Lurkers.....Esteemed members

[jackelope]

Thanks Karl. I would literally find you and slap you silly if you didn't share your upcoming hunts. Really excited for your kid's hunt. That's what it's all about. Thank you for this post. We appreciate it.

[Buckmark]

On the topic of some posts don't get replies I am absolutely amazed and happy with all the posts and ideas that have been made in this thread.  I don't know how many, "what can we do to make the forum better?" threads I have seen over the years and this one has to be one of the best ones yet with responses that we can use to make this place better.

Thanks to everyone who has commented.  Ever comment in this thread is being reviewed by the mod team.

Didn't we do this back in Feb  , seems alot of the same suggestions are still being suggested, so did anything change from back then?
http://hunting-washington.com/smf/index.php/topic,208980.0.html

I have been a member since Oct 2008, and it has changed alot which is normal but not all of the change has been good. Lots of members have either left or just became silent for whatever reason and i have noticed that alot of the members that did post quality content have also scaled down posting as much.... Some of us just don't post much which like in my case is our personality.

Sometimes change has to start at the top or within its ranks, there is a Mod that should maybe not be a Mod anymore but has been one for so long they just remain one.

[carpsniperg2]

I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately ever since coach posted that he was tired of the garbage and hanging it up. I pretty much hung it up after my elk hunt last year. We had an amazing deer season with multiple bucks over 180 inches. I didn't share any of it and some of those hunts were pretty Epic. After my elk hunt last year I received the message from a certain member and basically accused me of using a rifle instead of my bow. I dumped so much Blood Sweat and Tears into that hunt made me sad more than mad that there are people in this world that think like that.

 this forum is continually spiraling downward because all of the members that made this place what it is have moved on because of just a few trolls. It's a private site so I truly believe that there doesn't need to be a reason to ban someone. If they don't add anything to the quality of the place just get rid of them.

I still do not plan on offering much as far as advice and discussion on Topics but I have decided that I am going to share my hunting season this year as it's a pretty good one.  WA, CO, WY, lots of ID tags, and my daughter's first hunting season. I believe that if more of us share then it might right the ship a bit. I don't blame  any  of are major contributors for going other places  as I think all of us have gotten pretty burnt out.  When you spend a lot of time in the field and you put a lot of animals on the ground  it is sometimes difficult to stomach comments from people that you know  produce far less  in the field than you, or has even never done something or used something and they're trying to tell you that you are wrong  and it just gets tiresome.  You think you are adding quality information and entertainment but when you get trolled around every corner really makes a guy second guess that and think why bother.  I need to be part of the solution though and by leaving that's not what I'm doing. If I get trolled a bunch like I did last year then I think all hope is lost and I'll just move on.

Dale, Josh, Doug, and some of the other mods have done an amazing job for all of us and they deserve better from their community. This place has been a major influence in my life and some of my very best friends to this day I have met only because of this forum. I guess what I'm trying to say is as much as you guys piss me off I might post a picture to this year

Glad to hear it. If anyone does that in PM again let one of us know. We are going to do our best to make sure stuff like that does not happen and will deal with stuff like what happened to you. I know its hard with 100 good comments and a 1-2 bad just sours it. We are going to do our best to take those out and now with the rule change make sure its not a common thing. I had one of the best seasons of my life last year and shared very very little as well. I still helped a ton of guys and sent a lot of pms and still love the site but I have had some pretty lame stuff like what you had happen, happen to me to. I get that is sucks but there is a ton of people that love to see stories like yours and mine and you are 100% right. You not posting only hurts the good guys that really want to see it and is happy for your success. I have pretty thick skin but I know after awhile it starts to bother anyone.

I hope a few more of the good guys come back and we can see some awesome critters hit the dirt this year. Even if they are just does spikes and cows like I shoot

[JimmyHoffa]

Some of the guys just got kind of burned out.  They said after a while it was kind of like Groundhog Day, so they only log in during the seasons or for the draws.  One guy said how many times do you have to read new, repeat threads like:  ".243 for Elk?", "Is a .30-06 enough for a bear?", "What sidearm do you carry?", "When will the draw be posted?" before you don't want to give the same answer for the fifth time.

[Karl Blanchard]

Unfortunately a lot of those kind of threads are legitimately started by people that want to know the answer or some information. I know I'm going to steer far far away from that stuff even though I have some good insight as I've literally been a part of hundreds of kills and spent countless countless days on the mountain. It's those kind of threads where the trolls come out in force and not so much the success threads so I'm going to limit my use to only that. Like others I still am very active with PMS I just stay off the public board.

[JKEEN33]

I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately ever since coach posted that he was tired of the garbage and hanging it up. I pretty much hung it up after my elk hunt last year. We had an amazing deer season with multiple bucks over 180 inches. I didn't share any of it and some of those hunts were pretty Epic. After my elk hunt last year I received the message from a certain member and basically accused me of using a rifle instead of my bow. I dumped so much Blood Sweat and Tears into that hunt made me sad more than mad that there are people in this world that think like that.

 this forum is continually spiraling downward because all of the members that made this place what it is have moved on because of just a few trolls. It's a private site so I truly believe that there doesn't need to be a reason to ban someone. If they don't add anything to the quality of the place just get rid of them.

I still do not plan on offering much as far as advice and discussion on Topics but I have decided that I am going to share my hunting season this year as it's a pretty good one.  WA, CO, WY, lots of ID tags, and my daughter's first hunting season. I believe that if more of us share then it might right the ship a bit. I don't blame  any  of are major contributors for going other places  as I think all of us have gotten pretty burnt out.  When you spend a lot of time in the field and you put a lot of animals on the ground  it is sometimes difficult to stomach comments from people that you know  produce far less  in the field than you, or has even never done something or used something and they're trying to tell you that you are wrong  and it just gets tiresome.  You think you are adding quality information and entertainment but when you get trolled around every corner really makes a guy second guess that and think why bother.  I need to be part of the solution though and by leaving that's not what I'm doing. If I get trolled a bunch like I did last year then I think all hope is lost and I'll just move on.

Dale, Josh, Doug, and some of the other mods have done an amazing job for all of us and they deserve better from their community. This place has been a major influence in my life and some of my very best friends to this day I have met only because of this forum. I guess what I'm trying to say is as much as you guys piss me off I might post a picture to this year

Your elk hunt post last year was an excellent thread. I followed the full thing. I liked the prep, shopping, packing etc. You covered a lot of material that those who don't know could use. I even purchased a jet boil, mountain house meals and a long handled spoon after reading it. Hope to see more posts like that.

[Karl Blanchard]

I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately ever since coach posted that he was tired of the garbage and hanging it up. I pretty much hung it up after my elk hunt last year. We had an amazing deer season with multiple bucks over 180 inches. I didn't share any of it and some of those hunts were pretty Epic. After my elk hunt last year I received the message from a certain member and basically accused me of using a rifle instead of my bow. I dumped so much Blood Sweat and Tears into that hunt made me sad more than mad that there are people in this world that think like that.

 this forum is continually spiraling downward because all of the members that made this place what it is have moved on because of just a few trolls. It's a private site so I truly believe that there doesn't need to be a reason to ban someone. If they don't add anything to the quality of the place just get rid of them.

I still do not plan on offering much as far as advice and discussion on Topics but I have decided that I am going to share my hunting season this year as it's a pretty good one.  WA, CO, WY, lots of ID tags, and my daughter's first hunting season. I believe that if more of us share then it might right the ship a bit. I don't blame  any  of are major contributors for going other places  as I think all of us have gotten pretty burnt out.  When you spend a lot of time in the field and you put a lot of animals on the ground  it is sometimes difficult to stomach comments from people that you know  produce far less  in the field than you, or has even never done something or used something and they're trying to tell you that you are wrong  and it just gets tiresome.  You think you are adding quality information and entertainment but when you get trolled around every corner really makes a guy second guess that and think why bother.  I need to be part of the solution though and by leaving that's not what I'm doing. If I get trolled a bunch like I did last year then I think all hope is lost and I'll just move on.

Dale, Josh, Doug, and some of the other mods have done an amazing job for all of us and they deserve better from their community. This place has been a major influence in my life and some of my very best friends to this day I have met only because of this forum. I guess what I'm trying to say is as much as you guys piss me off I might post a picture to this year

Your elk hunt post last year was an excellent thread. I followed the full thing. I liked the prep, shopping, packing etc. You covered a lot of material that those who don't know could use. I even purchased a jet boil, mountain house meals and a long handled spoon after reading it. Hope to see more posts like that.

that's all you will see from me for now just more of it.  I will try and get all of my information and knowledge into my Harvest thread that way hopefully I can keep down the arguing. It's very hard for me to bite my tongue when I see blatantly bad information or advice given.  I will just keep my season positive and as much information flowing as I can muster and if we all just did a little more of that this place may not be as active but the content would be a higher quality. 

I agree with many others that this is a hunting and fishing website and if you want to talk about other garbage go somewhere else.  If it is political but pertains to hunting and fishing then we have an outdoor advocacy board and that's where that stuff belongs. I don't participate in off topics but the kind of people that are heavy over there do nothing for the rest of the board. Like I've said before I think they need to stroke that ban hammer about half a dozen times and this place would greatly improve.

[grundy53]

I've been thinking on this topic a lot lately ever since coach posted that he was tired of the garbage and hanging it up. I pretty much hung it up after my elk hunt last year. We had an amazing deer season with multiple bucks over 180 inches. I didn't share any of it and some of those hunts were pretty Epic. After my elk hunt last year I received the message from a certain member and basically accused me of using a rifle instead of my bow. I dumped so much Blood Sweat and Tears into that hunt made me sad more than mad that there are people in this world that think like that.

 this forum is continually spiraling downward because all of the members that made this place what it is have moved on because of just a few trolls. It's a private site so I truly believe that there doesn't need to be a reason to ban someone. If they don't add anything to the quality of the place just get rid of them.

I still do not plan on offering much as far as advice and discussion on Topics but I have decided that I am going to share my hunting season this year as it's a pretty good one.  WA, CO, WY, lots of ID tags, and my daughter's first hunting season. I believe that if more of us share then it might right the ship a bit. I don't blame  any  of are major contributors for going other places  as I think all of us have gotten pretty burnt out.  When you spend a lot of time in the field and you put a lot of animals on the ground  it is sometimes difficult to stomach comments from people that you know  produce far less  in the field than you, or has even never done something or used something and they're trying to tell you that you are wrong  and it just gets tiresome.  You think you are adding quality information and entertainment but when you get trolled around every corner really makes a guy second guess that and think why bother.  I need to be part of the solution though and by leaving that's not what I'm doing. If I get trolled a bunch like I did last year then I think all hope is lost and I'll just move on.

Dale, Josh, Doug, and some of the other mods have done an amazing job for all of us and they deserve better from their community. This place has been a major influence in my life and some of my very best friends to this day I have met only because of this forum. I guess what I'm trying to say is as much as you guys piss me off I might post a picture to this year

Your elk hunt post last year was an excellent thread. I followed the full thing. I liked the prep, shopping, packing etc. You covered a lot of material that those who don't know could use. I even purchased a jet boil, mountain house meals and a long handled spoon after reading it. Hope to see more posts like that.

I agree.  I loved that thread. It was great following it. Plus, the fact that you dedicated the hunt to your brother was icing on the cake. I don't know why anyone would want to trash on that hunt. Must take a different breed of human...

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[Karl Blanchard]

I don't think anybody is innocent of trolling at some point. I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I've done it myself.  It's usually Revenge trolling though

I saw it in one of these pages but the blame was insinuated on the younger Generations but a lot of what I see on here is coming from guys that are much older than us. I'd actually like to see the average age of our hunt while members maybe somebody could start a poll...sorry tapatalk guys

[Karl Blanchard]

100% agree Grundy!  I have no idea what compels someone to make a claim like that. Like I said I didn't even get mad about it it was more saddening. I did not reply and I just deleted it. I'm done losing sleep stressing about things did have no bearing on my life. That person is so insignificant to me that it should never be given a second thought. I need to be more like my grandfather and my father and less like a millennial. Arguing with people on the internet is not the way to do that.  I'll just let some pictures do my talking and if people want to hate on that then I don't know what else to do to right the ship

[grundy53]

100% agree Grundy!  I have no idea what compels someone to make a claim like that. Like I said I didn't even get mad about it it was more saddening. I did not reply and I just deleted it. I'm done losing sleep stressing about things did have no bearing on my life. That person is so insignificant to me that it should never be given a second thought. I need to be more like my grandfather and my father and less like a millennial. Arguing with people on the internet is not the way to do that.  I'll just let some pictures do my talking and if people want to hate on that then I don't know what else to do to right the ship

Well said.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[bearpaw]

We are revamping the site, outdoor topics will be the focus, you will see some changes in the categories, boards, and rules! Everyone will be expected to talk to others as they would like to be talked to. Bashing and trashing topics needs to end. But we need members to use the "Report to Moderator" button when they see trash talk so we can review it and clean it up if needed. The moderators don't see every post, we need member help!

There will still be off-topics, but everyone will have to opt in again, otherwise you won't see any unrelated topics and boards. It will be a personal choice to opt in to see those boards and topics, otherwise all you will see are outdoor related boards.

More than anything let's all have fun sharing stories and photos and please remember to be respectful of each other, that includes newcomers who are asking questions trying to learn.

THANKS,
Dale

[JKEEN33]

We are revamping the site, outdoor topics will be the focus, you will see some changes in the categories, boards, and rules! Everyone will be expected to talk to others as they would like to be talked to. Bashing and trashing topics needs to end. But we need members to use the "Report to Moderator" button when they see trash talk so we can review it and clean it up if needed. The moderators don't see every post, we need member help!

There will still be off-topics, but everyone will have to opt in again, otherwise you won't see any unrelated topics and boards. It will be a personal choice to opt in to see those boards and topics, otherwise all you will see are outdoor related boards.

More than anything let's all have fun sharing stories and photos and please remember to be respectful of each other, that includes newcomers who are asking questions trying to learn.

THANKS,
Dale

I like what I'm seeing already. I'm the first to admit it's easy to get sucked in and participate with the negative bs and then be angry at myself for getting involved. Don't like it and don't need it in my already stressful life.

[wannabhntr]

Thanks for doing this guys. I posted something along these lines about six years ago and for the most part I was told if didn't like then leave. I feel confidant that if I had 12376 posts under my name that the reply's would have been a little more positive but not much.
I have never been a big "poster" anyway, but I did enjoy reading everyone's success stories and seeing photos. I tried to help out and give advice or locations to hunt when I could. I rarely come around any more.
Hopefully what you guys are doing will make a difference and you can make this the great forum that it used to be.

[JKEEN33]

Thanks for doing this guys. I posted something along these lines about six years ago and for the most part I was told if didn't like then leave. I feel confidant that if I had 12376 posts under my name that the reply's would have been a little more positive but not much.
I have never been a big "poster" anyway, but I did enjoy reading everyone's success stories and seeing photos. I tried to help out and give advice or locations to hunt when I could. I rarely come around any more.
Hopefully what you guys are doing will make a difference and you can make this the great forum that it used to be.

I can say post count didn't matter. I went through the same thing and was told I could delete the profile after deleting all my posts. After about 2 months of deleting several thousand posts I got tired of that and gave up.