Thanks for the break!

[Paul]

Guys,

I just wanted to say thanks for the break during August. While I did miss the boards a bit, I have to admit, it was a much needed bit of perspective. I had been growing weary of boards, but always felt compelled to "keep up". Being forced to take a break from here inspired me to take a break from all the other boards. In fact, I haven't posted much anywhere since then.

I even took Bart's advice and used a Fusion ProGlide and Schick Hydro just for kicks... : I renewed my appreciation for some good music, and in general enjoyed many other things.

I must admit that I'm not planning on being very active on the boards in the future, but I'm not bailing out on C.be by any stretch... In fact, it's likely the only place that I'll be found online (unless you're a facebook friend ahem, Ralfy). I consider you guys friends, and I enjoy the research aspect too much to leave here

Cheers all, and Thanks again!

 

[wdwrx]

Nice.
I too have grown very fond of Coti.be.
The other forums tend to give me a headache (one in particular)
When i first started on these shave forums, you had a very strong presence, Paul, and always had a thoughtful, intelligent response. You made quite an impression on me. I hope you still come around a bit.


but this:

I even took Bart's advice and used a Fusion ProGlide and Schick Hydro just for kicks... :

shame, shame, shame.

 

[Guest]

A wise decision, I'd say. This site differs from other forums in several respects.

First, it is not being run by people who think they're God, nor would I know of any sycophants who claim any of them are. I am fully confident that if I found a flaw in any of, say, Bart's theories, this would be handled professionally, efficiently, but most of all publicly. I firmly believe that if you are unable to cope with dissenting opinions in an open forum, you should not run a forum but a cabal.

Second, it is free of commerce. Which mainly has to do with the fact that artisans can whack together soaps, strops, or Christopher Street memorial scales, but not Belgian hones. Have you ever wondered why there is no forum for razor scales? Just think of the potential... "Horn scales for the discerning gentleman", "Driftwood for instant eye cancer", or "Purple haze acrylics, pink wedge and ghetto spacers for my new wife, Jeremy". Apparently, the cross selling potential is too big.

Last, this forum has so far been spared by so called collectors. Back when I started getting interested in straight razors, I was under the impression that "gentleman" meant, well "gentlemen". The black tie variety, not the pink cowboy boots and sawed off shotgun variety. I must admit that the reality came as a bit of an unwelcome surpise. Incidentally - and unfortunately - there is a significant intersection between the cowboy boot group, the "scales for the blind" one, and the so called collectors. Since there is a sigificant amount of money at stake (B&B has 30k users - each one a potential buyer of shaving related goods and services - you do the maths), playing hardball with dissenters is far too common for my liking. Funnily enough, being a colourblind bully with the bonhomie of an exclamation mark seems to be a quasi prerequisite to achieve stardom in certain other forums. Not here, though, and that is a very good thing.

My, my, being a co-pilot on an Autobahn is boring...

Regards,
Robin

 

[tat2Ralfy]

As said from me too Guys, a refreshing break it was indeed, and the benefits of that, both for the forum itself and its membership, will i am sure continue to play out for a wee while yet.

Robin, I have just realised that I actually missed you quite a bit :blink:

Oh well! hahaha

Best wishes everyone
pip Pip Old Chaps
Ralfson (Dr)

 

[Paul]

Robin, I agree with you whole heartedly. My understanding of gentleman is the same as yours, and I find that the gentlemen here are a cut above.

@ wdwrx: Thanks. I have always tried to be helpful, and I appreciate your kind words.

 

[Bart]

The break was great. I can hardly wait till next August...

Just joking. Reading Robin's post above, I can only admit that I genuinely missed my daily stop at the Cafeteria. But I still believe it was a good thing to close and am all for repeating the exercise next year. For me, what it all comes down to, is this love/hate relationship I have with the Internet. It's great for exchanging and finding information about any imaginable topic. And regardless how small-scale a certain activity may be, one can always find peers with whom one can share a passion on the Internet. A lot of lonely hobbies have become a lot more social since the existence of the World Wide Web. Especially forums are a powerful instrument for sharing information among a group of people. But the community life on forums can also become a distraction from the actual heart of the matter, or even a daily distraction in general. I think it is important to disrupt that distraction on occasion, as it will otherwise consume not only your family life but also the very core of the interest that brought you to a forum in the first plays.
In the end you are more talking about your hobby than you are experiencing it. As a perverse side effect forums tend to also attract people who are not particularly good nor knowledgeable about their hobby, but not being driven by the desire to improve themselves, they're after the acknowledgment they hope to bluff together on the forum. Or they started out with best intent but rapidly grow fond of the daily acknowledgment. It is bad for the ego to be in the center of attention too long, and after a while such people start behaving like acknowledgment addicts.

By closing the forum and weening us all off from that, I hope to stay ahead that kind of forum cancers, as I would like to call them.

As to address Paul's intent to be less active: Coticule.be is founded as a place where people can read static information about the use of Coticule whetstones. The Cafeteria was only add, to accommodate those who wanted extra clarification. I had expect a couple of posts per month. That the Cafeteria now supports a group of friends has come as a pleasant surprise. But the goal has never been to host a growing forum. And I don't think any of us should be concerned with that. Whether there is one post per day or 100, is totally not important. I'd rather have you all shaving or honing, or restoring razors, or building beautiful boxes with travel strops, than to be stuck at the Cafeteria and forget what it was you came here for.

Sorry for the long rambling. It's getting late and I've had a tiresome weekend, and I seem to have forgotten what I wanted to write. Not sure any of this makes much sense...:-/

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[wdwrx]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.....
I had an 8 paragraph essay typed out, but since I'm such a slow typist, apparently upon posting I lost it all, so I'll have to make due with this:
I missed this forum. This forum has a completely different atmosphere than any of the others I've frequented. I imagine it as a close group of friends gathered around a fire at night, sharing some beers and discussing things philisophical. Equals amongst equals.
Compared to the busy night-club like, frenetic, over-crowded chaos that comprises most other forums. This is to say nothing of the commercialism and michavailian political intrigue of some. I'd rather spend my time with a few close friends
I hope this place is around for a long time. And I hope Bart doesn't mind if i keep posting in the Cafeteria... entirely frivilous things, of course.....
Reason, and not doctrine, reigns supreme here. And there are some pretty cool guys hanging out here.
Just my 2¢.


(I love you guys!): : :

 

[Bart]

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.....
I had an 8 paragraph essay typed out, but since I'm such a slow typist, apparently upon posting I lost it all, so I'll have to make due with this:

Before your hit [Post reply], always hit CTRL+A and CTRL+C. It takes 2 seconds and whatever happens, you can always paste your text back into a new window with CTRL+V.
Just a habit I developed while being on forums.

Kind regards,
Bart.

 

[Guest]

That is so old school...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5761/

This extension will save automatically the content in textarea or WYSIWYG editor when user is typing. User can recover the saved texts in the cache window, even the tab or the window is closed unexpectedly.

The user will see an icon in status bar when the text is saved in the cache. Clicking the icon to open the cache window.

It would be useful to add the Textarea Cache button in toolbar. This button can help the user for advanced settings or to opening the cache window.

 

[BlueDun]

Nice tool!! I dont't know how many times I screwed up and it usually happened after writing veeery long posts.
I just tried it out and was able to retreive this post after intentionally navigating away without hitting the reply button.
Thanks!

 

[tat2Ralfy]

That is so old school...

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5761/

This extension will save automatically the content in textarea or WYSIWYG editor when user is typing. User can recover the saved texts in the cache window, even the tab or the window is closed unexpectedly.

The user will see an icon in status bar when the text is saved in the cache. Clicking the icon to open the cache window.

It would be useful to add the Textarea Cache button in toolbar. This button can help the user for advanced settings or to opening the cache window.

Thats the very one I use :thumbup:

Chin Chin old beans
Ralfson (Dr)

 

[mrmaroon]

I found myself during the beginning of the break still coming back and checking after 4-5 days though I stopped and took a break from coticules:scared: It's good to be back though!