HALO (and 'Fire') ....

Rupert, its a bit of fun poking to be honest.  However...Mike owns Cirrus who sell the Blaze, so its not a member of a class association shouting about their class.  Its a commercial interest.  This thread was started by the blaze retailer and the last three 'Bumped' posts have been by the Blaze retailer!  Therefore is massively commercial.  I can not once recall ever seeing a Cirrus banner at the top of the page. There is no mention of cirrus under the marketing partners list on Y&Y.  So my point is, buy an ad.  Fund the site you use for your marketing.  Lets be fair, advertising revenues from this industry are going to be woeful.  Would we all be happy if RS, P&B, Sailboats, Hartley all started posting the same.  I would suggest looking at other forums we wouldn't like it.

Edited by Null - 11 Apr 15 at 11:37am

Don't disagree with that Rupert, always interested in the rig updates or any dinghy 'development'. But the retailer pumping demo days and scrolling back through this thread 'bumping it up' and replying to own posts is using the forum as a marketing tool.  Which I don't have a problem with, but I don't see any other advertising on this website, advertising that is needed to fund, advertising that's needed to pay to host this and the class pr, event write ups etc.  So (without trying to be the self proclaimed forum police) if there was no commercial interest then I would say crack on if people are replying and interested.  Sadly there is an interest and as such the posts will always be weighted that way.  Do we really want every builder watering down what little content there is on here with notification of an open event?  I suggest not.  Please post away with rig updates or true development, but if you are gonna try and use the forum with a hidden commercial undertone, I would expect to be called on it.

Originally posted by Null ........using the forum as a marketing tool.

Originally posted by Xpletive Originally posted by Null ........using the forum as a marketing tool. Been promoting the Icon free on here for years too! Must save a fortune! Maybe he'll pass it on...trickle down economics and all that....cheaper sails on both classes or something?

Yup, they are down to 3 grand, thanks to the lack of paid advertising...

Oh dearie me .... Yes I build the Blaze.  For the record I was a regular owner for many years before I got any commercial involvement, served two longish terms as class secretary including setting it up when the class association was first launched in 1996.    This 'owner' involvement, prior to taking on production when Topper dropped production of the boat, was for considerably longer than any subsequent commercial involvement.  I pay my CA dues, still regularly race the boat alongside other association members and will continue to do so, including this weekend when we enjoyed some great racing in some tough conditons at Burghfield.  You should have been there ... really.

I am not on the current committee in any capacity but they do ask me to highlight events occasionally on this forum.  Why me ?  Well frankly they simply don't want the hassle of 'engagement' that seems to come with any involvement here these days (prior experiences !) and for some reason think I have a tough enough hide to deal with it !    We could create another 'alter ego' or identity for the purpose but what the heck .... I very happy to help and always put my own name on each contribution .... just so you know.

And the next Blaze CA supported event is I think at POSH .... See a few of you there maybe ?

Mike L.