13 Years

[jerryd6818]

So, if I subscribe at ALL THREE levels, will I get one of each banner under my name? (or is there a restriction on the number of subscriptions allowed per member?)

~Q~

Interesting question ~Q~. Please excuse me for being a little thick in the head but I don't understand your reasoning for that. I took the options as "what level do you want your account to be". Is there a different interpretation I'm not understanding? I don't think the system is set up to allow you to subscribe to more than one level of membership. (and I can't understand why you would want to) I guess I'm just too much of a linear thinker.

Edit: By golly ~Q~, you just knocked something loose in the old brain housing group. Maybe Brian should add another level of membership. How about a Platinum Membership level for those who want to contribute more than $40 per year to the forum? Why restrict the generous minded.

[Quick Steel]

Hmmmm That doesn't sound right. I may be wrong, but I think shaming people into donating is not the intent or purpose of the banners. That does not seem consistent with the AAPK "vibe" or philosophy to me.

Ditto.

[peanut740]

It will shame some into donating.

Hmmmm That doesn't sound right. I may be wrong, but I think shaming people into donating is not the intent or purpose of the banners. That does not seem consistent with the AAPK "vibe" or philosophy to me.

I'll gladly donate to this noble cause just as soon as I have money in my PayPal account; however, personally, I agree with those who expressed a preference to have the banners be optional.

So, if I subscribe at ALL THREE levels, will I get one of each banner under my name? (or is there a restriction on the number of subscriptions allowed per member?)

~Q~

Maybe shame is too strong a word.How bout compell.There is a certain amount of folks that want to do the right thing,but may need a little prodding to do so.

[jerryd6818]

It will shame some into donating.

Hmmmm That doesn't sound right. I may be wrong, but I think shaming people into donating is not the intent or purpose of the banners. That does not seem consistent with the AAPK "vibe" or philosophy to me.

I'll gladly donate to this noble cause just as soon as I have money in my PayPal account; however, personally, I agree with those who expressed a preference to have the banners be optional.

So, if I subscribe at ALL THREE levels, will I get one of each banner under my name? (or is there a restriction on the number of subscriptions allowed per member?)

~Q~

Maybe shame is too strong a word.How bout compell.There is a certain amount of folks that want to do the right thing,but may need a little prodding to do so.

Roger, would you go for gentle persuasion?

"Leave them alone and they'll come home, waging their tails behind them"

[peanut740]

Jerry that works too.We all know someone that will leave a dollar tip until some one in a group lays down 5 for a $20 meal.

[jerryd6818]

Is that the same guy that leaves $3 for a $5 meal when everyone else is leaving $2?

[RobesonsRme.com]

Bryan's creation, AAPK, has been on the web for thirteen years, absolutely free.

We can post photos here and not be forced to utilize a separate hosting website and then have the posted photos disappear from a discussion thread at a later date because someone drops their membership to PhotoBucket, DropShots, etc. Some of the greatest threads at BF re' vintage knives are now missing 20% or more of their wonderful photos because of that and they cannot be replaced.

We can discuss values here without impinging on someone's appraisal business.

We can disagree on something without being banned.

We can discuss religion and politics if we wish.

We have a Prayer Team.

And Bryan has never asked for financial help, but there have been occasions when someone has spearheaded a donation campaign to help him out. I don't think that's occurred more than three times since I've been here.

A year or so ago, my Robeson website http://www.RobesonsRme.com, went belly up due to a problem at the hosting site. I tried repeatedly to get it back up and running. All I got was the runaround. Everybody claimed it wasn't their problem, call such-n-such, but such-n-such just put it back on the others. Three entities were involved and none could fix the problem, but they kept wanting their yearly fees for hosting a site no one could access. And during that protracted discussion period, they deleted every word and photograph I had posted to their site. Gone. Pfffft!

A few months ago, Bryan contacted me out of the blue, asking if he could help. Between the two of us, mostly him, as I am data challenged, the site is back up with graphics designed by Bryan. We found archived snapshots of the site on the internet.

Is it perfect? No, because in uploading the data to the hosting site, some spacing criteria was deleted and I cannot edit it via the hosting website, but my site is available again.

Bryan would not let me pay him anything for that.

So, for me, a supporting membership decision required no thought whatsoever, just the length of time it took for my brain to fire off a message to my mouse clicker finger.

Charlie Noyes

[QTCut5]

You guys totally crack me up.

I think what we all mean is that we want to "encourage" others to donate to show appreciation, gratitude and support for the AAPK family.

I still want to know if I can donate more than $40 or am I limited to that amount?

~Q~

[peanut740]

Is that the same guy that leaves $3 for a $5 meal when everyone else is leaving $2?

Jerry it's like a friend of mine that I have run with for 40 years.We would stop at a gas station and I would go in to get something and he would hand me a dollar and want me to get a pack of chewing tobacco that cost $1.45.After a few times I told him to get off his ass and get his own!

[jerryd6818]

You guys totally crack me up.

I think what we all mean is that we want to "encourage" others to donate to show appreciation, gratitude and support for the AAPK family.

I still want to know if I can donate more than $40 or am I limited to that amount?

~Q~

Sure. Make out a check or money order to the order of AAPK and ship it off to Bryan. His address was on the image he posted in one of several threads relating to this subject.

You didn't see or maybe saw and didn't agree with my suggestion of a Platinum Member level with a contribution (over $40) chosen by the member?

Roger, in the early days of my tenure with NCR's service department, those who were in or near the shop at lunch time would all go to lunch together. One of the restaurants we frequented called the shop and asked that we not come back. They said we didn't tip enough. We were shocked until we got our heads together and found out that an infamous tight wad in our group, named Frank (long deceased), was lagging behind and picking up all the tips off the table.

Edit: Here it is;

[QTCut5]

You didn't see or maybe saw and didn't agree with my suggestion of a Platinum Member level with a contribution (over $40) chosen by the member?

Actually, I did see that suggestion and it gave me a good chuckle because I had made the same suggestion RE a Platinum tier for donations over $40, but I deleted it before posting because I was afraid it might be misinterpreted as "oneupsmanship posturing" or something. I missed that part about sending a check directly to Bryan, so, thanks for that info, jerryd. I'll get a check in the mail ASAP.

~Q~

[philco]

stagman Bronze Tier
Bronze TierPosts: 690Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:37 pmLocation: MICHIGAN / ARIZONAContact:
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Postby stagman » Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:47 am

I am happy for ya Bryan to see you getting some payback for all the
things you have done here on AAPK for so many years...
you know my feelings I have conveyed to ya on having the store for the last 11 1/2 years
I was glad to see you finally bucked up too 3% on sales in the stores as well with the new format
Thinking back to 2005 Bryan when we first spoke and how far AAPK has come, you got too or at least
you should be very proud of yourself and what you have created for all of us over the years

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives


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[peanut740]

stagman Bronze Tier
Bronze TierPosts: 690Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2006 12:37 pmLocation: MICHIGAN / ARIZONAContact:
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Postby stagman » Sun Jul 02, 2017 5:47 am

I am happy for ya Bryan to see you getting some payback for all the
things you have done here on AAPK for so many years...
you know my feelings I have conveyed to ya on having the store for the last 11 1/2 years
I was glad to see you finally bucked up too 3% on sales in the stores as well with the new format
Thinking back to 2005 Bryan when we first spoke and how far AAPK has come, you got too or at least
you should be very proud of yourself and what you have created for all of us over the years

Will
http://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/clearcreekknives


Top

Here here!

[MITCH RAPP]

WOW! I just got home from a week long tent camping trip on the Beach in Santa Barbara Ca. First thing I do is log into AAPK before any other web site. I was very Happy to see the new Membership levels! For many years through private conversations I have had with Bryan, I have tried to talk him into collecting some kind of Fees or Money to help support this Site. I always felt that it wasn't Fair for him to have to shoulder all the costs of keeping this little Club going. Well Done Sir!

[carrmillus]

...TOM,great post!!!!!...... ...........

[gsmith7158]

...TOM,great post!!!!!...... ...........

Tommy maybe with these new funds Bryan can start a monthly magazine called The AAPK'er And we will elect Bestgear as the Editor and Chief Writer!

[carrmillus]

............that sounds like a winner, greg!!!............. ....................

[glennbad]

I am glad that this option was finally created. As a member of this "free" site, I use its' resources. Those resources have also helped to promote my hobby.

I didn't join the site to sell my work or any other knives, I joined cause I like knives. I have often said that the knives are just a bonus, it's the friendships that are the true treasure.

It's selfish of me (personally) to utilize this site that Bryan created and not pay my way. There have been some fundraising efforts in the past that we have contributed to, but they were a mere drop in the bucket to what I am sure must be a good chunk of change to keep the lights on in this place.

I am happy to contribute. It is voluntary of course, but I personally wouldn't feel right if such an option existed and I ignored it, knowing what I get from this forum.

Glenn

[MITCH RAPP]

Glenn, Very Well Said!

[orvet]

Very well said Glenn!
Incidentally Glenn, we both joined AAPK on the same day, May 15, 2006.
When I joined here 11 years ago I collected knives and was just starting to work on them.

A lot has changed since then; AAPK had a few hundred members and you could read all the posts on AAPK every day and wish there were more.
Now there are almost 14,000 members and I can’t even keep up with the two or three topics that interest me the most!

There were some tough times when a server fried and it was a few days before AAPK came back online. There were a few times members took it upon themselves to pass the hat, so to speak, and help Bryan out with the expenses incurred with replacing the server, or other necessary repairs.

AAPK is a labor of love for Bryan.


This is an excerpt from a post I made in 2015:
I know a lot of people don’t know Bryan story. The last time I remember seeing his story on the home page was about 2007 or 2008 and we only had about 2000 members then so I know most of you probably not heard Bryan’s story. For some of you it probably won’t make any difference, but for most of you I hope you can better appreciate the effort that Bryan goes to in keep AAPK running.

Many years ago, Bryan was getting ready to graduate from college to be a Wall Street broker. An accident, I believe it was a diving accident, injured his spinal cord and left him a quadriplegic. After the medical profession did everything they could for him, Bryan went back to college to become a computer programmer. AAPK began as a project as part of his college degree program. It was a labor of love for Bryan and became popular and successful enough that he was able to keep it going.

Bryan types by a combination of eye-movement and twitches of shoulder muscles, (muscles he can still control in spite of the accident). It is with a great deal of effort that he is able to do computer programming or even email. He told me once that he just can’t answer all the emails because of the pain involved and the muscle spasms in his shoulders from “typing” with his shoulders.

I am one of 3 active administrators on. All the technical work of AAPK, all the behind the scenes programming, troubleshooting and everything else including setting up the AAPK stores is all done by Bryan.

I am frankly amazed at all that he does at AAPK. Most large websites have a staff of paid moderators, a Webmaster and a host of other technical people. At AAPK Bryan wears all those hats!

As someone who worked professionally with disabled people I am aware that quadriplegics have certain time-consuming but necessary health routines that they must strictly maintain. In addition Bryan also has to go to physical therapy several times a week. A while back he had some vehicle problems with his adapted vehicle. This it means he had to get someone else to take him until he could get another adaptive vehicle built on the old one repaired. This was very expensive and also quite time-consuming.
Somehow Bryan does all of this, manages to keep AAPK running and does it without a large paid staff, indeed without any paid staff, (all Moderators and Administrators on AAPK are voluntary), and he does it without charging any membership fees! I think that’s absolutely amazing!

Yes, Bryan is slow at answering emails. Most of my emails to him are unanswered but I know he reads them and has the necessary information to take the needed action to address the situation about which I emailed him. If Bryan doesn’t have a very important reason to email you, he doesn’t simply because of the time and the physical pain it causes him to type the emails.


AAPK is not the largest knife form on the web. We don’t have a professional staff of technical people that do all the work behind the scenes; we don’t even have a paid staff of moderators or administrators.
But there are two things that makes AAPK different from other knife forums and IMHO better than other knife forums:

1 – Bryan. I know there have been times where it was financially costly for him to keep AAPK afloat, but he does so because it is a labor of love! He is constantly improving and making AAPK better.

2 – Our Members. The members of AAPK are some of the most knowledgeable and friendly people in the knife collecting community. They are willing to share their collective knowledge with beginning knife collectors or with people who have collected for a lifetime. The volume of knowledge in the heads of our members is encyclopedic! Also you folks are some of the friendliest people on the web and in the knife collecting community.


I am very happy with the new membership levels. Membership is free for everyone who wants to join and there is no need to pay for a photo hosting site since even with the free membership AAPK hosts your photos at no charge. For those who want to contribute more financially to AAPK and to sell a few knives from time to time AAPK has three levels of participation.

But we still have the two key things that make AAPK work and be the Friendliest Knife Forum on the web;
BRYAN & YOU (our members)!

[zp4ja]

Glenn my friend, you nailed it hard that that post. Exactly.

Dale, I am glad to see this information posted again and the input from you my friend. Bryan although we have never met is an amazing man in my opinion and deserves my respect and support for providing me with a place where I have found so many friends. Some I speak with daily.

Like Glenn said "the knives are just a bonus, the friends are the true treasure".

I am with Glenn and others regarding feeling that PERSONALLY not giving when I am able when I have reaped so much thus far is something I cannot personally do.
It is voluntary. But no second thought when I saw the new membership options. I personally consider this a donation as with my Gold membership, only real difference I have noticed is 200 PMs versus 100. Whatever you may characterize it as, does not really matter. Only thing I know is that bottom line, we are finally helping a man that has helped us all free for years. I understand the stores have paid a 2% fee of gross sales but pretty sure that is not making a dent in costs. And no where near likely covered the physical pain Brian endured programming, fixing and keeping the wheels turning to provide us all with the opportunity to share, learn, even some times politely disagree. And mostly, come away from this site with the friendships we have all created. I am so glad this has been implemented.

Regards, Jerry

[CheckSix]

Very well said Glenn!
Incidentally Glenn, we both joined AAPK on the same day, May 15, 2006.
When I joined here 11 years ago I collected knives and was just starting to work on them.

A lot has changed since then; AAPK had a few hundred members and you could read all the posts on AAPK every day and wish there were more.
Now there are almost 14,000 members and I can’t even keep up with the two or three topics that interest me the most!

There were some tough times when a server fried and it was a few days before AAPK came back online. There were a few times members took it upon themselves to pass the hat, so to speak, and help Bryan out with the expenses incurred with replacing the server, or other necessary repairs.

AAPK is a labor of love for Bryan.


This is an excerpt from a post I made in 2015:
I know a lot of people don’t know Bryan story. The last time I remember seeing his story on the home page was about 2007 or 2008 and we only had about 2000 members then so I know most of you probably not heard Bryan’s story. For some of you it probably won’t make any difference, but for most of you I hope you can better appreciate the effort that Bryan goes to in keep AAPK running.

Many years ago, Bryan was getting ready to graduate from college to be a Wall Street broker. An accident, I believe it was a diving accident, injured his spinal cord and left him a quadriplegic. After the medical profession did everything they could for him, Bryan went back to college to become a computer programmer. AAPK began as a project as part of his college degree program. It was a labor of love for Bryan and became popular and successful enough that he was able to keep it going.

Bryan types by a combination of eye-movement and twitches of shoulder muscles, (muscles he can still control in spite of the accident). It is with a great deal of effort that he is able to do computer programming or even email. He told me once that he just can’t answer all the emails because of the pain involved and the muscle spasms in his shoulders from “typing” with his shoulders.

I am one of 3 active administrators on. All the technical work of AAPK, all the behind the scenes programming, troubleshooting and everything else including setting up the AAPK stores is all done by Bryan.

I am frankly amazed at all that he does at AAPK. Most large websites have a staff of paid moderators, a Webmaster and a host of other technical people. At AAPK Bryan wears all those hats!

As someone who worked professionally with disabled people I am aware that quadriplegics have certain time-consuming but necessary health routines that they must strictly maintain. In addition Bryan also has to go to physical therapy several times a week. A while back he had some vehicle problems with his adapted vehicle. This it means he had to get someone else to take him until he could get another adaptive vehicle built on the old one repaired. This was very expensive and also quite time-consuming.
Somehow Bryan does all of this, manages to keep AAPK running and does it without a large paid staff, indeed without any paid staff, (all Moderators and Administrators on AAPK are voluntary), and he does it without charging any membership fees! I think that’s absolutely amazing!

Yes, Bryan is slow at answering emails. Most of my emails to him are unanswered but I know he reads them and has the necessary information to take the needed action to address the situation about which I emailed him. If Bryan doesn’t have a very important reason to email you, he doesn’t simply because of the time and the physical pain it causes him to type the emails.


AAPK is not the largest knife form on the web. We don’t have a professional staff of technical people that do all the work behind the scenes; we don’t even have a paid staff of moderators or administrators.
But there are two things that makes AAPK different from other knife forums and IMHO better than other knife forums:

1 – Bryan. I know there have been times where it was financially costly for him to keep AAPK afloat, but he does so because it is a labor of love! He is constantly improving and making AAPK better.

2 – Our Members. The members of AAPK are some of the most knowledgeable and friendly people in the knife collecting community. They are willing to share their collective knowledge with beginning knife collectors or with people who have collected for a lifetime. The volume of knowledge in the heads of our members is encyclopedic! Also you folks are some of the friendliest people on the web and in the knife collecting community.


I am very happy with the new membership levels. Membership is free for everyone who wants to join and there is no need to pay for a photo hosting site since even with the free membership AAPK hosts your photos at no charge. For those who want to contribute more financially to AAPK and to sell a few knives from time to time AAPK has three levels of participation.

But we still have the two key things that make AAPK work and be the Friendliest Knife Forum on the web;
BRYAN & YOU (our members)!

Wow! I'm still "the new guy" here and had no idea about the story of Bryan. Truly amazing! Thanks for sharing it and allowing me to catch up to it.

[QTCut5]

In case anyone else was wondering what would happen...I tried purchasing one of each subscription tier: bronze, silver & gold, but instead of awarding me "Platinum Tier Status" my subscription was just extended by another year with each donation. So, now it looks like I'm subscribed up through July 2021 (I paid for one bronze, one silver and two gold tier memberships). So, it's all good.

~Q~

[glennbad]

In case anyone else was wondering what would happen...I tried purchasing one of each subscription tier: bronze, silver & gold, but instead of awarding me "Platinum Tier Status" my subscription was just extended by another year with each donation. So, now it looks like I'm subscribed up through July 2021 (I paid for one bronze, one silver and two gold tier memberships). So, it's all good.

~Q~

Maybe that makes you an "Ivory" member now?

[glennbad]

Very well said Glenn!
Incidentally Glenn, we both joined AAPK on the same day, May 15, 2006.
When I joined here 11 years ago I collected knives and was just starting to work on them.

And if I am not mistaken, you are the one who invited me to come over, so thanks bud!