Straw Poll

[L. D. Jeffries]

I voted "Don't Care" mainly because I NEVER buy anything from HF. Reason: Most of the stuff is on the same level as some of the traveling tool outfits; mostly JUNK! Why take the chance?

[cabinetman]

Between the "Reviews", "Tool Talk", and "Project Discussions", tools can be discussed on different levels. For specifics, doing a tool review can be very helpful. It doesn't seem that it's used to a great extent.

"Tool Talk" covers a variety. I think a designated section for any brand would be a redundant forum. Postings in a specialized forum may be understood as "gospel" information by either someone who is happy or not. That by itself may induce bias towards the product, or the company.

So, I'm against it, and that's my final answer.
.

[ironhat]

I would rather see tools critiqued in the Review forum. The tools there are already sorted into threads. I think that the lack of reviews is due to the hesitancy that 'my' review won't match up to some of the fine reviews already posted. That's one of my personal issues for not reviewing.

[messmaker]

I voted "Don't Care" mainly because I NEVER buy anything from HF. Reason: Most of the stuff is on the same level as some of the traveling tool outfits; mostly JUNK! Why take the chance?

I understand that you are entitled to your opinion but how does your input help us, except that we know know you don't like Harbor Freight. Does that mean that we should, or should not have a forum.

[Gary Lange]

I think Tool Reviews handles that nicely and put it all in one place.

[Black wallnut]

I understand that you are entitled to your opinion but how does your input help us, except that we know know you don't like Harbor Freight. Does that mean that we should, or should not have a forum.

Lighten up bud. His imput is nice to have. It explains his vote that shows up as a "don't care." When the forum owner reads this poll it's nice for him to see why some were apathatic to this question. Heck to clear the air I voted no but mainly from the same perspective. I'm not likely to purchase HF tools.

So far it appears that most of the folks do not want a seperate forum and with explainations that all this is already covered in three other places.

[dbhost]

I've been mulling this over and over in my head, and we have a tool review forum here. I think adding a new section specifically for HF is kind of pointless, we do however need to find a way to encourage people to write up or add to review threads on specific HF marketed tools. Myself included. I have added some good, and some bad, but not the really ugly, yet...

[footprintsinconc]

i dont think we need a seperate forum for hf either.

hf does have a lot of thing that are good and bad, and a lot of people here have a lot of experience with their items and it would be extremely helpful for other to know what those gems and lemeos are, especially in today's economy. not everyone can afford brand name tool and store prices and not everyone has time to search or wait for a deal to come by on CL.

however, i do wish that there was a way to know what the gems or lemons are. the search does not give good results when searching, so its difficult to find that information that way.

if there is a way like david proposed and it can be done, then i would be for it. at the same time, i would hope that people would write some type of reviews on the those tools so that those interested can see what its good for.

thats all that comes to mind for now...

[Ed62]

I like David's idea too. As already mentioned, times are hard enough to entice people to consider HF. I think David's idea would be good for anyone wanting to buy, say a drill press, but is afraid to take the chance on HF. (BTW, I think their DP gets pretty good reviews.)

Ed

[Schleeper]

Buying a Dewalt saw for the price of a Skil is a bargain; buying a knock-off at HF is not.

I've bought a lot of items at HF, and I've been satisfied with nearly all of them. But they were all worth exactly the price I paid for them.

One of the reasons why it's nearly useless to review or make recommendations about their tools, is because the quality isn't consistent, even among items that are supposedly identical.

[LCHIEN]

too many posts end up in the wrong forum anyway, we should not be confusing things with mroe forums. Tool talk handles it nicely (well, except that tool talks says for power tools... I admit I post about hand tools and measureing tools there, too.)

[drumpriest]

I don't particularly care to see a separate forum, as I don't buy very much from HF, but it's true that there are gems. (I own a set of those calipers) I have to agree with the comment that the review section needs to be more apparent, same with the tutorials. It's really sad that people don't know these exist until someone links to them.

[Tom Slick]

Just as some others have said, I've weaned myself from HF.

I don't know the ends and outs of the forum software but what if we tried a HF forum for a period of time and then evaluated it and deleted/moved it if it wasn't useful?


I do find it a little comical that the reason for, and naming of, this website is a single nearly obsolete saw (ok 4 different models) but the idea of a HF brand sub forum gets opposition of being too specific.