Look, Ma, a recursion!
So now we're discussing an anti-forum blog entry in a forum. How lovely. :w00t:
Let me elaborate a bit on my motivation for writing this article ("concocting" would be a more fitting description, because I was on a high speed train to Düsseldorf, going 250km/h while writing it on a BlackBerry). When I started learning how to shave with a straight razor, I was 38. I had 10 years' domain experience as a strategic security management consultant, working for a PMC. Which means I was used to heavy research, fast reading, and basically getting stuff done on my own. Straight razors, however, posed a significant challenge. Yes, Chris Moss' article was there, and so were some of J*el's "look, my razors are blinkier than thine" pieces. But it was all mix and match, scattered, and generally contradictory and confusing. So I put together a quick feature matrix of the shaving forums then in existence, and ended up on the Straight Razor Place. SRP is still, in my opinion, the leading international resource in this area, and I generally like the way it is moderated (shut up, Bart!).
After some very heavy reading, I suggested that a knowledgebase be implemented and
the SRPWiki was founded. It really did not take that much work:
SRPWiki Contribution Scores. As you can see, a small number of dedicated people (incidentally, none of them Honemeisters, Restoration Gods, or Sales Monsters) put more than 90% together in a very short time. It has gathered widespread acceptance, although it is still far from perfect.
How was it done? We went through the forum, took the salient bits from sometimes endless, mind numbingly convoluted, self contradictory, and biased threads, purified them, and made them readable (another pet peeve of mine: I wanted to enforce Wikipedia's style guide, but apparently, straight shavers are not the right target group for scientific prose).
Why was it done? My personal goal was to empower people. The original sin of forums is that you have to ask questions, and rely on non-verifiable data provided by people you don't know, and whose agenda are not always apparent. The Wiki was an attempt at providing peer reviewed information. Personally, I would love to have it moved to a "neutral" domain like straightshavingknowledgebasewithaccurateinformationprovidedbypeoplewithaclue.org, but that was not to be under the given circumstances. I think Paul could chime in an tell a sob story about B&B miserable attempts at mimicking SRP's Wiki. And quite honestly, I was dead serious when I offered the guys at B&B our code for the SRP Straight Razor Database (again something that should be neutral, not part of a forum) for them to use it for DEs.
Was it successful? Yes and no. It provides beginners with some very good information (like the shopping list I wrote for it...
). Where it fails, in my opinion, are the more intricate parts of shaving. As we all know, different forums take different approaches to honing, to take an example. German forums do things that would get you immediately banned from SRP or B&B. German forums also die laughing watching US forums push $$$ sets of hones, used in endless progressions, to achieve edges that are simply over the top. I will not even go into the realm of so called restorations (Abalone is to scales what anal fisting is to romantic relationships if you want my honest opinion).
Is every such attempt doomed? I think not. I do, however, believe, that forums and knowledge bases do not mix as long as the focus is on forums. Let's face it: straight shaving is not rocket science. Neither is honing. Can't get decent lather? Better have your brain checked. It is being made complicated by either people who are - pardon my French - stupid themselves, or who have a commercial agenda. Or both. You will find this pattern in every forum with more than a few members. Add 2k members to this site, and it will be faced with the same problems. Stupid people and greedy people are the downfall of every social community focussing on a subject matter that requires research and objective observation. It really is that simple.
Where was I? I forget. But I need to shower and shave. With Smythe's totally fantastic 7/8 Flic "Prima". Do I have RAD? No. Do I like beautiful things that work? Yes!
Thank you for reading,
Robin