changes

[Ken S]

I joined this forum in August of 2009.  Many things have changed since then.  The Tormek unit itself has become much more versatile with new jigs and components. Looking at the forum statistics, the forum has changed, also.  Sadly, we have lost several valuable members.  However, the forum has grown.  When I started, the ten posts with the most replies had around twenty replies.  Those don't even come close to today's top ten.  Jeff Farris was the only one who had broken the "day" barrier for time online. The member with the most new topics had seventeen.  (He is still in the top ten.)

Our longer threads seem to stay closer to the original topic, or at least related topics.  True, we do have some humorous "chatty" posts. These have been within reasonable limits and have provided some leavening to the discussions.

I believe we have benefitted many members, myself included.

In my opinion, the one major loss is not having Jeff as our moderator any longer.  His role in this forum has been invaluable.  In many ways his leadership is irreplacable.

The question is, what now?  Personally, I believe the forum has enough value to try to keep things together through the rough patch.  There will certainly be some bumps in the road until we hopefully get a new order established. I believe it will be worth the effort and would hope my fellow forum members will remain positive and patient.

Ken

[Herman Trivilino]

There is a lot of administrative work that goes into the operating of a forum.

We are the guests!

[Rob]

Good positive, ship steadying words there Ken :-)

I've been saying this right from the start so haven't altered my point of view one iota and its this:

Jeff Farris IS this forum.  Tormek have very kindly provided a technology platform and presumably some finance with one assumes the goal of promoting their product range.

The rest, has been the leadership, personality, knowledge, experience and drive of Jeff.  I ran a global software business for many years and if I wanted to increase revenues in a territory, I would pick Jeff in a heart beat to lead that charge.  Why?

Because Jeff has earned the right through years of client facing experience....... on the road demonstrating.  From years of listening to every conceivable problem with every model and evolving a well thought through response.  Years of positioning the different products in all manner of settings.  He is the public face of Tormek in the USA and you only have to youtube anything for ten seconds to realise that.

Ultimately though, business is about people and Jeff is there, contactable, available, e-mailable.  He's not afraid to respond to the tricky questions.  He will engage in debate about thorny topics.  He is an absolutely irreplaceable resource (because his experience and personality can't be cloned) and I cannot for the life of me understand the thinking and decision making of a manufacturer that fails to recognise, acknowledge and fund that kind of leadership.

So this community will change when/if he goes and it will change in direct proportion to the quality of the leadership that follows Jeff.  Has Tormek got anyone who can follow Jeff?  Well we haven't seen them yet have we?

[Stickan]

Some words from Sweden may answer some questions.

Jeff Farris is still moderating this forum, but as the Tormek Moderator.
For the older members at this forum, Jeff is the man to ask questions. But for new members a moderator feels more naturally to ask and also there is several members with knowledge that are regularly here to welcome and help both new and old members.

I have been reading this forum since I started working at Tormek 4 years ago and have learned a lot of all the experience here.
I have not been so active but will be here some more in the future. Some of you have asked question to the support mail at our website and I am one of two that is in charge of that.

Tormek want´s this Forum to grow as we have more and more new Tormek users that need your help and support and also help from us. As it´s today, our support mail got more questions than on this Forum and many of the questions asked is already on this forum with great answers. We are proud of this Forum and will try to highlight it more.

So Yes, there are some changes but we believe that those are for the better and can give new and old Tormek users good information.

In Scandinavia there is now industrial holiday and our office is closed to 4 of August. I have a bad habit of checking my mail anyhow and will check this forum also once a while under my days of.

I will end this with a thanks to all of our members who are here almost on a daily basis and welcomes new members with help and make this Forum as is it, we are proud of our Forum and also proud of you making an effort to have a high standard here!

All the best,
Stig

[Tormek moderator]

As mentioned in another thread, I'm not gone...just using the label "moderator" instead of my name, since I haven't been the public face of Tormek for some years.

You guys are going to make me blush if you keep this up. 

[Ken S]

Do we now address you as "Mr." , Jeff?  We have POTUS, FLOTUS and now MOTUS.

Glad you are still with us, Jeff.

Ken

[Rob]

2 posts Jeff...pah you don't know nuffink....you're a newbie :-)

[Ken S]

Herman made a good point, We are the guests.  I do appreciate not having to fight through endless inane ads to read the posts here.  That isn't always the case with other forums, even manufacturer sponsored forums.

Ken