Chris Swarz surfaced at Highland Woodworking.

[George Wall]

Chris Schwarz's company, Lost Art Press, has published titles from several professional woodworkers from around the world, including Nancy Hiller, Peter Follansbee, Peter Galbert, the late Jennie Alexander, and more recently, David Savage, among others. LAP's translations of the two classic Roubo texts have won multiple publishing awards.

Schwarz is also one of the principals at Crucible Tool, a small artisan tool making company. Schwarz himself will tell you he is more publisher than woodworker; his formal education was in publishing after all, and he admits he sort of "fell into" editing woodworking magazines.

While I don't worship him, I also don't think it's accurate to dispute the claim that he's has contributed much to the woodworking community, even if that contribution is targeted to a specific subset of the community at large. Of course, no-one is required to read, listen to, or follow him.

[Warren Mickley]

Chris Schwarz's company, Lost Art Press, has published titles from several professional woodworkers from around the world, including Nancy Hiller, Peter Follansbee, Peter Galbert, the late Jennie Alexander, and more recently, David Savage, among others. LAP's translations of the two classic Roubo texts have won multiple publishing awards.

Schwarz is also one of the principals at Crucible Tool, a small artisan tool making company. Schwarz himself will tell you he is more publisher than woodworker; his formal education was in publishing after all, and he admits he sort of "fell into" editing woodworking magazines.

While I don't worship him, I also don't think it's accurate to dispute the claim that he's has contributed much to the woodworking community, even if that contribution is targeted to a specific subset of the community at large. Of course, no-one is required to read, listen to, or follow him.

Popular Science hired Joe Brown as a new editor in chief in 2016. The publisher said "He has exactly the qualities we sought out for the leader of the brand: a nose for a great story, strong leadership, and a wealth of experience elegantly handling website strategy and digital operations."

It could be that, a dozen years down the road, basement scientists all across America will be saying how much he inspired them and contributed to science. I doubt that any of the Phd scientists in my family have ever heard of him.

Joe Brown has a bachelor degree in Literature.

[Frederick Skelly]

It could be that, a dozen years down the road, basement scientists all across America will be saying how much he inspired them and contributed to science. I doubt that any of the Phd scientists in my family have ever heard of him.

I don't see what's wrong with this Warren. If Brown succeeds in getting people interested in science and engineering, more people will formally study science or work quietly in the basements as tinkerers and inventors. No, the PhDs will never hear of him, and if they did might turn up their noses as some PhDs are wont to do. But that doesn't make Brown's contribution less real - if he gets people interested in science.

To me, it is similar for Schwartz and hobbyists. It's a pretty sure thing that I will never reach the levels of perfection that someone formally trained as an apprentice will achieve. But I can learn from the man's books, as I would learn from a book you'd write Sir (if we ever talk you into writing one ).

Fred

[George Wall]

Popular Science hired Joe Brown as a new editor in chief in 2016. The publisher said "He has exactly the qualities we sought out for the leader of the brand: a nose for a great story, strong leadership, and a wealth of experience elegantly handling website strategy and digital operations."

It could be that, a dozen years down the road, basement scientists all across America will be saying how much he inspired them and contributed to science. I doubt that any of the Phd scientists in my family have ever heard of him.

Joe Brown has a bachelor degree in Literature.

My assumption is that most PhD scientists either don't read Popular Science, or, if they do, they do it more out of curiosity than looking for information vital to their ongoing research. But, if Joe Brown started his own company and got leading scientists in a particular field published, including translations of key historical scientific texts, his contributions to the field would be acknowledged. And, of course, criticized by some.

[Hilton Ralphs]

It could be that, a dozen years down the road, basement scientists all across America will be saying how much he inspired them and contributed to science.

There may be thousands of young scientists today who were inspired by Joe Brown's published articles.

I doubt that any of the Phd scientists in my family have ever heard of him.

I doubt Joe Brown knows any of them either...

[Pete Taran]

I fail to understand the narrative of this thread. For those who haven't had the time to read it in it's entirety:

1) Someone mentioned they saw an article that Chris wrote
2) Someone else wrote about him criticizing him for not being held to professional standards and timelines
3) Many defended him, various food fights ensued with diversions into discussions of how the internet was started and by whom
4) Many pointed out that Chris never claimed to be a professional or even a woodworker, but someone who likes to write and teach about the craft
5) Despite these many twists and turns, people still debate his worth, for reasons known only to them

At this point, it seems to me that Chris is entitled to do what he wants. In America, it's a free country. Chris need not seek permission from us or anyone about how to live his life or how to spend it. If you appreciate what Chris does (as I do), then good for you. If you don't, please devote your life to doing better and explain to us how you've accomplished that fact. To belittle and carp on a man who is going about his merry way is ridiculous. He doesn't deserve it, did nothing to ask for it, and it serves no useful purpose except to somehow satisfy some deep seated inadequacy in the criticizer.

I've tried to be as "nice" as possible in this summation. Can we all please just let it go and stop being so hypercritical of everything poor Chris has ever done, or will do in his life?

All the best and Happy New Year

[Mike Brady]

Pete has a correct perspective on this thread. It went wrong right from the thread title, which contained misinformation. And you wonder why so few well-known individuals post here, Pete Taran being an exception?

[Edwin Santos]

I have a theory that there have been some posts in this thread that must have been deleted by moderators.
Otherwise there are a lot of parts of this discussion that seem unusually irrational, but for missing posts to which they are responding. Kind of like a Tower of Babel situation.
Just a theory.
Maybe the mods should just close the thread at this point.

[Pete Taran]

Edwin,

It's not a theory, many posts were deleted for apparently violating the TOS. However, it seems selective in it's application. The critical comment that starts it is allowed to stand, but the critical comments rebutting it are excised. Having said that, SMC is not a Constitutional Republic. The owners and mods get to make the rules and enforce them as they see fit. You can either tolerate it, or go elsewhere it seems.

[Pat Barry]

I have a theory that there have been some posts in this thread that must have been deleted by moderators.
Otherwise there are a lot of parts of this discussion that seem unusually irrational, but for missing posts to which they are responding. Kind of like a Tower of Babel situation.
Just a theory.
Maybe the mods should just close the thread at this point.

I'm surprised this thread lasted 15 pages.

[Simon MacGowen]

Maybe the mods should just close the thread at this point.

How come every time in any long thread of discussion, there is always a suggestion like this? If the request came from the one who created the thread, I could understand. Shouldn't we find out if the OP wants his or her thread closed first?

Please stay away from the kitchen if you can't stand the heat. And there is no heat in the latest exchanges!

I don't think Warren would think very highly of Norm Abram's contributions -- more a carpenter than a furniture maker to some of his viewers -- to the woodworking field, but that's ok because his perspective would be as valid as any of ours because we don't necessarily have the same assessment criteria.

The last thing I want to see is everyone has only one identical perspective, or we all must cut wood in a certain way.

Simon

[Edwin Santos]

Edwin,

It's not a theory, many posts were deleted for apparently violating the TOS. However, it seems selective in it's application. The critical comment that starts it is allowed to stand, but the critical comments rebutting it are excised. Having said that, SMC is not a Constitutional Republic. The owners and mods get to make the rules and enforce them as they see fit. You can either tolerate it, or go elsewhere it seems.

Pete,
Got it. I wasn't raising it as a matter of principle, but more as a practical matter. If a discussion is ongoing and there are holes in one or both sides of the conversation, the subsequent posts can become nonsensical or at least appear unjustified. As it is done currently, there is no way for the reader to know that anything has been removed.

Maybe rather than removing posts entirely, the content of the offending post should be removed with a moderator's note inserted in its place, like what they sometimes do here when they edit (not remove) posts for content. At least then there would be a complete trail and maybe some downstream confusion could be avoided.

Admittedly this one has gotten more convoluted than most.....

This is just a suggestion. I fully understand it's for the owner to make the rules.