Things That Would Be Great in The Forum

[scruffyv]

I am getting a lot of continual enjoyment from reading and participating in this Forum. I was just reading about the Derby promotion. Great to see that product marketers want to talk to us and get our opinion.

Here is my wish list for that sort of thing and other stuff:

1. Chat discussion (with translator) with the designer of the Merkur Vision
2. Chat discussion with a Bernd Blos (sp?) of Shavemac to understand what he thinks makes a great brush, how he got into the busiiness, etc.
3. Chat with the designer of the Fusion (seriously)
4. Someone from Simpson explaining the history of the company

Transcriptions on the Forum of all of the above after they occur.

5. A single table in a sticky that includes a picture, serial number or patents, and year for every single Gillette Razor, along with a link to reviews of each. I am tired of going one place to find the picture, another place to find the patent . . .
6. Close up macro lens shots of the chin of the same person with two days growth, same shave cream, same prep, shaving with four or five of the major razors-- before and after pictures showing how long beard hair is, how much irritation, etc..
7. A Forum area called "Product Updates" where product manufacturers would be allowed to tell us about their upcoming products, and ask for them to be tested and evaluated. (free samples)
8. A Forum area explaining the origination and history of the Forum (who started it, who maintains it, where the servers are physically located, etc..)

Just some thoughts.

Vin

[Nick]

Howdy Vin,

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll try to take a stab at some of them:

1-4: These are good ideas. We actually tried to start up some moderated chats with a couple vendors in the past, but it never really got off the ground. While Merkur and Simpson are both notorious for being unresponsive, we might be able to work something out with another manufacturer/vendor to see if we can get this going again.

5-6: The development team is currently working on something that will make these two suggestions very feasible, and in fact, have already started setting up the groundwork for them. I ain't spilling the beans, but there should be an announcement shortly.

7. This is something vendors could do in the shopping forum if they'd like (and some do to an extent), even though it isn't explicitly stated.

8. In a nutshell: B&B in its current format went live on August 12th 2005. Joel and I maintain the server and cover the costs associated with the site. As for who maintains the board, there are dozens of people who should be considered caretakers. The moderators put a lot of energy and time into making the board successful. The same holds true for many of the senior members. On top of that, the membership pretty much moderates themselves and many feel a sense of ownership over what they've helped to create here.

As for hardware and geographical details, I won't go into details, but I will tell you B&B runs on its own screaming fast server located in a state of the art data center in the middle of the continental United States. The server's timezone however is set to PST.

I hope this helps,

-Nick

[ouch]

http://www.dailywav.com/1206/powerofdecision.wav

[castlecraver]

5-6: The development team is currently working on something that will make these two suggestions very feasible, and in fact, have already started setting up the groundwork for them. I ain't spilling the beans, but there should be an announcement shortly.

I think I can guess what this will be (okay, I tried accessing it and was met with tacit confirmation that my guess is right), and let me just say... this is a VERY good idea. :001_tt1:

[Ltltony]

Wow, I can't wait to see the updates. It's incredible the community you guys were able to create. Thanks!!

[letterk]

Great ideas, and as Nick said, we're working on some of them already. Any other ideas/requests/suggestions?

[scruffyv]

Thanks for the feedback. I look forward to the improvements and changes. If I can pitch in as a test rat for any of the changes I would be glad to assist. The origin of the site is very interesting. I am surprised that Merkur is unresponsive, their products are clearly the result of meticulous research.

Vin

[paddy]

an interview with someone from Coates to get a full first hand answer as to why they are taking so long to put their creams back into production.

paddy

[joel]

an interview with someone from Coates to get a full first hand answer as to why they are taking so long to put their creams back into production.

paddy

Paddy,
If you've dealt with Simpson/Coate's in the past... you'll know nearly everything they do makes no sense.

Luckily.... Coate's isn't that great, or that would be mighty annoying. Personally, when companies pull bonehead moves like this (IE Coates being out of production for over a year) I make it a point to purposely NOT buy product from them. What with yet ANOTHER Simpson brush now falling apart on me making it the third in a row (E3, T2, Duke 2) - I will never recommend/purchase another simpson/coate's product again.

[TimmyBoston]

Paddy,
If you've dealt with Simpson/Coate's in the past... you'll know nearly everything they do makes no sense.

Luckily.... Coate's isn't that great, or that would be mighty annoying. Personally, when companies pull bonehead moves like this (IE Coates being out of production for over a year) I make it a point to purposely NOT buy product from them. What with yet ANOTHER Simpson brush now falling apart on me making it the third in a row (E3, T2, Duke 2) - I will never recommend/purchase another simpson/coate's product again.

I can't recommend either of them either. Personally I've found Taylor's to be better than Coates and it's half the price. And my last Simpson brush I had to send back as well. It was worthless.

[castlecraver]

How about a SotD photo contest, in a format similar to the review contest from last year?

[DLoyd76]

While I'd love to read interviews with shave personages, that kind of thing falls into journalistic reporting, and as such, incurs expenses. What I'm getting at is that to do something like that, I'd think would mean advertisements on the site. Different, for sure.

[Nick]

While I'd love to read interviews with shave personages, that kind of thing falls into journalistic reporting, and as such, incurs expenses. What I'm getting at is that to do something like that, I'd think would mean advertisements on the site. Different, for sure.

Qué? :confused:

-Nick

[DLoyd76]

Just an assumption that in order to do more than maintain the website and do all the wonderful things already, some form of cash flow would be required. I've seen it on other sites. I'm not pushing for ads on B&B; hardly. Just that every extension of 'services' requires a sufficient amount of support. No one wants B&B to get overextended and have to close shop! (something else I've seen from other sites).

devil's advocate point, as it were.

love everything, btw. :)

[Nick]

Just an assumption that in order to do more than maintain the website and do all the wonderful things already, some form of cash flow would be required. I've seen it on other sites. I'm not pushing for ads on B&B; hardly. Just that every extension of 'services' requires a sufficient amount of support. No one wants B&B to get overextended and have to close shop! (something else I've seen from other sites).

devil's advocate point, as it were.

love everything, btw. :)

We don't do ads. :wink:

-Nick

[DLoyd76]

and that's absolutely fine with me :thumbup1:

[guenron]

http://www.dailywav.com/1206/powerofdecision.wav

Yes!


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