You have Forum experience, are we putting too much emphasis on "The Contest"? It seems that approx. 20 -25 votes are cast each week subtract the number of contestants votes and we may get a dozen other voters. Are we reaching out to newbies and people who would like to photograph their work??? Personally I don't think so and it's my fault because I do not reach them, but they (the masses) don't know we exist so I'm asking for your help!!!

I hope you don't mind my jumping in here, but I'd like to comment? Although I think most people enjoy looking at high quality pics of knives, photgraphy isn't their main reason for coming to this Forum. I've found that lots of collectors do photograph or scan their knives to share with others, but feel that it's too hard or too expensive to take great pics of their knives. It's easy to get that impression when they see the prices on some of the equipment being used to take some of the pics here. I've always been an advocate of using what you have and the KISS formula. I'm going to try with any comments I make regarding improving pictures to be easy (a couple of clicks of your mouse in an image editing program) and to cost little or no money.

As far as spreading the word or increasing participation I can only speak for me. I lurked for a long time here before I posted, joined or entered a pic. My reason was that it seemed like this was a small fairly tight community and I wasn't sure I would fit in or be accepted? Maybe all you can do is invite people in and make sure they feel welcome once they get here. I have no complaints, everyone here has been very nice to me.

Thanks.

Phil,
Appreciate your comments anytime, and your unique talents. Being a moderator makes you feel a responsibility to make things happen. Maybe I'm being hard on myself, but that's me.

Phil, I am still trying to figure out how to get rid of you:) Thanks for the insight on why you lurked for so long. I know more folks lurk here than post. I post of BF and KF, but I also lurk on Microhlics and Tactical Forums and KnifeForum (Larry Connelly's KnifeArt forum). We have had these discussions before, both openly and privately, and we have always wanted everyone to come here and post. I think we have an inertia problem, because as far as forums go, we came online the last. CKD is definitely knifemaker focused, but not knifemaker exclusive. Without collectors, where would any of us makers be? I would love to see more custom knife collectors post here and tell why they like this steel or that one, and why they buy this style knife over the other one. From a love of knives standpoint, it might hook a collector up with a maker whom he didn't know did that style of knife. From a business standpoint, it might tell the maker that he needs to put out a few Talonite knives, because that is what people are looking for. I also think that many of the web savvy makers have been online for awhile and feel loyalty toward BF or KF because the relationship has been there longer.

Some things we do don't get publically spoken about but I know they are having a large impact on the knifemaking community. The tutorials are just plain fantastic, both the ones specifically made for CKD and the ones we have links to. The page stats show that they are getting blown up with hits, but no one really comes out and says "Here is the knife I made with this tutorial." I would like to see more of that. (And BTW, many more tuts are coming this Summer).

The picture contest was designed to inspire folks with limited or untested skills to improve their picture taking, which in turn would help them sell knives as knifemakers. It is also an active project to keep people participating. I definitely enjoy waiting each week to see what people are going to post for pictures. One of the bad side effects that has happened is that only the same people are voting and the pictures that are selected pretty much have the same look. I think if we had 100 people voting the results would be much different, but that has not been the case.

Perhaps we should make the contest a monthly thing now so it is not so "in your face". Either that, or come up with some other criteria to make it appealing to more people.

One thing that has never happened on CKD is someone getting slammed for asking a question, posting a picture of their knives or getting criticized for their particular knife style or techniques. I would hope this attitude would comfort new members and make them want to participate.

If anyone has any fresh ideas to make this more fun (not just the photos, but everything), please bring it up. I would like to see a contest where the materials are listed (i.e., 12 inches of BG-42, green linen micarta handle slabs, 1/8" pins, etc.) and with the same limited amount of materials, everyone (especially new makers) design and make a knife just for the contest. Two classes: newbie and experienced.

Comments?