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I’m a commercial plumber & I joined my first forum in February which was Plumbing Forums .com, a sister site to H&CL. I really enjoy the few main people there & the conversations had while helping people with their plumbing problems. I’ve received quality help as well.

After a few months, I asked a moderator, “Could you recommend another forum out there that I could learn about different topics?” He said, “If you want to stay in the repair type, try Home Repair forums. If you want a wider range of topics, try H&CL.

I read the first thread I happened across here & I was hooked. It was about someone buying desert land in Nevada then coming here asking how to make money on it. I got a few chuckles reading that tread.

The reason I’m here so often is because of the good people here. I was cheerfully welcomed and assured I could pretty much post whatever I felt was important in life. God, Prayer, Family, Love, Humor, “Homesteading”, government, prepping & “What did you do today?” I like the homesteaders here & what everyone brings to the discussion with great attitudes!

Unfortunately, life led me from the country to the city. Now, I’m kinda stuck here for a while. But, like @Spikedriver said, it’s about the knowledge. Luckily, if things go south too bad here, New Zealand is taking in tradesmen for citizenships, especially plumbers! ✌️🤠👍
 
I had been part of many forums in the past. None of them related to homesteading and the like. They were just places to chat, I guess. And I had met a few people who are still in my life to this day, although in different corners of the world. About a couple of years ago I swore off forums; I felt as though I was investing a lot of my time online than offline.

I randomly searched for homesteading and/or off the grid living forums and I had this one another one bookmarked for a little while before I decided to join. And because of past experiences, I wasn't sure if I wanted to join or if I'd be just fine lurking and reading.
The more I wanted to get away from the city, the more joining looked good. So I did.
I mean, I've done more in the short few weeks I've been here in making that shift, than I had just without it and just dreaming and reading about it or watching others do it. So, the forum is like an accountability buddy 😀
 
There once was a forum for country like folk, who were fun and fair and could tell a good joke.
The rules of that forum were simple and clear, join in for friendship, whit-whimsy and cheer.
But as is the case when our will's becomes free, someone comes along to spoil the glee.
Now now don't you worry, as is often the case, those members just need to be corralled back into place.
Our staff will swoop in they do not hesitate, to correct and support and yes moderate.
"Be kind to each other, respectful you'll be" or this forum is simply no place for thee.
Don't bring your spamming or trolling or flaming for if you do 'tis you we'll be shaming.
We are not opposed to put you in the slammer or let Angie out with her mighty ban hammer.
Instead bring your wisdom, your heart and your pics.. of log cabins, and rifles, goats and young chicks.
Join in with discussion and share what you know, as long as within those words the line you will tow.
Be part of this group, let's say family, a close knit laid back community.
Yes HCL is for one and for all, our staff is quite friendly and always on call.
A neighborly place for our members to roam, so please settle in for you are now home.

When I read this it confirmed what I thought, I'm glad I'm here.
 
I started out with a somewhat, survivalist mentality. Living in the mountains, there is always a chance someone could get careless with fire and I would have to bug out. I then joined Bushcraft USA forum to learn what is good or bad as far as surviving in the woods, and what products work best for the situation. I am now here to learn how to expand my knowledge and way of life to now include the home as well.
 
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I never belonged to a forum. I didn't follow anyone here. I don't frequent other sites. I'm original as in: I am SICK of the grind. I HAVE to be here, raising my kids in a city and at one point I liked it. But I want more space now, I want to be more self sufficient. I don't trust our leaders or the stability of our country anymore. I want to learn how to do this with kids, to see it's viable, instead of being called crazy, or being told by therapists that I'm ok just where I'm at. grrr.....I grew up on a farm, My father was a homesteader. I learned a lot from him, and the rest on my own. I have everything I'd need to live off the land for 6 months. water filtration straws, dehydrated veggies and dried meats, beans, tent, quilts, warm clothes all ready. Fishing pole, rifle and ammo. and a little rat terrier who HATES the cold, but hunts super well.
 
Some dear person sent me a message, Weedy, I think, thank you! I have been on a couple of others sites, however I've narrowed it down to just this one, which I believe to be the best.
 
Camalot said:
What happened at Survivalist Boards?
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Good question. I don't really know. It just went to hell, in a fairly short timeline. Its still somewhat of a mystery to me. But the final straw was a 'night of long knives' style purge where without warning or reason all the top posters where banned in a single night.

But before there was a troubling amount of suspicious accounts, old accounts, with a few dozen posts, and then no posts for three or four years, suddenly reactivated only to make suspicious 'fishing' type posts. There where incidents of Doxing and huge influx of 'anti-survivalist' posts.....people essentially attacking the very idea of prepping or survivalism, mods trolling their own forum....really weird stuff. Perhaps the most prepared person on the entire forum was attacked and shot, he believes because of his forum involvement.

All the 'heart and soul' type people of the forum, the good guys who really kept the place worthwhile, started disappearing and place become a weird, vacuous echo chamber of wonky politics and suspicious accounts.

Its really very disturbing as it happened so swiftly, and with seeming co-ordination that it didn't seem like just a natural forum death, as often happens, but a calculated takeover. I real fear it has become a 'honeypot' for various powers that be, rather than a real forum anymore.
 
Aerindel said:
Good question. I don't really know. It just went to hell, in a fairly short timeline. Its still somewhat of a mystery to me. But the final straw was a 'night of long knives' style purge where without warning or reason all the top posters where banned in a single night.

But before there was a troubling amount of suspicious accounts, old accounts, with a few dozen posts, and then no posts for three or four years, suddenly reactivated only to make suspicious 'fishing' type posts. There where incidents of Doxing and huge influx of 'anti-survivalist' posts.....people essentially attacking the very idea of prepping or survivalism, mods trolling their own forum....really weird stuff. Perhaps the most prepared person on the entire forum was attacked and shot, he believes because of his forum involvement.

All the 'heart and soul' type people of the forum, the good guys who really kept the place worthwhile, started disappearing and place become a weird, vacuous echo chamber of wonky politics and suspicious accounts.

Its really very disturbing as it happened so swiftly, and with seeming co-ordination that it didn't seem like just a natural forum death, as often happens, but a calculated takeover. I real fear it has become a 'honeypot' for various powers that be, rather than a real forum anymore.
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Thank tou for that account. I was never there but I am a curious animal.

Ben
 
AJ Mckinley said:
I never belonged to a forum. I didn't follow anyone here. I don't frequent other sites. I'm original as in: I am SICK of the grind. I HAVE to be here, raising my kids in a city and at one point I liked it. But I want more space now, I want to be more self sufficient. I don't trust our leaders or the stability of our country anymore. I want to learn how to do this with kids, to see it's viable, instead of being called crazy, or being told by therapists that I'm ok just where I'm at. grrr.....I grew up on a farm, My father was a homesteader. I learned a lot from him, and the rest on my own. I have everything I'd need to live off the land for 6 months. water filtration straws, dehydrated veggies and dried meats, beans, tent, quilts, warm clothes all ready. Fishing pole, rifle and ammo. and a little rat terrier who HATES the cold, but hunts super well.
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Pssst...

Don't tell anyone else about this site.

;)

There is an introduction section where can introduce yourself please.

Ben
 
"Cause any self respecting homestead forum needs a cantankerous hillbilly.
that and Grimm e mailed me about this site after PS turned into a POS.
 
Hardcalibres said:
Loss of focus upon the subject in the forum name.
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I've seen a fair number of forums die out because of loss of interest and participation.

But what was odd about SB is it that it seemed like there where a lot of people joining, but not to talk about survivalism but rather to argue against it, and a lot of old accounts coming back alive and doing the same thing, at the same time the powers that be gleefully encouraged the shift.

All lining up with a time when a lot of scared, 'normal' people where joining and asking real questions on how do deal with the current collapse and being told either all was well, or there was nothing they could do.

It's enough to make me suspicious that there was an active 'attack' of some kind on the worlds most visible survival 'community' right at the time of greatest threat. Not an attack on the site software, but social engineering attack designed to completely co-opt and destroy the culture.
 
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Aerindel said:
I've seen a fair number of forums die out because of loss of interest and participation.

But what was odd about SB is it that it seemed like there where a lot of people joining, but not to talk about survivalism but rather to argue against it, and a lot of old accounts coming back alive and doing the same thing, at the same time the powers that be gleefully encouraged the shift.

All lining up with a time when a lot of scared, 'normal' people where joining and asking real questions on how do deal with the current collapse and being told either all was well, or there was nothing they could do.

It's enough to make me suspicious that there was an active 'attack' of some kind on the worlds most visible survival 'community' right at the time of greatest threat. Not an attack on the site software, but social engineering attack designed to completely co-opt and destroy the culture.
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While there may have been some of that, I interpreted that when a critical mass was reached, of ranting about how unfair particular parts of politics had become, then people who were of that mindset, and found the SB, were the going to be attracted to the average content there and were going to be the only new members that stayed. Over time that process changed the membership makeup.

It is true that most survivalists are politically right leaning - but it is untrue that most right leaning people are survivalists.

In fact, political bias seems to be independent of normalcy bias - no part of the political spectrum is any better or worse for normalcy bias.

But there is a good correlation between people who think that ranting about politics on a web forum (that is an echo chamber) is going to change the world and being full of ****.

You and I warned them back a few years ago........and those warnings were remembered when things got really bad there a year or so ago. They have made a substantial effort to tone down the politics, but if they push all the village idiots out now, the place would end up pretty quiet.

The owners and admin (of a big commercial forum) are always going to be more accepting of derailed discussions (and lack of nameplate focus) than they are of the whole forum becoming a ghost town.

I interpret that they are trying to address the problems slowly.........but it makes the SB a bit of a waste of time for survivalists.
 
That was certainly where I started making warnings..but....there was weirdness going on starting in 2019 there that I still struggle to describe properly.

Perhaps the closest I can get to is that I felt like there was a lot of 'gaslighting' going on.

But when I tried to point my finger at it I just end up coming off like one to these guys:


 
I cannot think of the name of the guy who was the admin at SB. Was it Dave? Somehow, I thought he owned it, but I think I was wrong about that. I don't think he owned it, but an organization did. And am I wrong that he is no longer an admin there? In my crazy thinking about it, I thought he sold his interest in SB. What do I know?
 
Weedygarden said:
I cannot think of the name of the guy who was the admin at SB. Was it Dave? Somehow, I thought he owned it, but I think I was wrong about that. I don't think he owned it, but an organization did. And am I wrong that he is no longer an admin there? In my crazy thinking about it, I thought he sold his interest in SB. What do I know?
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It was Kevin Felts you are thinking of.

He owned the SB at the start (but reading what he posted, I always somehow suspected he had just ended up with the SB by accident - because he never seemed like the sort of guy who would come up with a good idea or do a good job of building anything).

Kev mostly posted dumb ideas.....and some times he trolled the boards to just get the post count up.........so he didn't set a good example for survivalists or even just casual members of the forum.

When the current owners took over, he stayed for a while as admin but eventually had a falling out with them (over money of course). It turned out even the current admin (Shawn) didn't really like him, because he spilled the beans and posted that Kev had actually sold the SB off many rather than a few years before, but without mentioning it to the members.
 
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Hardcalibres said:
It was Kevin Felts you are thinking of.

He owned the SB at the start (but reading what he posted, I always somehow suspected he had just ended up with the SB by accident - because he never seemed like the sort of guy who would come with a good idea or do a good job of building anything).

Kev mostly posted dumb ideas.....and some times he trolled the boards to just get the post count up.........so he didn't set a good example for survivalists or even just casual members of the forum.

When the current owners took over, he stayed for a while as admin but eventually had a falling out with them (over money or course). It turned out even the current admin (Shawn) didn't really like him, because he spilled the beans and posted that Kev had actually sold the SB off years before, without mentioning it to the members.
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Yes, Kevin! Interesting how things go.

PS changed admins and that changed everything. When I joined, there were more than 50 active threads every day. I missed what was going on, but when there were only 12 or so active threads a day, it was apparent something was going on. I just didn't know what.
 
Weedygarden said:
Yes, Kevin! Interesting how things go.

PS changed admins and that changed everything. When I joined, there were more than 50 active threads every day. I missed what was going on, but when there were only 12 or so active threads a day, it was apparent something was going on. I just didn't know what.
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There are a lot of posts there even now.....it is just that most of them are crap or just trivia.....almost none of them are survivalism related.

I feel bad for newbys that wander in there (and get little or bad advice on how to get going with survivalism) and the few decent survivalists that remain active......they must have a thick skin and nowhere else to go.

It is interesting to me that the concept of critical mass is not just applicable to nuclear physics. Web forums need a certain critical mass of good quality, subject matter specific posts every day to keep people, with that interest, logging on every day.
 
Hardcalibres said:
Kev mostly posted dumb ideas.....and some times he trolled the boards to just get the post count up.........so he didn't set a good example for survivalists or even just casual members of the forum.
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He actually told me the first week I joined that I hadn't been there long enough to ask questions....luckily I knew what I was getting into as I had stalked the forum for years before posting so I had a thick skin.

I wasn't a big fan. I think he was always bitter that his youtube channel got almost no views, while tons of other survivalist channels where thriving. He couldn't figure out why nobody wanted to watch eight minutes of him standing in a muddy field talking to his dogs about it raining too much for his potatoes. I could never figure out what his claim to fame was as it didn't seem as though he actually did anything survival related other than post on the forum. I guess he built a chicken coop once....that couldn't keep predators out because he made a video about it.

The great irony is, towards the end of things, I actually came to agree with him more and more as it became obvious that he was on the outs at the forum. He was kinda of an idiot....but actually a true believer, or at least pretended to be, which was more than a lot of people at that point.

Hardcalibres said:
It is interesting to me that the concept of critical mass is not just applicable to nuclear physics. Web forums need a certain critical mass of good quality, subject matter specific posts every day to keep people, with that interest, logging on every day.
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I've been on forums since 98 and I always thought the rise and fall of forums was interesting as any forum is just a microcosm of a real society.

I've seen plenty of forums go from a thriving community, to half a dozen oldtimers huddling in the offtopic section talking about the good old days more than once.

But it was odd to see SB culturally flip instead of dying. One critical mass diminished until it could be annihilated literally overnight, while being almost seamlessly replaced with another one.
 
Aerindel said:
......... One critical mass diminished until it could be annihilated literally overnight, .............
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Ironically, four frequent posters got the chop that night. Three were survivalists and one was self evidently not (and that was the foundation of the argument that led to the bans).

Guess who was the only one who came back and is there now?

That says a lot about what the SB has evolved into - and it is most definitely not a survivalism forum..
 
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