I wanted to take a few minutes to remind everyone of some of our rules, and some of the reasons behind them. We all get caught up in the beautiful wood and awesome talent we have here and do not take the time to refresh ourselves on the rules.
First up is the "gauging interest" threads. WB is free for all to use. Specifically, there seems to be a disturbing trend where a member will find an interesting piece of wood on Ebay, and then post the picture here as if it were their own. This has especially been happening in the Coming Attractions forum. Or, they ask if there is "Any interest" in this wood in another forum. If there is, they buy it, mark it up, and sell it to you. If there isn't sufficient interest they simply quit bidding because they cannot assume the risk to resell it here. For them it is a not a risk at all. While that may be a great business model, it's just not what we are all about. Can you sell a pen or a bowl or even a table or bookcase for a profit? Absolutely! Its your work and we encourage that. We even made forums for it. Surely you can see the difference.
Second up is "All trades and sales must start and end in the open forum".
This is really the foundation of WB. It exists for many reasons, but the first I used as an example dovetails into the previous one. If I am looking at a piece of wood on Ebay for $40 and I post it here and cut it in half with each piece selling at $40, you will collectively point out, by your non-responses that I am way over priced and you are not interested - as well you should. That would keep a new woodworker from just accepting it as a fair price because WB is a trusted place to do business with a great group of folks. If I tell that new woodworker to PM me if he is interested and I tell him $40 for each half, he does not get the benefit of the collective knowledge here, relies on his trust in WB and gets hosed. When he finds out down the road, or tells his woodturning club what he got and what he paid for it, we are no longer a trusted site and all the WB members are tarnished... to the entire club. That is the quickest way I can think of to lose the culture that has been built by all of you. We will simply not allow that to happen if we can help it.
No specific member is being singled out here, but the staff has been alerted to a rash of violations over the past several months, and it seemed like a good time for a refresher course on the rules. Rules aren't fun sometimes , but without them, we will cease to exist. This is a friendly reminder and nothing more, because we all need reminding occasionally. It's also a sincere thank you, to the vast majority of you who are obviously following them.
We all spend a fair amount of time here and honestly I communicate with a lot of you more than I do family, therefore I am just as protective with you as I am family. Keep looking out for each other and thanks for indulging my diatribe.
First up is the "gauging interest" threads. WB is free for all to use. Specifically, there seems to be a disturbing trend where a member will find an interesting piece of wood on Ebay, and then post the picture here as if it were their own. This has especially been happening in the Coming Attractions forum. Or, they ask if there is "Any interest" in this wood in another forum. If there is, they buy it, mark it up, and sell it to you. If there isn't sufficient interest they simply quit bidding because they cannot assume the risk to resell it here. For them it is a not a risk at all. While that may be a great business model, it's just not what we are all about. Can you sell a pen or a bowl or even a table or bookcase for a profit? Absolutely! Its your work and we encourage that. We even made forums for it. Surely you can see the difference.
Second up is "All trades and sales must start and end in the open forum".
This is really the foundation of WB. It exists for many reasons, but the first I used as an example dovetails into the previous one. If I am looking at a piece of wood on Ebay for $40 and I post it here and cut it in half with each piece selling at $40, you will collectively point out, by your non-responses that I am way over priced and you are not interested - as well you should. That would keep a new woodworker from just accepting it as a fair price because WB is a trusted place to do business with a great group of folks. If I tell that new woodworker to PM me if he is interested and I tell him $40 for each half, he does not get the benefit of the collective knowledge here, relies on his trust in WB and gets hosed. When he finds out down the road, or tells his woodturning club what he got and what he paid for it, we are no longer a trusted site and all the WB members are tarnished... to the entire club. That is the quickest way I can think of to lose the culture that has been built by all of you. We will simply not allow that to happen if we can help it.
No specific member is being singled out here, but the staff has been alerted to a rash of violations over the past several months, and it seemed like a good time for a refresher course on the rules. Rules aren't fun sometimes , but without them, we will cease to exist. This is a friendly reminder and nothing more, because we all need reminding occasionally. It's also a sincere thank you, to the vast majority of you who are obviously following them.
We all spend a fair amount of time here and honestly I communicate with a lot of you more than I do family, therefore I am just as protective with you as I am family. Keep looking out for each other and thanks for indulging my diatribe.