Good morning, gents.
This is an interesting discussion. It's one of those threads where I debated whether to comment or not. I decided to jump in. Since we are sharing opinions - and everyone's is different - I'll share mine.
In my experience, I have come to learn that human interactions are neither logical nor perfect. To make things even more interesting, my expectations around what constitutes good logic and perfection are uniquely mine. Your expectations will likely be different. However, I like to think I use decent logic after spending many years studying and working in a scientific field. When I was a young pup, I used to get frustrated by messy interactions with others...so I was frustrated quite a lot. As I've grown older, I'm trying to appreciate the differences in people. I'm a work-in-progress, have definitely not
arrived by any means, and I can still be quite the old cynic at times.
On a personal level, I will ask folks with that I know well what they recommend, whether it's a razor, a car, or a TV. I don't mind if their responses are autobiographical. In fact, that's exactly what I'm looking for from them. Personally, I don't take this approach with people I don't know. For all I know, they could be some kinda nut.

At other times, I'll do my own research and come to my own conclusions. In the shaving world, there are many informative websites, YouTube videos, and forums. Sure, just because someone creates a website or produces a video, it doesn't make them an expert. For that reason, I'll consider different resources, looking for verifiable facts as well as trends in thought and opinion. In other words, I am collecting data, and I enjoy doing it. Verifiable facts are facts, and in the shaving world, I have found that most often trends making use of a decent set of data are generally reliable. Emotion drives a lot of what is said and done in our hobby as well, and I rather enjoy seeing this thrown into the mix.
Having said all this, I hope we don't get to a point on TSD where we have libraries of locked resource threads. Dozens of other websites and forums come to mind where these resources are already available. Why would ours be any better? Just because we developed them?

I'm here because I like the generally friendly banter, and it has been a great place for me to advance my knowledge and hopefully help a few others along the way. My posts are littered with autobiographical responses and maybe a fact or a bit of logic here and there. It's who I am. I'm not here to impress anyone, make people happy, or convince them to agree with me. I like to talk shaving with people that are interested in shaving, and I also just like to participate in friendly banter.
I rather enjoy someone discovering this great hobby (at least that's how I think of it) and asking any question in any way they want. I can always choose to reply or not. To be sure, the types of questions you'll receive from a 15-year-old could, but not always, be vastly different than from a 65-year-old. Life experiences and other factors always come into play. I'm also wise enough to know that some folks will post
drive by questions for various reasons, never to be seen again. Sometimes I'll reply anyway, and sometimes not.
I've lurked on a few other hobby or special-interest forums, not just shaving-related, and I've found some that are not only unfriendly but are downright hostile. It's hilarious to think that hobbies like this are really
that important in the big scheme of things. I don't understand posts that contain statements like
use your search button or
why are you resurrecting an ancient thread? I may feel this way at times, but there's no need to state it. Since we don't live in each others' heads, we don't know what someone else is thinking...whether it's the person resurrecting the old thread or the person that is ever so happy to respond and keep the discussion going. Who knows? Maybe I'm having a bad day and would be better served by sulking in a room by myself...and just not commenting at all. My bad day hopefully has little to do with anyone else, until I start making negative comments in my posts.
I sincerely hope TSD does not become like many of the other forums where I've observed that judgement and negativity have become embedded in the culture. Let's leave room for people that are just plain excited about discovering wet shaving, and let them ask questions anyway they want. I, for one, may choose to jump in with an opinion, a fact even, or just some friendly banter. Or not.
Keep in mind that a lot of folks lurk on TSD, and I'm sure they watch discussions like this to take the pulse of the forum. I am always pleased to see someone jump into the discussions after observing how friendly and welcoming we are as a community. I hope this never changes.
Again, this is just my opinion. I don't expect anyone to necessarily agree or even read it for that matter. And I really don't care if cold water actually closes my pores or not. It just feels nice after a good shave. Oh , I almost forgot, the Gillette NEW LC is the best DE razor.
Have a great day, gents, and smooth shaves!

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