What do you think about the idea of having vendor forums?

Good idea. Specialized vendors can be hard to find.

No opinion here. Not sure I see a value, but willing to learn if necessary.

Not trying to change or influence anyone's opinion, but I do want to make sure some things are clear.

FloridaJohn said:

Vendors are already welcome to comment on existing threads about their products

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No commercial advertising is permitted on this site. Yes, vendors can "comment" on their products in our current forums, but that can become a fine line. I did work out an arrangement in advance on what the commentary guidelines would be with White Rose Canoe.

Punkinhead said:

It's worth a try. Forums require funding to keep the lights on and this seems like a very unobtrusive way to handle it.

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This concept would not bring any funding to the site. There would be no charge to the vendors and there would be no advertising signs, icons, or clickable links on the site. Nothing would change about the site's appearance except adding a few more discussion forums, one for each vendor. The site will continue to be funded solely by member contributions via fund raisers.

What looks good at BushcraftUSA doesn’t mean it can work here, they have a very active forum with hundreds of members on line at any time. Right now we have 8 members on line.
We already have a “Small Scale Site Related Retailers”, it’s the third least used forum page we have. I don’t like the look of a site that spreads itself too thin.
I agree with Alan,

Alan Gage said:

Most users tended to ask questions on the general forums because they were looking for feedback from members rather than direct from the manufacturer.

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Thanks for the feedback. I've made my decision. I'm going to forward the proposal to an international committee at the United Nations and ask that they send me a written report with recommendations at their earliest convenience.