Constant Shaver,
I wanted to take a few moments and talk about where we are as a community, and where we are going. A State Of the Shaving Union, so to speak. SRP still sees constant growth, 6 years after I took us away from the yahoo group and brough us to our current home. We see 5%-10% more traffic month over month, approximately. When we first moved here from Yahoo we saw 5,000 unique visitors. This month we'll see close to 55,000.
We have built the largest collection of straight razor information in our wiki. From a database of razors, to shaving tutorials, to restoration methods. We have large, vibrant, and growing community of shavers. The chat room is filled with members 24/7. More people shave with a straight razor now, than they did 10 years ago. And many of those people spend their time here, sharing in their joy of the shave.
In short, The State Of Straight Razor Place is strong.
As with any community of our size, we do have issues that need to be addressed and we are asking for your help. We need more moderators. With the continued growth, conversation has outpaced the addition of moderators. If your interested, please email me at dave@straightrazorplace.com. I can't promise that everyone will be made a mod, but there are other ways to contribute to the community. We have a growing dev team that works on the site constantly. They are working on a huge upgrade for our 10th anniversary at the end of this year. So email me if you have an interest in assisting them.
There are things that we can do better, and must do better with. Things with which we can internally improve to make sure that this site continues to be a leader in the wet shaving community, and a vibrant hub of information for straight razor.
There have been confusions over the past year in regards to the rules of SRP, those rules that help us to keep the website a postitive hub for everyone. We'll be simplifying those rules, and boiling them down to a very short list to make sure that everyone is on the same page. The rules typically simplify down to don't abuse the system, and be a gentlemen. But we'll make sure that everyone is on the same page.
A similar issue that has plagued us over the past year is the idea of vendor neutraility on SRP. Everyone knows that Lynn Abrams is the founder of Straight Razor Place, and is now the owner of Straight Razor Designs. Lynn is the man responsible for bringing us all here, and deserves much recognition, and respect for starting Straight Razor Place. We affectionaly refer to him as our Honemeister In Chief, and recognize the large contribution he's made, and the many people he's helped to get started. With all of that in mind, I want to be clear on something. I am the lead person behind Straight Razor Place, and I have made a committment to ensure that SRP is a neutral place, without preference for any vendor. Large or small. Everyone at SRP is expected to hold themselves to the same high standards, and everyone will be held to the same standards. We greatly restrict the places on SRP that a vendor may advertise themselves, or sell their goods. And those places have strict rules about what may be done. This is to ensure SRP is not driven by the desire to make money, but by the desire to grow our great art. SRP is not a home for vendors, but a home for the community, of which vendors are a part.
Unfortunately we have had to ask some members of this forum to leave. This happens in any forum, and I agonize over it each time it happens here. However, some people come here only for financial gain, or insist on not acting in a non-gentlemany fashion. Either by pushing the boundries over and over, or by attempting to abuse and take advantage of the system. I treat SRP as my living room, and everyone is invited to come and sit, have a beer, and take place in this great conversation. However, at times people must be asked to leave as they disrupt the enjoyement of everyone else. I hate it when this happens, however sometimes it has to.
People train for years and heavily participate in the activity that they want to be the best at. They respect the people that teach them and in turn gain respect when they have earned it. People have never been allowed to walk onto a ball park, suit up and proclaim they have hit more home runs than Babe Ruth in their first few games or attack “The Babe” purely for their own recognition. We encourage true participation in the forum and have for the 10 years we have been in existence. We have always been thankful for the information our members have shared and for the inspiration their knowledge has brought us. This spirit will continue, however attacking or comparing anyone’s work for your own recognition or sales will continue not to be tolerated. We are very aware of the “What If’s” and some people that constantly go there. We have tried to make our rules easy so that we can maintain the casual, friendly and open feeling of this forum. If you are here purely for the “What If”, you may be in the wrong forum. We are not about agendas or vendettas and they will not be tolerated here. We're about growing the art of wet shaving.
But these are minor issues compared with the great success that SRP has had in converting large numbers of men over to our great passion of shaving with a straight razor. SRP isn't about any one person, but about the growth of the community, and the growth of the art. It's about the joy of shaving with a straight razor, and sharing that joy with others. We all are here for a great many reasons, but we share in that common passion of the same thing.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to spend time with us at SRP, and thank you for taking the time to read this note. You are what makes SRP great, and you are appreciated.
Thanks
David
