I think the mods do a good job of policing the board. I like hearing about new products here. I never see commercials on TV that show anything I'd be interested in. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to log on to the Equipped forum for one big infomercial, but a reasonable amount of product awareness is welcome to me. It's part of the reason I come here. I solicit information by asking what people recommend for a certain application. But if all I heard about was information I was soliciting, I'd miss out on a lot I might find useful and a small amount I might find indispensable. Frankly, I don't care if the information comes from some shmo that happened that come across it or in a press release from the company. I'm sure the mods will keep the forum copacetic.

Oops. Must have slipped.

I enjoy seeing what others have found and also if/how it worked for them. I lurked around this site for quite awhile and finally decided to become a member because of all the info, personal experience, and various "I Found This".

If a thread doesn't interest me, I simply don't follow it beyond the initial reading. I don't expect every thread to 'tickle my fancy.'

That said, I find product-related posts to be a good resource. Sometimes I learn about a bit of gear I didn't realize I couldn't live without (much to the chagrin of my pocketbook). Other times, a full-scale review — and input from users — influences a buying decision. Rarely do I buy a new toy without first searching past threads to see what might've been discussed. Some of the online retailers I regularly patronize were discovered here.

For me personally, the present 'sub-forum' structure works well. Welcome your opposing thoughts, but gonna have to respectfully disagree.

Yep, that's about the size of it. The mods do a pretty good job for us, and it'd be hard to have a site dedicated to equipment without people talking about items they've found and what they're like etc.

I liken it to a Buyer's Guide publication that takes products and does practical research on quality, usefulness, performance, price, availability. Saves me a lot of time and money if someone else takes the plunge first and tells me about what they found, especially if it's someone with interests common to my own and others.

Product peddlers get pretty obvious about their intentions. You won't see that on this forum much. If you do, there's about 20 or so folks that will call them out and the mods usually dispatch them shortly thereafter. There is opportunity here for folks with a product to sell can tell us about it, but like Chris said, there are limitations they must abide by.

Last thing I remember posting about was the KA-BAR folder I carry. It was probably too long a post, but I felt given that we dedicate so much of our traffic here to the discussion of knives that I ought to elaborate some. Telling all about it didn't garner me any favors with the company, and didn't enhance the value of the knife I already had, just let everyone here know what I thought of the thing. I reckon that's what we do here, so it seemed appropriate.

Otherwise, all we have to talk about here is another poor sod who decided to climb Mt. Hood without being properly prepared and burning up more tax dollars in his needless resuce. Good debate value, but a bit less informative perhaps, or maybe not.

I dunno, I just like to come here and read what y'all have to say.

I agree completely. I don't think the people on this forum are likely to go out and buy everything mentioned in a post here - that kind of impulsive behavior is not consistent with people interested in emergency preparedness. IMO we want to know what each other's experiences with new gear has been so that we can add that to the planning/decision-making process.

Frank2135

If I'm considering the purchase of a particular piece of equipment, I will usually run it past the forum members (most of whom have more experience in this area than I do) to get their opinions on the equipment. Many of them have used the item and give great advice on its pros/cons. I value their opinions and would be "buying blind" without some feedback.

On the other hand, if a member asks a question regarding a particular aspect of survival that can be addressed with a piece of equipment that I'm familiar with, I'll provide a link to its website and whatever info I have on it.

I've purchased quite a bit of kit based upon reviews and sales postings from ETS members. I've always thought that was one of the forum's strong points. Don't ever recall seeing any outright shilling, due to the moderator's attention.

Besides that, I'm a huge fan of Schwert's gear porn postings.

M

I find it annoying and lazy when someone asks for input about a specific piece of gear and then fails to provide a link to the equipment's description, sometimes they don't even spell it right which makes it tough to find even with a good search engine.

When I discuss a specific piece that I like I will post a link so you can read the description for yourself. I don't care whether you order or not, I'm not affiliated with any product manufacturing or sales.

I ignore a lot of stuff that doesn't interest me. I do the same thing everywhere else.

As AROTC said, if we didn't see it mentioned here as being possibly useful, many of us wouldn't see it at all.

I'm rather tired of knife discussions, so I just skip over them. But why should the guys who DO want to talk knives stop doing so just for me? That would be silly.

I've been here for a few years now, and it occurred to me that this board isn't tailored exactly to my every whim. HOW AWFUL!


Sue