I keep watch on this site but it's definitely been very slow to be updated with things and facebook just easier. You'll never really get around that but many of the suppliers listed here will post on their respective facebook pages more than here. For that reason you're always 1 or more steps behind with the information and products here.
Also being from the UK, this place isn't the best source of local sabers for me and it costs more so I prefer to follow certain companies closer to home who also post more on facebook than on here.
Theres also a bunch of behind the scenes politics which ive come across fairly recently and it doesnt really inspire much confidence in the people who see themselves at the forfront of the saber industry (not you Yoda, you've been great).
I'd suggest having a "european/uk" section for those outside of the US so we know where to get parts from easier, and cheaper due to customs costs if we were to import from the states. I'd also possibly combining or renaming some of the more less active areas of the forum as they really don't seem to add any value. I posted in 1 or 2 other sections (near the top) and barely got a reply, if at all. Those areas just seems quite convoluted. It's much more effective to post in specific dedicated areas for manufacturers. Many of these manufacturers have their own websites and they update those more often than post on FX sabers so providing links would be nice for newbies.
Another thing I've noticed is in relation to saber "runs". They're often posted in the manufacturers own section and a user has to find it manually. Why not have a "Current runs" (name can be changed lol) section that contains all of the active runs? It makes them all so much easier to monitor. Also on this topic, they are often left for months and months with no updates too but it's difficult to maintain if the owner of that product isn't very active or is away. I mean how many times have you seen "is this still happening?" on a "run" thread? I've seen it a lot.
A personal issue I have with this place is it's largely focused on its own little affiliate community and theres very little info on anyone who isn't "in the club". For this reason Facebook is a much more neutral platform for me. Granted there are different affiliations within many of the groups there too but there are just as many, if not more who have zero affiliation and are there purely for the hobby alone. You wont ever really break down this barrier without being more open to other saber smiths imo. Times are changing and forums are a dying breed when everyone has a much more commonly used platform like Facebook. I still emjoy using dedicated forums and I was a very active member of a car club for years, until they upgraded the forum to a new design which just didn't work very well, and also life took over for me. Then I found sabers and found myself here. It has a lot of info but over time it's just been very.. quiet and facebook has become much more active for me and many manufacturers.
I know theres not much to be done here but when things are for sale, people are asked to donate to the forum. I understand why and I don't really mind but as a point to note.. facebook is free. No charge, but also I understand it comes with a degree of uncertainty. You can better trust the forum has members who aren't going to scam you, but as somebody whos usually very careful about such things, facebook suits me fine.
Something I'd very much like to see is a section that is dedicated to each particular type of movie saber or weilder. I.e Graflex, Obi-Wan, Vader, etc. Maybe even if they were under an umbrella section called "Movie Sabers". It took me a while to figure out what saber was what, and who sold each type. Much of the info is already here but its all over the place.