(This post was last modified: 02-07-2020, 10:54 PM by andrewjs18.)
World Shave Off Showdown #2
Most Efficient Razors
As some of you know and for those that don't I've been doing a World Shave Off Showdown over on another forum since July of 2018. Back when we started it and I say we as there were two other members who I'm sure most of you know on this site as LOOT James and Shavemd Mark. The 3 of us started the thread because at the time we felt there were a lot of redundant threads and posts that over and over again were about Gillette Techs, Superspeeds and the Fatip etc etc. and no disrespect to those fine razors but we wanted to liven things up a bit and have some fun along the way doing it. So we started out with what we called " The Most Efficient Razor " and back then we broke it down into 6 categories, each of which contained many different brand named razors both modern and vintage. The 6 categories where " Mildly Efficient " Moderately Efficient " Efficient " Very Efficient and " Extremely Efficient " so like I said there were a whole lot of razors involved in this Shave Off. James, Mark and myself contributed a bunch of razors out of our personal dens and within a short amount of time after posting up the thread a lot of members started to send us razors that they thought should be in the Shave Off and would often recommend which category they thought the razor should be placed in. If not we we look up the razors and based on reviews and in some cases from our own personal experiences we'd put them in the category we thought would be best for the razor. Of course all of the razors that were sent to us were returned to their owners either at the end of the Shave Off category they were in was over or if they got eliminated along the way. Yes eliminated as this is one of the things that made the Shave Offs fun. One vs the other on one in the same shave on one face and that would be mine. Both James and Mark decided because of reasons like work schedule that it would be best if I did the actual Shave Offs. I had some experience as I did one before as some of you may remember it was the one that was all about the Aristocrat and it was British Aristocrats vs US Aristocrats where I shaved with every model that was made. Again some were from my den and all the rest were sent to me for the Shave Off. It got to be a good sized thread with a lot of history about the Aristocrats so we were hoping the World Shave Off Showdown would be equally as popular.. well it far surpassed the Aristocrat thread in size and it became what I was told was one of the biggest threads in the history of the site with the exception of the " What did you use today threads "
The Shave Off thread not only had a lot of input and historical information it it but from the 100's of emails, pm's and phone calls I and the rest of the guys got most were happy we started it and there were a lot of shaving enthusiast who followed it which included not only members of that site but pretty much all the rest of the wet shaving sites along with razor makers, soap makers and even a couple of brush makers as well. It was a lot of fun and I personally learned a lot from start to finish and made a whole lot of friends along the way.
The Shave Off thread not only had a lot of input and historical information it it but from the 100's of emails, pm's and phone calls I and the rest of the guys got most were happy we started it and there were a lot of shaving enthusiast who followed it which included not only members of that site but pretty much all the rest of the wet shaving sites along with razor makers, soap makers and even a couple of brush makers as well. It was a lot of fun and I personally learned a lot from start to finish and made a whole lot of friends along the way.
Well a few weeks ago I went to login as normal as I was going to start this newest Shave Off after finishing up the last one which was " The Smoothest Razor " which also went well and when I put in my password a screen popped up saying OPP'S there's a problem. You've been banned! No explanation or reason why. I thought maybe it was a mistake as one member told me to hold off as it may have been a technical error. Well nothing changed so I tried contacting a mod but when your banned it won't allow you to do so. So a member friend of mine messaged them for me and gave them my current email address which I wasn't sure they had and I thought to myself maybe they did try to reach out to me so when he tried to help me and they told him if he tries to contact them for me one more time that he'd get banned as well. Well he didn't give up and mentioned to me I don't care if they ban me. He got through to another mod who I guess was a little friendlier and then that mod sent me an email with another mods email address with the words if you want to find out why you were banned get in touch with him. Well I sent an email and a few days later I got a message and it wasn't very friendly saying I'll keep it short you were banned for vendor activity! Well I thought about it and I know I never used my shave soap or AS in one of my Shave Offs as I knew that was not allowed. I never mentioned my Shaving products and if members who saw them and said congrats I'd usually pm them on another site, text them or email them so there was no way I had vendor activity on there. So I wrote him back and asked for proof in the form of the post or thread where I did this so called vender activity. He has not responded yet with any explanation or proof. I also told him that another mod mentioned me in the thread saying I had chosen to leave the site for a reason he wasn't sure of. Well when they moved it to the brotherhood and clubs section where some members were protesting their actions by posting up their feelings that I had chosen to leave the site and they didn't know the truth and maybe thought I did leave them hanging. Well I can tell you that was a flat out lie! I said in my email I'd appreciate it if you delete that statement and it's still there so if fell on deaf ears. What really upsets me more than anything is the number of hours I put into that thread. Hundreds and hundreds is probably a conservative number. Not to mention all the info that others contributed as it's been edited down from 265 pages to 170. I should have listened to James LOOT when he said Frankie you should move the thread over to DFS. I will say one thing.. I'm not done with them!
I had a long talk with Andrew and he said it was ok to start the Shave Off over here and I had his complete support! What a difference in site owner/moderator. A place where members and even vendors can interact with each other which to me only makes sense. This Shave Off should be a good one and like the title says it is for the " Most Efficient Razor " I felt with all the new razors that have come out since July 2018 that this should be updated. This one will be different than the others and there will only be 3 Categories in this Shave Off as opposed to 6 and they are " Efficient " Very Efficient " and " Hyper Efficient " I'm almost done working on the outline for this Shave Off and I'd like to post it up as soon as I complete it and then get feedback from the members on what they like or what they think should be changed and of course as always I like input and suggestions before I actually start the Shave Offs.
I thought I'd get the thread up as I've been asked many times when I'm was going to start it so for those that were wondering this is the start.
I'd like to shout out a big thanks to the many members, vendors, razor makers, soap makers and brush makers who have reached out to me through pm's, emails and phone calls. Many of whom were also banned over there and for no good reason.
Thanks for listening to my rant and great shaves!