It seems that is OK for people to say I love "such and such" a thing. But whenever someone expresses an valid opinion regarding pretty well anything that might be deemed critical of either their own opinions on a topic or about a Spyderco product there is always someone ready to pounce and explain just why your opinion and preferences are wrong and that you are being overly negative by expressing such an opinion.
Then there is always some element of two or three people chiming in on a certain opinion within a thread and then all of a sudden it becomes "forum gospel". I enjoy Cliff's posts but I can also see why some people don't. If I had an opinion that was based on gut feelings or personal preference based on experience or the past sharing of anecdotes and held that opinion very strongly then this is where I believe some of the animosity might arrive.
Most of us are knife afi's........not steel experts. Although compared to most of the NKP population it may seem like we are relatively expert. But for myself, that knowledge has come about by listening to the people that know what they are talking about ......when they are talking. If I came onto this forum and thought I knew "something about something" with respect to steel and then threw my cherished, yet non-scientifically arrived upon opinion out there as gospel and a then real metallurgy expert like Cliff arrived upon the scene to question those conclusions based on his lifetime accumulation of steel knowledge; then yes, my ego might take a beating.
That would probably irritate me to be shown to be wrong .......if my self esteem was invested in being right or wrong. But personally, I'm rather open to being proven wrong if that then means that my knowledge base can be corrected and I can learn something from the experience.
What I personally don't like though is when thread responses aren't about learning what is correct or incorrect but rather when people speak up on behalf of friends' opinions or defend forum friends' viewpoints simply because they don't like the other person posts or don't like to read a "wall of text" or use a seemingly mild "voice of reason" response that is ultimately disguised passive aggressive attack on another person.
Everyone is capable of behaving poorly or of becoming overly excited in posting their opinions - I have been guilty of that in the past.......and so have many of you. I sometimes edit and remove past postings that I feel have been misinterpreted and also sometimes when someone else has been an idiot.......but there is nothing to gain from pointing a finger at such idiocy without paying the penalty of having more of the same directed your way.
There have also been times when I've unintentionally offended, for example I once made a joking reference to hockey helmeted riders of the short bus........which was a common kind of reference when I was growing up. But when an individual PM'd me telling me that they had a special needs child and they were offended by such a description.......I was mortified that I had offended someone in that position with my comment and I quickly apologized through PM and changed my post.
I think that things are very civil on the Spyderco forum and I quite enjoy "the tone" of this forum. People won't always agree with me and vice-versa but that's life........actually disagreements on the forum ARE moderated when they get out of hand.......unlike in real life when more than someone's ego gets bruised. Even some of the trolling here is highly entertaining at times.......I quite enjoyed the "Deacon-Chloe" thread and from the pics that Deacon posted it seems that he got a kick out of it too......but I am also glad that Taz put an end to it too before it got too out of hand. Still it brought a few grins to my face when reading through it and quickly realizing the purely disingenuous nature of the posts.
I really don't think that there is anything broken that Spyderco needs "to fix" ........I think that they are already doing a great job. I think that the best advice I can give (and take myself) is not to let your self esteem and ego get wrapped up in "being right" ......after all, a lot of things argued are personal preference and how something works for you......which will be different for everybody.
Am I worried about what someone else thinks about my "wall of text"? Not at all.
