Carter wrote in message servers.com...
Please excuse the extremely long post but I felt a response was
necessary.

I do take things like this to heart and am happy to contribute where I
can. However I have the unenviable position of being caught between two
ideals. The first being that I’m the newly appointed Director of Media
Services for the Carter Products Company, and thus its my job to get the
word out anyway I can about our products. The other being that I’m sure
you would rather get product advice from someone who has used a product,
not someone who also sells it. I’ve been lurking around rec.woodworking
for a while now, and even posted a few times with questions I’ve had.
I’ve been very tempted on more then a few occasions to post my opinions
when questions about bandsaw guides, tires, tension springs, etc. come
up. However in fear of being flamed because of my connection to Carter
Products I have not posted. I know for myself I would much rather get
advice from someone who has used a product but is in no way connected to
the company that sells the product. I’d be more then happy to extol what
in my opinion are the virtues of the full roller bearing guide, the need
to de-tension after every bandsaw use thus our Quick Release, but I’d
much prefer someone who owns our product or another product pass this
info on whether it be for our against our products. If you can think of
a way for me to talk about our products or give advice without getting
flamed for my bias towards them that would be great, but I cannot. So as
you see either way I’m doomed. Flamed if I do post, Flamed, as in this
case, if I don’t.

Likewise I really don’t consider myself to be an expert on woodworking.
I’m an amateur woodworker at best, who has been learning ever since my
grandfather first taught me how to use his bandsaw at the age of 12.
I’ve attended classes on woodworking, most recently at the Marc Adams
School of Woodworking, and while I enjoy what I can do in woodworking, I
don’t consider myself an expert at it. I’m not an engineer here, nor do
I develop any of the products, my job is to understand the basics of
them and create marketing and instructional materials for them. I’ve
really spent the last years of my life learning and perfecting my
current occupation (video, web design, marketing and multimedia) thus
woodworking is more of a weekend hobby then anything else to me. As such
I don’t feel really qualified to give that much info on a subject I am
still learning about. If questions arise about our products specifically
relating to some aspect like adjusting, mounting, etc. then I’d be all
over it, but typically questions are asking how people like the product
(mostly guides) or if they recommend it, and that’s not really fair for
me to comment because of my affiliation with the company that sells the
product. Since I only woodwork as a hobby I really am not that
knowledgeable about tons of equipment other than what I use, which as
you might expect is equipped with everything that Carter sells. I admit
I don’t monitor rec.woodworking daily so I’m sure there have been some
questions that I could add my two cents to that I’ve missed, but I can’t
devote all my time to the internet as my job requires I spend time
elsewhere and being a new father my family requires what little time I
have left over.

The purpose of the original message, which I might add was only posted
to rec.woodworking, was to pass on the news of Carters 75th anniversary
and give the rec.woodworking users the opportunity to gain a discount,
not typically extended to the end user (customer), on our products if
they were interested. Sure it’s secondary purpose was also as an ad,
sure I wanted it to generate further interest, exposure and hopefully
sales of our products, but no harm was intended with the posting.
Perhaps it should have read FS instead of OT but I did my best to label
it as off topic, thus in hopes to avoid the flames that followed. As
such I wish to convey my apologies for it’s intrusion into
rec.woodworking. As time permits I will try to participate where
appropriate. If anyone has specific questions regarding our products
please direct them to our address and we will
be happy to answer them or to myself at
Likewise post them here and other possibly more experienced and unbiased
users might be able to answer them, if not I’ll do my best to answer
them in a timely manner. I'm sure I'll get flamed for this response but
I felt it was necessary to do so. Again I’m sorry for any disruption my
posting may have made.

Lee
Director of Media Services
Carter Products Company


Bob wrote:

Hopefully (but I doubt it) the gentleman will read your posts and take it to
heart.

Bob S.

Dear Lee:

I welcome your post and most woodworkers will welcome your post. No
need to apologize...no fowl here. I enjoyed your site and appreciated
the information.
I have done business with Carter since my days with The Edward B.
Mueller Co out of Cinncinati, OH. I invite you to take a look at my
website as well.

www.americansycamoreretreat.com

thanks,
Mike from American Sycamore