Thread: Etiiquitte - To speak or not to speak

Originally Posted by Utopian

I agree, though of course I failed to adhere to that reasonable path myself recently when someone bought a custom for her boyfriend/husband. I remember that something seemed wrong with the spine and/or monkey tail and I asked if anyone else saw anything wrong with it. It was only later that I realized that my comment might have been insensitive.

I have mixed feeling about this though. Being polite is important. Then again, giving an honest assessment MIGHT be helpful, though as has been pointed out, perhaps it only should be offered when it specifically is solicited.

Tact still is something that eludes me way too much of the time, but I'm working on it.

Yes, Ron. THIS is where the 'blatant' comes in!
With your experience, you may not be doing the maker justice by not pointing it out.
He may actually take criticism constructively.

I think carefully-worded constructive criticism should be proceeded, or followed, by complements, assuming there are some?

Problem comes in as someone posting is NOT the maker and has bought into it and feels it the 'cat's meow' so to speak.

Hard to let them down. Much harder than doing same with the actual maker. Why?
Might be the other way around!

Perhaps someone who has experienced this could comment.

I rescaled a razor (or two? ) once and virtually nobody liked it. Don't get me wrong...No one was exceptionally rude!
In seeing it was somewhat an unusual combination, I did not take offence. Love it still!

I frequent a motorcycle site. This is a little strange because I have never owned a motorcycle and have only ridden one a few times. I like the site for a lot of reasons. I like motorcycles. And I like the comments even though some of them are above my pay grade. I can relate to the aesthetics and engineering of bikes. I like the go fast part. But the comments are the important part for this discussion. On the bike site everyone says what they feel. They rip a bike if they don't like it and praise it if they do. Of course both views often appear in the same post of a bike by the moderator. But here is the main difference: no one is selling anything, just some adds in the border.
Recently (on SRP) I saw a sincere guy post some pics of his first set of scales. Along with the OP pics were his commentary that they came out really well. Where in hell do you go from there? Some members made suggestions but the OP did not seem to want them.
Back to the SRP: you have this gassy 'gentleman's' thing hanging over everything. If you are going to keep that going and keep the sales climbing, keep it soft and fuzzy.
Factually without some ground rules things would probably deteriorate pretty quickly. If you don't want to alienate anyone...well, there are risks associated with that also.

Well-said, I think, Bill! It is tough to offer constructive criticism to those who cannot accept it, nor appreciate YOUR eye for it.
A wait-see on the poster's attitude will come as he posts.

No need to start hurling insults as constructive criticism is taken as such.
JMO

I hope someone would say something, if it were me. How the heck am I going to learn otherwise?

Friends and colleague's would not want me to make the same mistake twice!

Originally Posted by CrownCork

Kinda like pointing out the flaws in another man's wife

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

As a newbie (with maybe about 7-8 SR shaves under my belt), I would very much welcome any and all well-intentioned advice from veterans / moderators about razors. This pretty much applies to anything that I'm new at or am in the process of learning (assuming that the person giving advice actually knows what he or she is talking about.) As for unsolicited advice from people who aren't 100% sure of the subject matter, those people need to learn that they are responsible for the advice that they give. If you teach someone the wrong thing, they will learn the wrong thing.

That being said, I'm very happy that I've found SRP and I'm very grateful for all the information that I've gained directly or indirectly from other members and their posts.
Thank you in advance for the all the advice that you'll all give me. It's very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Yes, I suppose You, Me, and Dave were brought up similar, Jimmy!

so were the Dalton Brothers,,Frank, Grat & Emmett ,,,, and we know how they ended up

Originally Posted by Hirlau

so were the Dalton Brothers,,Frank, Grat & Emmett ,,,, and we know how they ended up

HEY! We're not done yet!

I try to stick to this 1 rule at SRP, when products are posted by their makers.

I just give them a "Like" regardless for posting the photos. I don't care if it is a Max Sprecher custom or a straight razor gardening tool.
I like to see photos of products & I think it helps the forum in general. An educated buyer will see the difference & I believe that eventually the straight razor gardening tools will find their way to the garden.

There are only a few topics in life that I am certified to critique on,,, none of them are in the shaving world.

Oh I don't know about that! You are the resident Clubman go-to guy!