Members Rhide Posted May 30, 2012 Members Report Posted May 30, 2012 I find it ironic that this thread was started by ...an Ambassador!
Members Sylvia Posted May 30, 2012 Members Report Posted May 30, 2012 Pete I think what you are neglecting to understand is there are folks here who have VERY little money due to the economy and perhaps being on a fixed income. That "$10 box cutter" is from their previous life when money flowed like greased lightening. Now the situation is different. Not all of us have unlimited funds... and the scrap I've seen online costs WAY more than $3 especially when you add shipping. Now, in my case when I started here, I had some tools and kits from about 6 years ago. But I was utterly and completely broke... I had a whopping $10 a month coming in from an affiliate program I'm involved in. IN fact... Our retirement accounts are gone, zip, nada, zilch...ZERO left in them... and now we are digging ourselves out of a hole since the husband finally got a job after nearly 4 years of being unemployed. (I've not had a job in 6 years) So Hell Yeah, $3 is a lot for a bag of scraps with no guarantee that any of them will be large enough to do anything with. To make it clear to you... I saved, scrimped and struggled to even get through last year. I learned to can, preserve and build a solar dehydrator out of what I already had. So for you to come a long and say $3 is nothing... pfft... "Float, baby.... Float" I find it ironic that this thread was started by ...an Ambassador! Ambassador... just means he's answered or posted a lot on this forum. A teacher pointed at me with a ruler and said "At the end of this ruler is an idiot." I got detention when I asked "Which end?"
Members Rhide Posted May 30, 2012 Members Report Posted May 30, 2012 Ambassador... just means he's answered or posted a lot on this forum. I was gonna ask about that,but I didn't want to pizz anyone off!
Members Sylvia Posted May 30, 2012 Members Report Posted May 30, 2012 I was gonna ask about that,but I didn't want to pizz anyone off! I have been corrected in PM by pete. "Ambassador means I've contributed monetarily to the forum" A teacher pointed at me with a ruler and said "At the end of this ruler is an idiot." I got detention when I asked "Which end?"
Moderator bruce johnson Posted May 30, 2012 Moderator Report Posted May 30, 2012 There are some topics pretty easily searched. "What kind of sewing machine should I get?" for example. A lot of the rest of it falls into the "I'm so green at this, I don't know what I don't know to even search it". In the good ol' days of leather crafting there was a Tandy store in most major cities. A majority of the leathercrafters that are seniors now probably started off that way. Someone at least could teach them the basics. A lot of the repetitious questions now are from the folks who haven't got that available to them, but they have a keyboard. How many of these threads start off with "I got a kit from TLF and have a few questions"? These folks may not have the classes available to them. This group and others are basically the on-line tech support for the craft supply sellers. Telling them to buy some scraps and have at it blindly would be like giving my wife a welder and pile of scrap iron and telling her to build a windmill. They don't know the terms to search for, or when they do search they get 20 posts from threads that may have some relevance, but put together looks like a committee cow. I have been here from the start and a little background on the "search". Early on the plan was to merge and collate questions into previous threads to make things more searchable. There was talk of a "leather wiki". When there were 300 or 500 members, it was cumbersome to keep up. Crossed over a couple thousand members and it became impossible. That is why there are duplicate threads and search is hard to figure sometimes. One thing I have found is that there are precious few only-one-way-to-do-it techniques in leather work. Everybody uses different tools, cases different, tool stamping order, choice of oil, finish techniques, etc. Probably the best thing I get out of a lot of the basic questions is the responses. I learn a lot from those. With new people coming on, some of these folks have a ton of experience. They haven't gone back through the archives and added their tips and tricks to every appropriate post, but will reply to the same question asked today. Keep them coming. Bruce Johnson Malachi 4:2 "the windshield's bigger than the mirror, somewhere west of Laramie" - Dave Stamey Vintage Refurbished And Selected New Leather Tools For Sale - www.brucejohnsonleather.com
Members Sylvia Posted May 30, 2012 Members Report Posted May 30, 2012 Telling them to buy some scraps and have at it blindly would be like giving my wife a welder and pile of scrap iron and telling her to build a windmill. LOL, Bruce.... I just love you. You are my kind of people. A teacher pointed at me with a ruler and said "At the end of this ruler is an idiot." I got detention when I asked "Which end?"
electrathon Posted May 30, 2012 Report Posted May 30, 2012 (edited) I have been corrected in PM by pete. "Ambassador means I've contributed monetarily to the forum" Hmm, I always thought an ambassador was one who was here to make others feel welcome, greeted, desired. Contributing members are those who have donated money to keep things going. Edit to add: This is the closest definition I could find for ambassador. An authorized messenger or representative. I think this is why this thread headed in a bad direction so fast. An authorized agent of this forum did not represent it in a friendly and inviting way. The forum was represented by virtue of the title and bad things were said to those who know less. This is a place of teaching and learning. We are all both teachers and students. Hopefully through time all here will be less student and more teacher. That is, unless we run off all the students since they are not smart enough to learn from us. Then we will end up with a group of old people who all know everything and a dead forum. Old timers likely remember where the roots of this forum started and how it grew into what it is and not what it came from. Everyone is welcome here, not just those that pay to get in. Edited May 30, 2012 by electrathon
electrathon Posted May 30, 2012 Report Posted May 30, 2012 LOL, Bruce.... I just love you. You are my kind of people. Bruce, I want to add too. You have always stood as a shining example of whom I would like to be as talented as and who seems to have a positive grasp on life. Aaron
Mike516 Posted May 30, 2012 Report Posted May 30, 2012 OK everybody. I quit ..........Didn't mean to cause a firestorm, hurt peoples feelings, or imply that I am so good that I don't need to ask questions anymore. But I'm not buying the cost of scrap or computer confusion argument either. If you simply OWN a computer then a $3.00 bag of scraps doesn't constitute a "burden on you wallet" Especially if you are asking while using a $10 utility knife, reading a $12 Stohlman entry level book, and worried about ruining $40 of leather. Come on folk, I'm not being arrogant in the least. I'm simply saying that many of these questions are common sense and have nothing to do with leather being the medium. ASK ASK ASK! Check out my posts. I have asked many question in the past and have spent a lot of time answering posts. I have no problem with this- it's one of the best parts of the great forum. end of transmission respectfully to ALL pete I thought it was funny that this post started with; "OK everybody. I quit" But yea, Bruce I agree with the last couple of people, you're a good guy. I actually thought moderators and ambassadors were pretty much the same thing. I was surprised when I saw Pete was an ambassador but I'm glad you all straightened that out. I wasn't going to ask lest it be deemed to be a dumb question
Ambassador pete Posted May 30, 2012 Author Ambassador Report Posted May 30, 2012 Apparently I have offended EVERYONE on this forum and have disgraced every ambassador. To all I apologize and will will no longer post. pete ps- I have contributed to this forum financially. pps- thanks to Bruce,Troy,Bob, and others for having helped me with past questions.
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