I think the forum is dying

[Grayling813]

I don't completely understand your argument.

So pick your own news site to compare it to if Drudge was a bad example.

Almost half the topics on page one in this off topic subforum are topics posted by one guy. They're all 24/7 cable news style topics. If I wanted that, I'd be on a news website.

I come to read about gun/Texas chl stuff, but all the recent activity is always that one guy posting random news he finds online.

While I mostly agree, if you check the original date of the posts quite a few are months or years old. One is four years old. So it's other people keeping the thread alive.

The topic originator is very active in keeping those posts alive.

[KC5AV]

I don't completely understand your argument.

So pick your own news site to compare it to if Drudge was a bad example.

Almost half the topics on page one in this off topic subforum are topics posted by one guy. They're all 24/7 cable news style topics. If I wanted that, I'd be on a news website.

I come to read about gun/Texas chl stuff, but all the recent activity is always that one guy posting random news he finds online.

Click on the user to access their profile. Click add foe. Acknowledge that you want to complete that action.
Boom. You won’t see their posts anymore. You’ll probably see a placeholder noting that they made a post, but you won’t see the post itself.

I feel like the downtime the forum experienced recently didn’t help the activity level.

[warnmar10]

I feel like the downtime the forum experienced recently didn’t help the activity level.

DNS is still hosed somehow. About half the time when I land here I get a site not found error. Refreshing the browser almost always loads the site the second time unless it really is down.

As far as the domination of the front page by cable news topics... Easy fix. Someone with admin access can remove OT from the Recent Topics block. (I have no idea the purpose of the Active Topics block [same info as Recent Topics but you have to wait for it] but it is easy enough to ignore.)

Forums are dead and dying all over the place. This one is so segmented and over categorized that I don't even attempt to read below the Active Topics block. So nothing much to see here but stuff I already read on news sites.

So, Off Topic is not the problem IMHO. OT dominating the Recent Topics block is one problem with an easy solution. Perhaps remove OT from Recent Topics and leave it in Active Topics?

[03Lightningrocks]

I don't completely understand your argument.

So pick your own news site to compare it to if Drudge was a bad example.

Almost half the topics on page one in this off topic subforum are topics posted by one guy. They're all 24/7 cable news style topics. If I wanted that, I'd be on a news website.

I come to read about gun/Texas chl stuff, but all the recent activity is always that one guy posting random news he finds online.

Just about all of those news stories have to do with crime/shooting/self defense news situations. I don't think there is any forum where everything posted lights my fire. You could unsubscribe from the off topic forum and maybe start a topic or two about things you would like to discuss. You would likely find many others wanting to discuss those things. Just a friendly suggestion.

[RoyGBiv]

Click on the user to access their profile. Click add foe. Acknowledge that you want to complete that action.
Boom. You won’t see their posts anymore. You’ll probably see a placeholder noting that they made a post, but you won’t see the post itself

Is there a way to ignore a thread here??? Been pecking but have not found a way yet...

[03Lightningrocks]

Click on the user to access their profile. Click add foe. Acknowledge that you want to complete that action.
Boom. You won’t see their posts anymore. You’ll probably see a placeholder noting that they made a post, but you won’t see the post itself

Is there a way to ignore a thread here??? Been pecking but have not found a way yet...

I saw a unsubscribe option in the tool drop down at bottom of page. I noticed if I respond to a thread it automatically subscribes me to it.

[RoyGBiv]

Click on the user to access their profile. Click add foe. Acknowledge that you want to complete that action.
Boom. You won’t see their posts anymore. You’ll probably see a placeholder noting that they made a post, but you won’t see the post itself

Is there a way to ignore a thread here??? Been pecking but have not found a way yet...

I saw a unsubscribe option in the tool drop down at bottom of page. I noticed if I respond to a thread it automatically subscribes me to it.

Thanks, but I'm looking for "Ignore Topic"... as in.... When I pull up the active topics list, don't show me that thread at all..
It would be extra nice to have a feature for a blanket... "Don't show me any threads started by user ______ <name>"

FYI.... you can turn off the automatic subscribe in your user settings....
Go to User Control Panel, select the board preferences tab and set "Notify me upon replies by default" to "No"..
I believe that will do it....

[warnmar10]

Thanks, but I'm looking for "Ignore Topic"... as in.... When I pull up the active topics list, don't show me that thread at all..
It would be extra nice to have a feature for a blanket... "Don't show me any threads started by user ______ <name>"

Yeah, more like Facebook. As KC5AV pointed out, there is a user preferences setting to ignore specific users. I'm not sure how it will play with the Actlive and Recent blocks.

Is your concern similar to mine?
1st - When I land on the forum home page Recent Topics is dominated by the OT forum.
2nd - Because there are so many forums it is impractical to scroll down to see which have unread content and of those which have topics that interest me. So I rely on the Recent Topics block to show me what's going on. Repeat.

The problem isn't that there is too much cable news in OT. The problem is nobody else posts anything in that or any other forum. If they did, the Recent Topics would look much different.

There are members who really love this forum and clearly try to post something, anything that will spark dialog and keep the community alive. When the rest of the forum was more active the OT was diluted with other stuff. Now, not so much.

My suggestion, if anyone cares, take OT out of the Recent Topics and take everything but OT out of Active topics. It doesn't solve the traffic problem but it does make Recent Topics meaningful and useful again and the latest OT post will still appear too.

PS - if someone really went to work on meta data and SEO to get this forum aligned with "constitutional carry" and other search terms to try and capture some of those people it might generate some traffic... Please no new forums unless one goes away for every one added.

[Tex1961]

Every class I tell my students about this forum. So hopefully a few new people each week..

[allisji]

Every class I tell my students about this forum. So hopefully a few new people each week..

There really does appear to be something continuing to be wrong with the site. If you click on "members" at the bottom of the desktop browser page, and then sort membership by most recent join date. You'll see that only 4 new members have been added in 2021 (one being AndyC1911), and that other than several dozen added during a couple of days last August, there hasn't been a steady stream of new membership since November of 2019.

I believe that the web hosting platform may have a problem with new member verification, as this would correspond to a problem I faced where I was locked out from being able to access the site for a very long time and the reset password and contact and admin functions weren't working in any way so that I couldn't fix my ability to log on. Eventually I stopped browsing the site altogether because I couldn't log in and comment. Finally one day earlier this year I tried again and was able to to gain access.

[BigGuy]

I managed a forum for a local motorcycle group. We were hair dressers, IT Techs, bankers, and other such folks who liked to ride on the weekends. No 1%ers. The FacePlace pretty well ended that forum. It is actually still up, but the last post was years ago.
The same thing pretty much happened to 3 other motorcycle forums I belonged to. Two were national, the other focused on Texas. Two of them just faded into to Facebook. A third is still active, but I rarely go there anymore, no longer owing that model of motorcycle.
The same thing would have happened to gun forums if not for the draconian anti-2A rule of the FacePlace. A national gun forum I belonged to seems to be going strong. As a long time lurker here, I've seen traffic on this forum go up and down. Usually when something is happening politically with gun laws.
I mentioned that I'm a lurker. The reason is that you guys are all so knowledgable, that I have very little to offer. This is a place where I'm better served (and likely the other members as well) if I read more than post. I really rely on this forum as my primary news source about Texas gun laws. Here is where I will come with a question. I truly hope it survives.

[rtschl]

When it comes to online discussions regarding the 2nd Amendment, guns, shooting sports, hunting etc. - the big Tech social media giants are squashing discussions. That's why this forum and others not controlled by big Tech are so important. I still check everyday. I've always been more of a lurker, but this forum is critical for free 2A speech.

I agree that it is not what it was, but I think what several have said is correct. My two cents worth on main reasons why:

• Ammo shortage and not able to shoot as much - so we're not having fun with our toys

• Politics/cancel culture - it's taken the oxygen out of any online discussions

• Democrats hold the Presidency, House and Senate - we're in a defensive posture regarding 2A, it's discouraging

• Wuhan Covid has taken a toll on EVERYTHING - everyone is worn out

• Forum being down at different times

[madwildcat]

I honestly think a lot of it comes down the ammo shortage as rtschl and others have mentioned. When it costs that much to go shoot, many just take a break for a while (I almost felt dirty going through 9mm last week with a new toy ).

My guess is we will see an upsurge in activity (and hopefully members) on or around September 1 with the Constitutional carry going into affect as there will be some people looking for a place to help them figure out how to navigate the new laws. As many others have stated, this is the first site I point people to when I talk about shooting or concealed carry because it is such an archive of good knowledge (and the best free gun help advice bar none).

[The Annoyed Man]

Every class I tell my students about this forum. So hopefully a few new people each week..

I frequently mention it to people I’m fingerprinting for LTC.

[2farnorth]

Personally I like seeing the news posts especially if it's related to self defense. Most of it is stuff I wouldn't go searching for and very little of it is on the news. . I don't follow the Covid posts unless it's someone saying they have it. I have no problem skipping over threads that don't peak my interest.

I don't post a lot. I stop by here every day that the site is up and running. I come here to read the latest. I do the same with a couple other sites also. I don't live in Texas anymore but I still hold a Tx LTC ( non res) so I depend on this site to get updates on the system.