Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Badger and Blade

Much has been written about the largest shaving forum on the internet. It contains a lot of useful information and has thousands of honourable members. But the way it is run has been attacked by many. Petty transgressions and quite innocent misunderstandings can lead to instant bans. Sometimes these bans are without reason or explanation. Several members of a UK shaving forum were banned recently from B&B simply because they were contributors to a forum where there has been much critism of the behaviour of the mods.

Enthusiastic reviews of new products are treated with suspicion. Accusations of "shilling" are quickly used to discredit and ban members.

Shilling is the practice of making gifts to induce another to promote your product.

I was accused of organising shilling to promote my first New Forest shaving brush. This was because there were so many enthusiastic reviews. When the chap with the largest shaving brush collection in the world called it "the best bang for your buck - buy one" and the much respected Rudy Vey compared it with the Rooney Finest, does anyone seriously think I needed to shill?

I was banned for multiple registration. Fair enough. Remarks I made as my alter ego hardly made mention of the qualities of my brush.

Now Badger and Blade are seeking again to discredit references to my brushes. Some remarks are libellous but there is little point wasting money on a prosecution.

It really is all rather absurd. There is this old English codger having shaving brushes made which are selling like hot cakes, getting rave reviews and getting lots of publicity.

Does anyone think designing and making a shaving brush is like rocket science? A shaving brush is a very simple object. If it's well made and fairly priced it will sell well.

So why are B&B so agitated?

2 comments:

  1. B&B is a business. I know of at least one mod who owns a web store (west coast shaving). Fido, you are taking money from them and that ticks them off. Why spend big $ on a Simpson when the brushes your selling are just as good and cost a lot less? It's all about the money. They will say "we're trying to protect our members". Hog wash! And don't get me started about all the money they get from contributions.

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  2. I'll tell you why B&B is so agitated, they're money based, not information/help based. They could care less about the benefit of the members.

    Oh and B&B is run by a bunch of immature men having mid-life crises.

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