January 1st: Pissing-off the old guard and getting censored

I think I’m really starting to itch some people in the wood industry the wrong way… and I’m happy about it!

Background

A few days ago I got a Google Alert that somebody thought my designs here at WoodMarvels.com were cool so I clicked on the link and more than half of the comments after the forum post were negative! They where saying things that were not even true such as my site charging 15$ for digital downloads, my designs didn’t work with their laser cutters (they didn’t know the difference between a PDF and EPS file apparently) and it went on and on. So, being a good guy, I joined the forum and told members how things really are, pointing out where they were wrong while thanking those who got things right. It seems that those I pointed-out as being wrong held a grudge as they never apologized to me and from then on, backed-up the moderator every step of their censorship ways.

That got a few moderators pissed

Apparently, there was no problem with members bashing my company but as soon as I put the situation straight, a whole lots of backlash began. People where saying that I was wasting my time doing animations and that I shouldn’t spend so much time (and money) making my stuff etc… so I replied to them saying I love doing design work and I didn’t care how long it took me. The result? The entire forum thread was removed… a few hours later, a few members who were following it started a new forum thread asking what happened to the original one where I replied to people’s questions. I was then informed that by me replying to people’s comments, I was breaking their rules on advertising and as such, was causing them trouble.

The result?

I told the moderators that they were being silly and I told them to feel free to delete my account after I told a few members who I briefly talked with that I wanted to keep in contact with them. I then received a few e-mails from members asking me to stay and that they suspect professional jealousy more than anything else as to why half of the board’s members were digging-up dirt with falsehoods about WoodMarvels.com.

What did I learn?

When you have people making a livelyhood selling blueprints at 20-30$ a pop by mail order and when you wrote two books with laser cut designs with animations showing how “easy” it is to make this stuff yourself… people who are part of the old way of doing things are going to stand-up and do whatever is necessary to keep you down.

Why is this a good sign?

I started WoodMarvels.com as a way to revolutionize the woodcraft industry and bring the joy of woodcrafts to the everyday person, it isn’t an elite hobby anymore with laser cutters dropping in price on almost a quarterly basis. I believe that pissing the old guard off is part of this process and now that I’m on a few radars, I expect things to get worse/better depending on your perspective. Basically, I’m being seen as a threat to the old way of doing things, which was my goal in the first place! What is even better is that complete strangers were standing-up for me!

The Bottom Line

I was distracted for a few days with this and I’m happy it happened… it shows I’m really starting to ruffle some feathers that are meant to be clipped 🙂 More cool designs coming within a few days!