How and when did that forum become a focus for kitchen knife people? Was the "In the Kitchen" subforum set up by that guy we don't talk about? I joined KF a long time ago when I joined many other forums like BF, Knife Network, etc, etc., probably sometime around 2006. I guess I found it less interesting than the other Us forums because I totally forgot that it existed much less that I had signed up until folks mentioned it on here. I have no idea how many forums I have joined over the last 5-6 years because I pretty much frequent 3 in the US, 2 in Europe and I occasionally check in on maybe 3-4 others. In some cases, like Knife Network, which was the first forum that i joined, I just stopped checking after a while because I found more interesting stuff elsewhere. In the case of KF, it would appear that I never really went there much at all, so i never really noticed the kitchen knife content.
I'm surprised, in 2006 ITK, was the forum on kitchen knives. Much if not all of the success of the forum was due to its moderators, Fish-N-Poi and Lee. Those two guided countless members in how to choose and sharpen their knives. I've wondered how far along, the high end knife community would be without those two.
The appeal of ITK, was a sense of community, people were willing share what they had learned. Whether it was, Curtis or Andy, sharing their latest find, to Dave looking for feed back on a tip or technique.
ITK was not prepared to handle Vendors. Surprising considering how much emphasis is placed on ads. It was going through a process to deal with them, but it appeared to be handled clumsily.
The downfall of ITK was the Super Mods. They had an annoying tendency to insert themselves into fights, which they didn't understand, and lecture people to behave. The super mods never seemed to understand how their heavy handed actions added to the frustrations people had with the forum. The irony is that the Super Mods, ended up starting fights, that they were trying to prevent. Mark will never be a sympathetic figure for his role in breaking up the forum. But it was a failure of the super mods, including the top super mod, to handle a dispute between vendors.
If its been a slow day on KKF, then I'll check out ITK. Every once in a while, they have an interesting thread. Usually I give it a quick glance and move on.
Jay
But most of the vendor threads are elsewhere, and some of the threads seem contrived. I once joked that you should call it Knife Forums to Go -- Mark looks to be the unofficial moderator these days. His vendor forum is the most active, but after reading it for a day or so, it gets a bit nauseating. I feel like I am at Applebees with a smiley-faced server dealing with me.
