Oldest wet shaving forums

Purses full of vintage dried ol soap pucks.

 

Here, here!

 

Done. Thank you for that! I also updated the link for the real Straight Razor Place, which is now back online.

A similar thing happened to me and another poster long before the TSN went sideways. We were posting about an aftershave on sale below the Bullgoose's price. Phil kept deleting the posts, although he did not PM me, or make any negative comments in the thread. The entire thread was eventually deleted, although nobody was sanctioned in any way. I was thoroughly annoyed at the censorship, however, and left a few weeks later. After "The Great Purge" several months later, the place went from good to full Gulag, so it is no surprise @Darkbulb was sent to wetshaving Siberia. Censorship on a forum means the content is suspect, so TSN shot itself in the foot. It also made Bullgoose Shaving look really bad, and is the reason why I stopped buying from them. Like you said, it is one of the pitfalls of a merchant controlling a forum.

Leisureguy has been banned from many of the wetshaving forums, which I think is shameful. He has contributed a very great deal to wetshaving, and is always very civil and well mannered, even when dealing with prickly people. When he gets banned, I think it reflects badly on the banner, not on Leisureguy. When a reason is given, it is usually along the lines of "he was using information from our forum in his book". No kidding. Isn't the dissemination of information the reason why wetshaving forums exist? Those same forums don't seem to mind posts with information acquired elsewhere, yet they sanction someone else for doing the same. IMHO, the bannings are due to ego and control issues more than anything else.

It only takes one turd in the punchbowl. That particular mod got way out of line, and was starting fights instead of moderating. At least something positive (Against The Grain) came out of it. Often it takes only a few people with a desire to improve things to start a great new forum, like The Shave Den and Against The Grain.

 

i have joined a couple of others where i post sotd and stuff. tsd is home base for me..

 

I also never got banned on any of the shave forums, not even B&B and TSN. At least I never got notified of any bans. I have not logged into B&B for 12 years or TSN for 4 or 5 years, and forget my username and password at those sites.

I noticed both UK forums are thriving, and the problem mod stepped down. Good things to see, and I wish them well.

 

Regrettably ATG isn't currently working with Tapatalk so not thriving on my phone which reduces my use of it about 95 %.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

 

TSR is a good UK forum, much like this place, it has an easy going management and decent mods. I find it a little slow and more of a marketplace than a forum as such.

B&B is possible the worst run forum i have ever used. The moderation and management is, quite frankly, a bit alarming. It seems to be run by a bunch of old farts who sit on a pedestal of misguided privilege and power.

I have had full blown threads just vanish because of a misspelled word.
I have been threatened with a ban for not forumming like an obedient 5 yr old.
I have been muted and thread banned for not being overly patriotic about the US (I am not a US citizen).

Awful mods, just awful. SOme nice posters though and it is busy.

This place is so much better than any other forum i have used. Great job.

 

they can have the riff raff and we get the good folks..

 

You do realize that B&B is an advertising business, right? It might have the appearance of a hobby forum, and perhaps was one early on, but its raison d'etre is to generate revenue. Favorable mention of a paying vendor's product will get you a pat on the back. Doing the same for a paying vendor's non-paying competition can result in a warning or a ban. That can also happen if unfavorable mention is made about a paying vendor's product. As time goes on, additional restrictions are added, although they can be lifted for paying members. It is all about money and ego, so what you saw, however unwelcome, is to be expected. TSN is an advertising organ for Bullgoose Shaving, and also has conflict of interest and ethics problems. Badly behaved mods and members might well have alcohol, drug or psychiatric issues. Abusive behavior is not a trait found in normal, well-adjusted people.

It makes no sense to participate in an abusive environment, as there are plenty of alternatives that are both busy and friendly. For example here, AGT, TSR, DFS and The Shaving Cadre. For those who like busy and fast paced, there is Reddit /r/wicked_edge. Also Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube and Pinterest, so something for everybody. It is not only wetshaving that is affected. Most hobbies and special interests with forums have the same problem, and the same solutions.

 

Updated list:
1.Sharprazorpalace forum(the old straightrazorplace forum)
2.Shavemyface forum
3.Badger and blade forum
4.The shave den forum(was created in 2007)
5.Theshavingroom.co,uk forum(was created in 2009)
6.Subreddit wicked_edge(was created in 2010)
7.Romanian forum forum.barbieritdelux.ro(was created in 2011) I am Romanian, that's why I've listed it
8.Shavenook forum(was created in 2012)
9.Damnfineshave forum the second incarnation(was created in 2015) 10.Atgshaving forum(was created in 2016)
11.The facebook group straight razor place facebook(was created on 1 March 2018)
12.Theshavingcadre forum(was created on 14 March 2018)
13. The new straightrazorplace.com forum(created July 2019).

 

Well, this makes everything perfectly clear. Thank you.

 

I got my hand slapped for mentioning a journalist, Christopher Hitchens. The mods are pretty tight there. A good friend got excommunicated so
I came over here with him. This board seems a bit more laid back but I’ll be careful. I do remember your avatar. In any case, I’ll see you around.

Steve

 

A bit more laid back? Speaking from experience, The Shave Den is LOT more laid back than B&B. This forum encourages open, polite discussion, and you do not need to worry or walk on eggshells. The mods and admin here are on your side, not against you. They want you to thrive here and be happy. That being said, cussing or discussing anything connected with politics or religion is frowned upon, which also holds true for most other forums and many real life gatherings.

One side effect of the open and level-headed approach here is that the information on TSD is generally accurate. Heavily censored forums are missing essential viewpoints and information. The information on those sites is therefore biased, incomplete, and of questionable accuracy. Anyways, glad you decided to come here!

 

Hey Steve. Since I posted that post, I thought I'd make one last attempt at rejoining B&B. I had written them before and only received silence. So, it was July 2018 when I was banned. I sent an email to "Contact Us" at the bottom of the B&B page, told a little of the history of my banishment, ate some crow and asked if there was any chance I might be allowed to rejoin. I was not expecting to hear from anyone. I then received an email from one of the mods asking to know what my screen name was. I provided it. The next day I was told he enabled my account. I was shocked. So I signed on and went perusing the site. I noticed that The Barbershop was not available to me. So I wrote to the mod mentioning that The Barbershop was hidden and it may have to do with the fact that my first ban was just from The Barbershop. He responded saying "let's see how it goes" and to reach out in a couple months. Now, this is all after a full one year of being banned. A ban that I very much deserved by the way. And if not for that ban I would not have found this and the four other forums I now belong to. But I am grateful for the opportunity to rejoin B&B because there are guys there who only seem to be active there and not on other forums who I missed our banter and interaction. This mod could very easily have ignored my email. But I appreciate that he's giving me another chance. And I found it amazing how many guys welcomed me back. I figured that I was out of sight out of mind. I won't be doing anything to get myself banned from there again or any of the other sites. I pushed the envelope and saw the consequences. I feel no need to do that again. And among the 6 sites, I think I'm really active on only 2 or 3 of them. But they are all great sources of information about everything from shaving, to cigars, to coffee, to cooking, etc. Not sure what my point here is. Maybe things are loosening up a bit over there.

 

I am still a member of B&B and still check my mail but don’t post as much now. My main problem with it is a pervasive sense of elitism there. The members I miss most are Polarbeard, Slash McCoy and Boris: Ice-man has recently joined here. I spent most of my time on the General straight shaving section and was most bothered by excessive conflicting information given to guys new to straights and honing. I don’t have especially hard feelings but am more comfortable here. I’m glad you were allowed to rejoin and I intend to remain a member.

 

Thank you for throwing TOST in there!

 

Given that they treated you like dirt before, why? And it is not only you. In asking that question, which is entirely non-rhetorical, it is my belief that people should be treated well. That is to say with courtesy, respect, fairness and decency. That applies not only to B&B, but to all people in all forums and every other place where interact, both online and in the real world. Sure, there might be some great people in toxic places, but that won't make the problems go away.

If you are looking for a mega-large forum as an additional source of wetshaving information, IMHO Reddit /r/wicked_edge would be much better than B&B. It is much larger, more open-minded, fairly run and friendly. The information there is uncensored, and hence more accurate and useful than that on B&B or TSN. Reddit also has a number of subreddits for cooking, coffee, cigars, watches, fountain pens, and everything else under the sun. B&B is a drop in the bucket compared to Reddit.

Try pushing the envelope here or at some of the other wetshaving forums and you will get feedback from the mods. They won't flip out and go swinging the ban hammer willy nilly, however. They might get annoyed, on rare occasions very annoyed, but you won't see them being abusive, elitist, mean-spirited or capricious. You absolutely won't get sanctioned for conflicts of interest.

Pravda and Izvestia, the two largest newspapers in the Soviet Union, said the same thing during the cold war. Being censored and having ulterior motives, they were hardly reliable sources of information, even though they might have seemed truthful to some people. The same applies to certain forums, both wetshaving and otherwise. Uncensored and well-run venues are much, much better.

That'll be the day. Perhaps if a new owner and mod team take over, but that seems unlikely. Badger & Blade has not changed substantially in over a decade, both in demeanor and goals. The same goes for The Shave Nook, of more recent vintage. The way people are treated there is no accident, as what appear to be traditional shaving discussion forums have ulterior purposes and motives. Unless they break the law, all forum owners will run their venues in the ways they see fit. It is unreasonable to expect anything else. It's the nature of the beast.

Once again, B&B is the wetshaving bete noire, the elephant in the room. This also exists in many other forum-based hobbies, and is becoming rather tiring. My take is that the best approach is to join one of the small to medium size forums, such as this one, and Reddit. The two formats are different enough to provide a variety of experiences and information. If it is camaraderie that people are looking for, I think that is best found in the real world. Technology can be a bridge, but also a wall.

All of the above is in my humble opinion. I hope it does not come off as judgmental, preachy or condescending, because it is not meant that way at all.

TL;DR - You deserve to be treated well, not badly. If a forum treats you badly, then why stick around or, worse yet, go back?

 

I hear you. I did create a second profile and screen name. Apparently people who are more computer savvy than I have done that with the express purpose of hacking into websites. So I understand their applying a ban to that. I'm not going to go any deeper into this other than to say, they let me back in and there really isn't any more fair way to treat someone than letting them back in. Why would I want back in? Because I am contrite in my prior actions. There are guys there who I enjoyed communicating with. My first double edge was PIF'd from a member there. Say what you want about the mods but the members are good people as are they on the other forums I've joined. And the mod who re-admitted me clearly is a decent fellow. I deserved to be banned and now I'm back. And I was taken aback by the warm welcome I received when people started to see my posts again. I didn't realize that I was as well liked as I was apparently. But I didn't know that when I asked to rejoin. I just took a shot. It's all good. And yes, camaraderie is something that only really happens in person. Talk about another black hole. There are 6 guys who play golf regularly who live within 3 or4 houses from me and each other. I've been fighting the golf thing as I'd rather get on a bike and ride, either on the road or on a trail. But I've been sort of lazy lately. This weekend 8 of us went out in two foursomes and engaged in a little competitive fun. I had not swung a club in at least 5 or 6 years and even then I had only played 36 holes. I have to say I actually had fun and even played fairly well for someone who doesn't play. Maybe encouragement for me to pick it up and start playing with the gang. And besides The Shave Den and B&B, I also belong to Against the Grain, The Shaving Cadre, Damn Fine Shave and yes, The Shave Nook, although my impression of that site is similar to yours. Anyway, there you have it. I'm happy.