Packing.org

[Texgun]

Does anyone know the REAL story of what happened to packing.org? That used to be my favorite website. This forum is my new favorite.

[WEC]

AFAIK, the site became (changed into? / got absorbed? / got bought out by?) http://www.usacarry.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;.

[Mike1951]

As a PDO member from around 1996, the following is pretty much what I saw play out.

Many of the state admins pleaded with Solomon to allow them to maintain PDO. He chose to let it die.

As told by the CA state admin: (before its ultimate demise)

August 9, 2006 09:52:52 Subject: The sad state of Packing.Org
jonm
Joined: April 25, 2006 20:14:22
Messages: 97
Location: Santa Barbara County
Offline
I am embarrassed to say that I am (was) the California admin for Packing.Org. The site is currently down (a frequent problem), but when I was able to update things, I always did. When questions were posed to me I always responded. When help was asked for, I did my best to provide it. I kept things as current as I was able to. There are several posters here on CaliforniaCCW who know me from PDO, and they can vouch for my commitment to the cause. The site owner, Mark Solomon, decided to take the site another direction by eliminating the ability to moderate it. When he did that, he also took away respective state admin’s ability to easily modify it.

There were around 35 committed people acting as state admins at PDO (some maintaining more than one state). After Mr. Solomon made his changes to the format, and as well as his changes in attitude about the site itself, the site went to hell in a hand basket.

If there are any members here who can remember what PDO was prior to August of 2005, you will remember what a stellar site it was. It was the best CCW site on the Internet, hands down. Content was on topic and chat was limited to relevant topics. Now it is a name calling, cop bashing, assault weapon chat room, filled with vulgarities. And that's only when the server is up.

Calls to Mr. Solomon (both by phone and by email) go without response. The majority of my fellow state admins have abandoned the site because they don't want to be associated with it any longer. I can now be counted in that group.

I have since submitted an unanswered email to Mr. Solomon requesting that my name be removed from the California page.

I want to warn everyone here NOT to rely on anything on PDO!

If you want to know anything about another state's policies, and you want it form a reliable source, be sure to visit http://handgunlaw.us" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That site is maintained by, among others, a guy whom I admire greatly for his honesty and integrity, Gary Slider. Gary, I'm glad to say, has joined this site. Although he is not a California resident, he has a wealth of knowledge that I know he would be willing to share.

Stay safe, please

[roberts]

A lot of people wish he killed the forums and kept the information pages but I think he was doing it as a hobby and it wasn't fun anymore.

[ml1209]

That's too bad. I liked that site.

[ELB]

Yes, I haven't seen anything that rivals it for ease of finding out key specifics of concealed carry for each state. Was a lotta work I am sure, too bad it ended without someone to take over.

[tfrazier]

Speaking as someone who has run a few internet discussion boards (all now dead), it takes a lot of work and dedication to keep them running, clean, and free of rif-raf. And very few people show any appreciation for all that work (primarily because they have no idea how much work it actually is). Mostly you end up with tons of emails and PMs from members complaining about other members, asking you why don't you ban so-and-so number 507, berating you for banning so-and-so number 3004, angry that you haven't answered their password problem email within five minutes, and not realizing you're juggling a full time job while providing them a free forum to share ideas, information, and debate at your expense.

I tried to balance that by incorporating advertisements on my sites just to try to make them support themselves, and was roundly criticised for that (I think I may have made a total of twenty bucks profit when it was all said and done).

A lot of us just decide it's not worth the hassle and end up closing shop. Not sure if that's what happened to Solomon, but give the guy a little credit for the time he invested in it. He may have just run out of resources, time, and or money to keep it going.

And consider these things when you think about Charles Cotton and the moderators on this board. It's the cleanest, fairest, friendliest discussion board I've seen, and I'll include my own previous boards as a step below in that assessment. Running this thing this well doesn't happen without a whole lot of hard work and diligence...especially with the number of members this board has achieved. And you won't find more opinionated people than us gun nuts.

If Charles gets more complaints than thanks in his in boxes, well, that would be a shame.

By the way, thanks, Mr. Cotton!

[SkinnyB78]

By the way, thanks, Mr. Cotton!

What Charles has done for the gun community is no minor feat! Hands down, he is awesome!

[stevie_d_64]

PDO, for years, was the focal point for a lot of us...I had been a participant there from almost the beginning...And to the end...

In the waning months before it went away, it had become something that I believe Mark Soloman didn't want it to be (language abuses, too many off-topic threads etc etc)...And thru they lessons learned and participants looking for a cleaner website to discuss the issues that interest us...

Steve Aiken and Gary Slider spun off the Hangun.US website some of us know about...And that has been a very successful information site...It had a similar format to the PDO website, minus the discussion threads...

All in all PDO helped motivate folks to start websites like it, and we should be glad it had a good run, I'm pleased to see the results from those efforts...

[Charles L. Cotton]

Thanks for the very kind words folks.

Thanks also to our crew of Moderators who really keep everything going. As with all forums, we have a private Moderator Forum for us to discuss various board-related issues. We also use it to notify others when we have to be away for some reason. As with everyone, we all have our illnesses, job demands, family demands, and the Moderators always jump right in and cover for any of our guys and gals that are "off-line" for any reason. There's never any griping or complaining, they just jump in and get the work done. I am blessed to have this group of Moderators; without them, TexasCHLforum could well have gone the way of many other boards.

I too miss packing.org. When it started going down hill, I briefly considered trying to set up something like handgunlaw.us but quickly rejected the idea. Keeping accurate information on the laws of 50 states, many of which have full-time legislatures, would be a monumental task. When this legislative session is over, I do plan to add a section that provides comprehensive, but easy to read, information on Texas gun laws. I know a little about those laws, so it's not like I have to go out and learn something new.

Chas.

[Liberty]

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I too miss packing.org. When it started going down hill, I briefly considered trying to set up something like handgunlaw.us but quickly rejected the idea. Keeping accurate information on the laws of 50 states, many of which have full-time legislatures, would be a monumental task. When this legislative session is over, I do plan to add a section that provides comprehensive, but easy to read, information on Texas gun laws. I know a little about those laws, so it's not like I have to go out and learn something new.

Chas.

Thanks Charles, I think that would be a real important service, We get too many people With CHLs and ask questions or make statements on things that should be pretty clear. The problem is that reading the Handbook, which is in legalese, is difficult for many of us. A good source that simplifies the code would be a treasure.

PDO was my first introduction into what CHL rules and laws , The layout was very friendly when preparing for travel