So how did you come to join APS?

[RocketMan]

I came over from THR immediately after Oleg announced the birth of APS.  I have visited THR only rarely since the theft.

Pretty much this.  Haven't spent any real time on THR since the theft takeover split, just a very rare quick visit, maybe once or twice a year.  The place is pretty much dead to me.
I don't spend much time on GRM as it never really recovered after the theft takeover split.  I had real high hopes for the place after it was established.
APS is pretty much the only forum I haunt now that the only decent rocketry forum died after its owner did.

[HeroHog]

THR is dead to me...

[Phyphor]

Besides not being wanted anywhere else on the Internet, THR refugee.

Plus, as much as I like guns and like shooting guns, after years at 1911 forum, TFL, and THR, I just got tired of talking about guns all the time. Especially after those forums grew and attracted too many Internet Commandos.

Yeah, that ran me off, as well.

Too many people got butthurt that their choice in gear was not endlessly echoed by everyone else and just made those forums kind of unpleasant to read.

I don't care what your choice in guns is.  If you have something that makes you happy, more power to you.  Just don't presume to talk down to me because of what I own.

Then there were the ENDLESS repetitive threads about gun X vs gun Y, which gun training course was best, etc.  I had my fill of all of that.

APS has managed to stay interesting, despite it's age.  And yeah, there are a good number of intelligent people here, although we as a group are fairly humble (and there's nothing wrong with that!)

[Phyphor]

Kicked out of THR for bitching about the lack of an off-topic forum.
And ya'll complain about the mods here.....    I've had some idiotic run ins with the mods there.  I was pretty much told to GTFO after an argument with a mod in PM.  And then banned.

Oh yeah, Mod asshattery was another driving factor behind my saying "screw this" and leaving.

The mods here could be a little strict at times....but they're more or less fair.  On other unnamed sites, that's simply not the case.

I used to help admin for a forum some years back, and when that turned into a sea of asshats/an echo chamber, that was it for me.  One of the first signs was mods/admins putting down discussions that weren't against the rules...but they just didn't like them.  Or they'd penalize posters who they personally disliked, even though they had done nothing wrong.

So, yeah, to stay on the staff's good side meant one had to follow the party line.  That's not something that interests me.  I want active discussion, not asskissing.

The gun forums mentioned above were showing the first signs of that sort of asshattery back when I departed....

[Marnoot]

And then you get things that are just so weird, you wouldn't have expected them. On APS, that's often a good thing. On other fora, you get crap like this:

https://forums.1911forum.com/showthread.php?t=498980

The original thread title was "Milt Sparks going out of business." Skip to reply number 32, to see how that was taken as both a lie, and an insult to the Prophet.

Stuff like that is part of why I only poke around in single-subject forums when I'm looking for something specific. Too many too serious. "Don't you know that [topic responsible for forum existence] is serious bidness?!? How dare you make light of it!"

One of the many things that started me on the path of less time on THR and more time here was when I got seriously ripped-into on THR by a couple different people for having the audacity to use "shrapnel" to refer to, you know, shrapnel. "Shrapnel is only proper to use in reference to a Shrapnel Shellâ„¢! You can't use the term for just any bomb!"

My attempt to point out that language changes over time (e.g. at some point bad Latin became good Italian) and words genericize over time just got a couple more people upset at me on the thread. 

[Regolith]

I came here shortly after I signed up for THR. Started coming here way more often than THR, then after the whole theft thing I stopped going to THR for good.

I occasionally poke my nose into TFL every once in a while, but for the most part this place and a video game forum are the only traditional forums I visit anymore.

[230RN]

GRM* is like that cracker barrel analogy, but I see a couple of basic problems with it.  For one thing, the forum's name*, which doesn't make sense to me.  

For another, the way the default opening page is set up is that you only see the latest posts ("Activity Stream") , which, on a hot topic, may contain seven or eight posts on the same subject.  A newbie entering that site and seeing that may well go away simply because he or she didn't see anything that interested him or her.

You can set up your preferences so that a complete list of forum areas ("Forums") comes up, but (A) newbies don't know that, and (B) I don't think you can set up your preferences to do that unless you're a member in the first place.

So I think that's partly a limiting factor in harvesting new folks there.

Another self-limiting factor, I think, is the fact that when posting, you can set up tags for the search engine bots to "hit" on, but nobody seems to use that option.  The more tags, the more hits.  The more hits, the more likely you'll acquire new members.  The more new members, the more viable is the site.

Terry, 230RN

* For those unfamiliar with "GRM," it means

http://gunrightsmedia.com/activity.php

[Larry Ashcraft]

I know Preacherman and Larry Ashcraft haven't been around in ages.

I check in about once a week, but rarely post.

[230RN]

^ You're a moderator over at THR, aren't you?

[Larry Ashcraft]

Yes.

[Scout26]

I left THR between the death of the Roundtable and the Anschluss.  One can only take so much "ALL GUNZ !!!  ALL THE TIME !!"  and the Derp to Information level was starting to build.  I had pretty much abandon THR when Derek kicked over the dominoes.*

And it's interesting that the issue of obtaining new members came up, as that was something I brought up in the mod fora a couple months back.  Up until the Anschluss, we used to get a steady influx of new members, most for the reasons that many here mentioned as their reason for joining.  Very few accidentally stumble in here. (some have found us by googling themselves, but most by googling a topic of discussion.)

Anyway, we don't have that source of new members. (Neither GRM or THR are even half of what the original was, and when TFL restarted that also took a lot of the lifeblood back from THR.)

So ideas on what to do.  I like Terry's idea of tags, but given thread drift around we'd constantly be updating them:

tags: #cornbread, #shoes, #dogfood, #elves, #faa, #gasoline, #transgender

[230RN]

tags: #cornbread, #shoes, #dogfood, #elves, #faa, #gasoline, #transgender

 

Loss leaders.  Brings 'em in the store.  You forgot detcord, though.

I check in about once a week, but rarely post.

^ You're a moderator over at THR, aren't you?

Yes.

Then I'm sure glad as h3ll I didn't make any negative comments about THR.  Without looking, isn't there an injunction of some kind on APS about bashing other sites anyhow?  Like armed "polite" society or something?  I thought there was.

Terry

[Blakenzy]

Being a Government infiltrator, I should choose the option "other", as I was assigned here to collect data on unsavory characters and rowdy individuals who are in possession of illegal amounts of snark and engage in free thinking without a permit.

[lupinus]

Kicked out of THR for bitching about the lack of an off-topic forum.
And ya'll complain about the mods here.....    I've had some idiotic run ins with the mods there.  I was pretty much told to GTFO after an argument with a mod in PM.  And then banned.

Ain't that the truth. Mod Demi gods are annoying. Having modded forums before, and dealt with the butt hurt that can be spewed back, this place ain't to bad in the mod department.

As to THR my time there quickly tapered off. Between here and WTA there's plenty of knowledge with substance and it's just a better environment IMO.


Sent from my iPhone. Freaking autocorrect.

[White Horseradish]

I got on to THR in maybe 2002 or so, looking for some technical info. Spent far too much time in the Roundtable. When APS was birthed, it was the natural progression to get there. I quit going to THR around the time of the GRM split, although not really because of it. Kind of lost interest in GRM, too.

Come to think of it, this is about the only gun-related forum I got left. I get motorcycle and appliance advice here, too.

[BlueStarLizzard]

Do we really need to push efforts for new members?

We have a pretty solid core of regular posters and we certainly aren't lacking in terms of posting.

[lee n. field]

People drift off.  (Or die off.)  Eventually the number of folks interacting would go low enough that it wouldn't be interesting, and activity would drop to where it's not worth keeping up.

[Scout26]

Do we really need to push efforts for new members?

We have a pretty solid core of regular posters and we certainly aren't lacking in terms of posting.

True, but we do lose members for a variety of reasons so that core is getting smaller.  And I worry sometimes about this place becoming an echo chamber.  I like having a diversity of ideas, especially ones that challenge my own beliefs.  I find it very helpful to look at issues from all sides, and often I don't think of those other sides until I see someone argue it here.  Which is one reason I really like this place. It truly is a "Marketplace of Ideas".  I like the passion that most people here have for their principles and ideas, that they will plant their flag on a hill, and then defend it.  Does it get frustrating as a mod to argue with a member.  Yes, yes it does.  However, when that happens the mods here will go to the moderator forum and say "Hey, I'm in deep on this thread, can you check to make sure it stays on track and I'm not being an a-hole as a mod?"  Which is the way it should be done.  I've seen to many fora where disagreeing with a mod gets a thread shutdown and/or the member banned because the member was "wrong" on a topic.

So bringing in new people with new ideas and a willingness to stand on principle is important to maintaining this site.  I'd also like to see some of the "old" members who have gone away come back.  I'm constantly amazed at the width and breadth of knowledge here.  Not just on guns but on every topic under the sun.  I think I've learned more here than in 17 years of actual schooling.   I'd hate to see that wither and go away.

So.  I'm open to ideas to finding a steady source of new members.  Simply for the health of the board.

[BlueStarLizzard]

True, but we do lose members for a variety of reasons so that core is getting smaller.  And I worry sometimes about this place becoming an echo chamber.  I like having a diversity of ideas, especially ones that challenge my own beliefs.  I find it very helpful to look at issues from all sides, and often I don't think of those other sides until I see someone argue it here.  Which is one reason I really like this place. It truly is a "Marketplace of Ideas".  I like the passion that most people here have for their principles and ideas, that they will plant their flag on a hill, and then defend it.  Does it get frustrating as a mod to argue with a member.  Yes, yes it does.  However, when that happens the mods here will go to the moderator forum and say "Hey, I'm in deep on this thread, can you check to make sure it stays on track and I'm not being an a-hole as a mod?"  Which is the way it should be done.  I've seen to many fora where disagreeing with a mod gets a thread shutdown and/or the member banned because the member was "wrong" on a topic.

So bringing in new people with new ideas and a willingness to stand on principle is important to maintaining this site.  I'd also like to see some of the "old" members who have gone away come back.  I'm constantly amazed at the width and breadth of knowledge here.  Not just on guns but on every topic under the sun.  I think I've learned more here than in 17 years of actual schooling.   I'd hate to see that wither and go away.

So.  I'm open to ideas to finding a steady source of new members.  Simply for the health of the board.

I get you.

I've no objection to new blood, I just wouldn't want to come on one day and find this place overwhelmed by weirdos because of a hashtag combined with a fluke of the internet.

I wish there was some surefire way of finding our kind of weirdos without risking trolls, SJWs and other internet commandos.

[Scout26]

Actually I wouldn't mind SJW's as long as they keep the "Polite" part in mind.  They start asking to edit or censor someone's post because of "triggers" or other such nonsense and they'll be shown the door most ricky-tick.

We weed out trolls and internet commandos fairly quick also. Although we might and sometimes do let the denizens here play with it like a cat plays with a doomed mouse at times.  Again, as long as it stays "polite", once it goes off the rails, then play time is over. 


BTW, anyone want to discuss Lady Gaga's latest album?

[Ben]

BTW, anyone want to discuss Lady Gaga's latest album?

You're fired.

[Scout26]

You're fired.

 

[230RN]

<tag> #Lady Gaga

[230RN]

Deleted by poster.  Posted on wrong thread.

[BryanP]

I'm another who came over here from The Round Table forum at THR. I didn't stop reading THR immediately, but I eventually drifted away. Most of the people I cared to read were posting here or on their own blogs.