Everyone's eyes are different. White background is too bright for me to read. For websites where I can't change the colors, sometimes highlighting what I'm trying to read helps increase the color contrasts between font and page.
You can also change your forum display settings by scrolling to the bottom of any page. Left side. Click on the word under the Home/Forums/etc. Bar. The default is "Vintage." Edit: you will need to use the directions posted by @S Barnhardt if you have the "mobile" display setting active.
You're welcome! I think it is important to note that the traditional shaving revival began before the shaving forums first appeared. Myriam Zaoui and Eric Malka founded The Art of Shaving as an artisan business in 1996. Emily Witherspoon opened Em's Place in 1997, and still sells shaving products today. The "Three Ts" - Geo. F. Trumper, Truefitt & Hill and Taylor of Old Bond Street - never stopped selling traditional shaving products. The same goes for Parker, Merkur, SOTRACO and many other shaving products companies. In searching for the genesis of the wetshaving revival, one needs to look back prior to the forums. IMHO, at least.
I was originally a member of the SRP Yahoo group around 2002 or so. Saw some mob mentality and heavy handed moderator/owner abuse of many members who didn't adhere to the groupthink. Joel Ferman was banned from SRP by Lynn Abrams, the owner. So Joel started B&B. Lynn, imho, is very untrustworthy and I decided to part ways with SRP. Yep, censorship, posts get deleted, private emails posted by the group owner. I had no desire to participate in wet shaving forums for years due to this. I got no time for schoolyard bullies and internet tough guys. Around 2013 I joined B&B. Yes, the fanboy craziness can be sickening at times. God forbid you don't like a certain soap and are dumb enough to say you don't like it. You will be personally attacked. Very silly, really.
Wow, the banning stories are incredible. I always thought B&B was a pretty good forum. I guess some days some mod just gets up on the wrong side of the bed. I did get banned (three times) from SRP back in the bad old days, for claiming that Gold Dollars could be perfectly acceptable razors, but things are much more live and let live there, now, and I seem to be welcome there. This forum is in many ways the best of the bunch but we could use more members and more activity here. Patchouli? Really? The Veg, I could understand, maybe.
The only two things that irritate me about B&B are the strictly enforced rule against links that are not approved by the staff, and the high cost of a vendor tag there. Otherwise I have enjoyed my several years spent there. I found it most inconvenient once when I was unable to post a link to my own personal website that at the time had NO items for sale and of course no advertising. I had a spreadsheet for quickly calculating bevel angle, or calculating the spine thickness needed or the blade width needed to achieve a particular desired bevel angle. And I could not post the file directly to the forum, either. Other members wanted to see it. I simply said it existed and was available and that anyone interested should google for it, and that seemed to be acceptable. They used to have a "hobbyist" tag that was cheaper than the full blown vendor tag but that went away. Guys selling cheap stuff or very low volume, basically trying to make their hobby pay or partially pay for itself, had no recourse. Two minor irritations. But lots of traffic, lots of activity, and some very knowledgeable folks that I have learned a lot from, particularly related to razorsmithing, metallurgy, and similar topics. One of the things I like about this forum and also the new and improved SRP is that vendor tags are within reach of casual sellers. On B&B I have to be very careful to not appear to be promoting my modest wares even though they are mostly targeted to the newbie market and at least in theory ought to help bring in new straight razor shavers (and buyers!). Okay, so three irritations. Still, not bad, and my unintentional oversteps have never resulted in suspension or banning, so far. And BTW, @Steveclarkus I am here. Hopefully I can remain a member of B&B and unless things change a lot for the worse, I intend to. Meanwhile I intend to at least check in to this forum and SRP daily.
Badger & Blade is an advertising business masquerading as a hobbyist forum. So is The Shave Nook. The rules there are designed to keep people on the site and maximize the revenue stream. That is why the rules and moderation are the way they are. It is the same with many other hobbies - a dominant, largest forum with draconian rules and oppressive moderation. That is why forums in general have such a bad reputation. The solution is to seek out the smaller, civil, quality forums such as The Shave Den. There are usually at least a couple around. Podcasts are also a good source of information, and their demeanor is generally very civil and friendly. They are another good place to advertise.
Yes, indeed. For all the Badger & Blade bashing that goes on, many folks seem to forget the old adage "If you lie down with dogs, you're going to wake up with fleas." The simple solution is not to lie down with dogs, something that applies to people, situations, places, and other things, as well as to forums. It's not running away, but simply negating the need to use flea soap. The easiest way to avoid problems at B&B is to come here.
Yep, I was warned for featuring and recommending a South African soap in my SOTD posts, even though i have no affiliation with the company that makes them whatsoever, so i rarely go onto it anymore. Sent from my Redmi S2 using Tapatalk
I don't undetstand why a South African site would be wrong as I am going to purchase shaving soaps and regular soaps from one to try.Something different is almost always good! Sent from my LM-V405 using Tapatalk
How do you expect B&B to act? It is a for-profit business, not a platform for free and open discussion. It only appears that way to draw people in, and because that is how it started out. The South African soapmakers probably did not pay Badger & Blade so that their products could be mentioned. Even worse, those soapmakers could compete with B&B's existing advertisers. That would tend to discourage vendors from being paid members. Yes, it is a##hattery of the first order, and creates an undercurrent of tension in the wetshaving community overall. It is almost certainly profitable for the forum owner, and so unlikely to change. Also, large forums can have substantial operating costs. It is important to keep in mind that most forum owners were scrambling to lock in revenue sources as membership skyrocketed along with operating costs. Hobby forums don't morph terribly well into advertising businesses, so the results are less than satisfactory. It's not just B&B, The Shave Nook is an advertising vehicle for Bullgoose Shaving, and also quite censored. Those places have many counterparts in other online communities that are every bit as bad. There is also endless complaining about the Big Evil Forum on other, smaller forums. People here at The Shave Den have found a great place, a smaller, well-run, quality community. Damn Fine Shave, and Against The Grain are also fine places to discuss traditional shaving. At the end of the day, that is pretty darned good.
The best person to ask is probably Mark Herro, aka Mantic59. His website is https://sharpologist.com/. He is one of the pillars of the current wetshaving revival, and a wealth of information.
Updated list: 1. Straight Razor Place Yahoo Group 2. Charles Roberts MSN Group 3. MSN Wetshavers Group 4. Sharprazorpalace forum(the old straightrazorplace forum) 5. Shavemyface forum 6. Badger and blade forum 7. The shave den forum(was created in 2007) 8. Theshavingroom.co.uk forum(was created in 2009) 9.Subreddit wicked_edge(was created in 2010) 10.Romanian forum forum.barbieritdelux.ro(was created in 2011) I am Romanian, that's why I've listed it 11.Shavenook forum(was created in 2012, was closed down April 2023 ) 12.Romanian Wet Shaving Society(Facebook group created on 9 December 2014) 13.Damnfineshave forum the second incarnation(was created in 2015) 14.Atgshaving forum(was created in 2016) 15.The Facebook group Straight Razor Place Facebook(was created on 1 March 2018) 16.Theshavingcadre forum(was created on 14 March 2018) 17.The new straightrazorplace.com forum(created July 2019) 18.Romanian Facebook group Romanian Wet Shaving Club(created on 22 November 2019).
I'm not sure but I was under the impression that Shave my face was actually a spin of of the old MSN Wet Shaver Group; making it older then sharp razor palace.
