JMnet

I have to say this is group seams to look at things,,, never mind. Having a MODERATOR tell you they didn't bring a dog to this fight is more than confrontational. As we all know a moderator either owns, operates or has some authority on the board. I would place that as confrontational. The two Dave's on this post. So you have never stood in a bar talking to your friends about what products you like and or dislike? You have never told someone on this board that you work with a specific brand of stain of finish? Or maybe a favorite tool? You are doing what the product manufacturer hopes you will do, you are marketing for free. We all do it and don't think about it. So those that have posted and are against this type of marketing. I assume you never took a add in a magazine or a newspaper or on the internet. I personally dislike it in magazines when I am reading an article and then have to skip 20 pages to finish it because someone paid for a full page add in the middle of the article. Do you really think magazines or any other publication accidently puts an ad someplace. No they are placed to make it difficult for the reader. It is marketing.

I just joined this forum to defend a friend. You seam to have mistook what he was trying to tell you. I am in this business, it is legitimate marketing. The forum sites that people like I use are not sites like this. We use consumer sites. If any of you watch TV it happens every time a commercial comes on. Chevy is telling you they are better than Toyota, Ford is telling you they have the toughest truck on the market. One soup company tells you their soup is healthier than their competitor. This is the marketing world, there is not a place you go were marketing is not happening. Bus stops, taxi cabs, MSN, Yahoo, radio, movie theaters and on and on and on. When I go to a forum site of consumers it is my job to nudge people to a product. I am not badmouthing the competition, but I may say I looked at some purse and thought it was very well made, but then I found this one. No bad words no cutting down. A consumer must make up their own mind what they want to do, but if they don't know the option is there they will never look at it. Hunter and Oklahoma leather are 2 big corporations in this country that are still successful. They are in every major sporting goods store or sporting goods web site. Many of those consumers would love to have a hand crafted holster, but they don't take the time or they just don't know how to find someone that hand crafts an item. Go out to a SASS or Cowboy shooter forum some time and read posts. These people are consumers, they are not crafters. They consume goods use them then go out and talk about them. They talk about why they like or dislike a product. They talk about their loyalty to a product. All I do is slip in a comment. ((I was looking on letherworker.net and found a guy who seams to make great holsters, his signon name is ????)) The seed is planted, then you watch to see if it grows. Most of the time people are so curious they can't help but take a look. That is called marketing. Yes there are people that go out and badmouth products to get attention, I won't work with that type and neither does my friend. Also you ran off someone that wanted to help and had a reason. His great uncle was a well known saddle maker in the 30's and 40's. Made saddles for Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes and other famous silver screen stars. Something went terribly wrong in his business, I don't know the entire story. I do no that he died absolutely broke living in some rat hole out west. His family didn't know because he cut off communications to the family. So my friend was on a mission to help people trying to make it in this business. His post was his passion coming out, he wasn't trying to destroy your community.