Trooper-
To be fair to this community, there wasn't always such a negative tone towards Tom Hennessy. When I joined, his hammocks dominated this forum. People had plenty of positive things to say about him and his products. It wasn't until
stories of Tom cruising campgrounds to find people 'stealing' his ideas that the negative chatter started. Then he pushed it over the limit by being a complete and total *** at Trail Days one year.
This community once held open arms towards Tom Hennessy and he still rejected it. His business practices are questionable, sure. But for my part, the issue is much more directed at the way he treated people who wanted to buy his products. To be fair, my last several dealings with Tom have been very positive and he knows I'm a big fan and supporter of Warbonnet Outdoors; a company that I'm positive leaves a bad taste in his mouth.
As for not wanting to subject himself to ridicule on Hammock Forums, why not? Many/most of the other manufacturers do. Brandon (warbonnetguy) still carries a chip on his shoulder (don't lie, you know it's true
) about me ragging on his first tarp offering; I thought it would hold too much snow due to it's somewhat extreme bend in the ridgeline. I've seen and have had a few disagreements with the Jacks; still a fan of their gear. Ed Speer caught a bunch of crud about the weight of his SnugFit early on; the list goes on. He shouldn't be so concerned about it, it's part of life. The advantages for him would be huge since he would have a pool of a hundred active members, at any given point, doing R&D for him....for free!.
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