. Otherwise, I'm happy with things as they are.

sing
AKTI #A000356
 
I would like to see the F/S forum split as others have suggested (i.e., Custom FBs, Custom Folders, Production FBs, Production Folders). I also agree with keeping the old F/S posts intact as a reference. Likewise, please keep the archives available online.

As to a membership fee, I'm afraid that a mandatory one, however reasonable, will drive many people away. I don't recall how many of us subscribed to the online magazine but I do remember that it was not very many. I do, however, think that the idea of a voluntary fee together with a profile name of sponsor, supporting member, or whatever could be viable.

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Cheers,
Brian

He who finishes with the most toys wins.
 
I probably would not mind if the annual fee is around $10. What about charging a fee for placing a knife for sale or trade?

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Ed Woo
 
I think splitting the "for sale" forum into custom/production would be beneficial.
 
<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Gollnick:
I've got to agree with Mr. mpayne. I don't see a whole lot broken around here.

We've talked about fees in the past, even tried it once with the Classified Ads. I didn't work very well. I have suggested, in the past, creating several honorary "member titles." Non contributors would just be members. Those who contribute $25/year (a little over $2/month) would become "supporting members." Those who give $50/year would maybe be "sustaning members". And those who contribute $100/year would gain the title of "pillar member". The titles would be purely honorary. Just a decoration for your profile, but a way of showing your support for the forum nonetheless. I'd suggest only one possible exception to that. Perhaps we could require that a person must be at least a "supporting member" to post in the for sale forums. If you sell more than a few knives on eBay or any of the other auction sites, you'll easily exceed $25/year. So, such a requirement wouldn't be unreasonable.

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I think this is a great idea. And since it is not a mandatory fee I can see no reason to NOT do it.

I also think it is a good idea to split up the FS forum into Custom and production. But if that does happen, no biggie.

I honestly think things are running smoothly enough to not HAVE to change a thing to make it better. Any changes are simply a bonus.

Gollnick's idea is a great one and would generate a decent amount of $ for the forum and maybe even some extra $ for your(Kevin)pocket. I for one have no problems with Spark not only breaking even but making a little cash off of this place. He deserves it.



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Louis Buccellato
http://www.themartialway.com
Knives, Weapons and equipment. Best prices anywhere.
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"only the paranoid will survive"
 
Split FS into custom and factory but NOT FB and folders, I like to be surprised occasionally.
I want to pay and I really like Bronco's voluntary sponsorship idea.
 
If there's a membership fee (voluntary) with different levels of support...I would suggest an icon be available for placement next to the individuals' names. (Don't know if this would be possible.) That way...there would be immediate and visible pride in contributing.

I also have seen other forums...such as this...auction off various items. You could offer up a nice custom every month...charge $5 a pop to enter the raffle...sell 300 or so tickets...give us all something fun to hope for (1 in 300...not bad odds) and raise some cash. Sort of a voluntary fee....

Anyway...I lurk more than I post...but I love this place....
 
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