Bladeforums Supporting Clone Dealer

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Exactly what i'm talking about...let's heckle newer members and talk about their business like wqe have a clue...and here come the mods with more immaturity. It's just a disgrace
 
If I buy a knife at a approved supporting source , I should then be able to review and discuss that product here .

It's hypocrisy to take money to allow them here but then blacklist their products .

I don't care , except that BF policies enforcement should be consistent .
 
Hackenslash said:
What are your thoughts on Topomart as an official Blade Forums Dealer. I don't believe you've touched on the subject at hand yet.
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Thanks for getting this back on track.

Also, is it "Toe-Poe Mart" or "Top-o-Mart"?
 
DocJD said:
If I buy a knife at a approved supporting source , I should then be able to review and discuss that product here .

It's hypocrisy to take money to allow them here but then blacklist their products .

I don't care , except that BF policies enforcement should be consistent .
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Frankly, it is hard to put it more succinctly than that - it's a great point.

If we allow a dealer who mostly peddles clones to support the community here, then why shouldn't the community be encouraged to purchase said clones, freely discuss and review them, and direct others to do the same? I should make it clear that I do not support such a practice but it doesn't make a lot of sense to take money from a dealer and then tell members here to ignore the majority of their inventory.

Putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change the fact that it's still a pig.
 
I stumbled on Bladeforums few years ago when I was looking for some advice. I stayed so long because I loved the willingness to help, human decency, moral integrity of members.
I have always looked out for welfare of this place (reported many spammers). I could be proud to say I was part of such a unique place. Till last month it looked like example of ethical behavior was coming from the leadership of this forum.
@Spark, accepting Topomart's dirty membership money puts Bladeforums and all of us, members in awkward position. At this moment we all benefit from Intellectual Property Thievery. Accepting money that originate from illicit operations goes against ethics and core values of Bladeforums. I just hope it was momentary lapse in judgement.
I do not trade or sell but few months back I was considering to get paid membership and sell few items just to help out.

History shows that cheap, bad products push out the quality ones, if you just let them in. I am not sure you want Kevin Schlossberg's Legacy to be remembered as CloneForums.com


 
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DocJD said:
If I buy a knife at a approved supporting source , I should then be able to review and discuss that product here .

It's hypocrisy to take money to allow them here but then blacklist their products .

I don't care , except that BF policies enforcement should be consistent .
Click to expand...
100% agree, though I don't think clone promotion should be allowed, but with topomart as a dealer, it is impossible for me to win an argument against it...
 
I always favored education , discussion and exposure over censorship .

I never agreed with the blacklist policy .

But if you're gonna ban basically all the products a dealer offers for sale ...then you'd best ban the dealer , also .
 
Vetr said:
Exactly what i'm talking about...let's heckle newer members and talk about their business like wqe have a clue...and here come the mods with more immaturity. It's just a disgrace
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I don't know you from Adam. I, personally, am a mod in only the most ceremonial of senses. My little corner of BFC to police consists of a handful of some the nicest walk-the-walk people to grace the earth, so please take my response as a long time member and not someone with a basically toothless red title. I think you are way off the mark with the mods here. I have been a member here for going on 18 years and a mod for, I dunno, 10...maybe? I don't keep record of that simply because I value my membership and friendships here over a title my subform has no real need for. However, in that time, I have seen mods come and go. I've seen some of the Old Ones, the Great Ones. Some have retired. Some have passed on. There have been a lot of stand up folks helping to look after this place, and I can say that without a doubt the current class of moderators are some of the best I have had the pleasure to work with or at least pay witness to how situations are handled. I'm not saying this because they are my buddies. Most of them I have no idea what their real name is outside of their forum screen name. Hell, I only met Spark face to face for the first time at the end of last year, and his place of business is in a town I go to at least 6 times a year to visit my in-laws.

My point is that I find it very difficult that any of the mods would go out of their way to give you a hard time. Quite frankly, none of us has the time to go out of way to do much of anything. This is an unpaid position that comes with the perks of being held to a higher standard and potentially be called out because your screen name is a different color. Anyone asked to help out here on the site does it because we honestly, earnestly care about the place, the members, and the hobby. There is no power trip here. We have had power trip mods before. They were fired and some were eventually banned. I can tell you, the moderators corner of the site is not a dark nefarious cabal of powerful players doing our damnedest to put our thumb on the scales to censor you. It's more like a teachers lounge where we are sneaking vodka into our coffee because some of you kids cause us to pull our hair out :D We like coming here. We like interacting with everyone. None of us want to go out of our way to piss in anyone's Wheaties. I adore this place and all the folks in it, even the handful of turds that we have to deal with. I just feel that you really have to go out of your way to twist up a mod enough to give you grief, and I will be willing to bet that any said grief will have been earned.

Anyway, on the subject at hand. I have no information nor dog in the fight. My gut is that I don't like it. I don't like a dealer cheapening the pool of other dealers I have had great business interactions with, but it's not my job to like things. All I can do is make sure to be mindful of where I send others to purchase their items. I guess the idea of Topomart being here doesn't bother me as much as worrying that someone will stumble across them before an absolute class act like DLT Trading who has put in the time, taken care of the customers, and been a valuable member of our community. I happened to purchase an engraved swiss army knife for my daughter from them before all of this, but I plan to not on give them some great feedback on the TGBU but also purchase something from them the first of the year (for myself;)).

So a couple of things to keep in mind: This is Spark's show. He is the owner and the boss, and have no doubt that whatever he decides to do will be/has been weighed. I'm going to guess that he's probably super busy with the holiday rush not only with his business but also with all the shipping headaches that COVID has caused. Also, keep in mind that there are a couple more days of Hanukkah left. I can't fault anyone being upset by this but hopefully when this finally shakes out their will be some resolution. I'd hate for this one issue to be that which makes us come unglued as a community.
 
This is a screen capture from Topomart's front page. A lot of us know not to put any stock in those but a lot of folks, especially those new to the hobby may not.


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As the gatekeeper to this forum, Spark should care about who he lets. If he's saying that it isn't his responsibility, maybe everyone should reconsider where his loyalties are, because they don't seem to be towards the community that has supported his forum through memberships over the years. Spark says that it isn't his job to police dealers, but that seems like a poor excuse. He needs to accept the responsibility of managing his business and not promote the legitimacy of a website that profits off stolen designs, cloned models, and counterfeits.

Shame on you
 
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