This is a very relevant question, and a very common one for shaving forums. As the skill of shaving with an actual razor gets more notice, more sources of information pop up all the time. And the person wishing to get information on shaving has to decide where to get his or her information.
And that leads to the whole dilemma of the shaving forum.
1. How to get new membership
2. How to keep the new membership coming back
3. How to get the new membership, and membership in general actively discussing things.
But alas, the nature of the forums leads to the stagnation issue it is facing. The forums tout themselves as wonderful places to learn new things, and ask questions, and to well interact and encourage everyone to learn, regardless of how long they have been on the forum and regardless of how long they have shaved or just claimed to have shaved with a razor.
Henry Ford had a great slogan for selling cars. "You can have any color you want as long as its black".
The shaving forums have altered that slogan into:
"You may discuss or review any soap you want to provided it is an artisan soap. And please feel free to make any comment you want as long as you repeat what the moderator says in regards to that particular soap so that he or she doesn't need to spend time editing or deleting your post"
That attitude of riding the latest buzzword or trend has really hurt the forums. IN the old days, the first forums were all about the shave itself, not about the cost of the equipment you used to shave yourself. It used to be that a puck of Williams, an old rubberset brush, and a hazed up tech were all you needed to be a participant in shaving. Now participation is all based on what you have to talk about.
A good example is the straight razor place. They are still the same attitude in postings from this year as in their first year of existence. Their attitude is quite simple. Bring a razor and have fun. I have read many threads that were "wife got me a shave ready gold dollar SR or a shavette, how do I use it" and regardless of what it was or how much it cost they would instantly welcome the person and help them get started in using it.
Old threads show that Double edge shaving websites used to be like that. But looking through the threads as the fads and buzzwords came along it all changed. Cost, brand name, material became the whole thing. The following is the only way to illustrate that point is with the story of a person I used to chat with on a forum. I cannot remember the persons name or the forum name so don't ask. I only remember the story because of how the young man was treated.
In his first post he told how he had been at grandmas house. And had felt he needed a shave. He was the classic 15 year old Captain Peach Fuzz. Not much to shave off, but he needed to replace the head on his cartridge razor. SO he went digging under the sink because he remembered he had put a package of replacement heads in there for some reason. In his spelunking he found a small shoe box labeled simply "shaving stuff".
He found some old shaving mug, some random pucks of shaving soap, a couple of old brushes. And he found what turned out to be his grandfathers razors. One was a Gillette contract tech he had carried ashore at iwo jima. The other was a early 60s tech. He went on to tell how excited he was to shave with something his grandpa had, because he had lost his grand father at maybe age 5 and all he had were really good memories.
He made all of this as part of his first post on that forum. The issue is, the wonderful knowledgeable people on that forum instantly peed on his parade by telling him that he had two worthless razors, that were only good enough to use until he could put a blade into them without cutting himself. Or that once he could shave with them against the grain, they were no longer good to use or even have around.
And when he achieved those two goals, he had to go purchase a new razor preferably in the 60-70 dollar range otherwise it would be worthless to have. This even came from people who used a merkur barber pole for their daily shave pics.
I know a few folks here would be appalled that I would recount that story, but it illustrates whats wrong with the forums these days. And that is what makes the forums rather useless seeming. Now and in the future.
"when all that counts is cost and glitter, substance and that which actually matters will disappear."
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