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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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And here I had been thinking all along I had been banned for some kind of misunderstanding (Probably caused by me! lol) Which is probably the real reason! But, I thought it kind of reminded me of getting thrown out of bars. I always thought "I've been thrown out of better places than this!" lol I hate to hear that. I know people were talking about the changes after Kev sold it.
 
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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I actually see three of them here you being one of them. Correct. Make that 4.
 
Aerindel said:
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.



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.
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Sounds like a domestic, alphabet, cyber attack.
 
I've expected serious pressure to be applied here for some time. Especially after JB sullied the whitehouse. Thought they'd go after every dissenting voice, fingers crossed they are busy elsewhere. Gab posted they had 1 terabyte of data transfer today between members and servers. Most folks over there are conservative, younger and a boat load of new people leaving the blue daily.
 
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Peanut said:
I've expected serious pressure to be applied here for some time. Especially after JB sullied the whitehouse. Thought they'd go after every dissenting voice, fingers crossed they are busy elsewhere. Gab posted they had 1 terabyte of data transfer today between members and servers. Most folks over there are conservative, younger and a boat load of new people leaving the blue daily.
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I actually don't spend much time on any other forums. I stayed on survivalist Boards because there were quite a few people and I was wasn't really important. Great information as well.
 
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Hardcalibres said:
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.
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There are a couple of know it all's there. We have had discussions here and in PS and when I added comments relative to the same things we had discussed, a couple of them at SB always knew better. It is one of the reasons I have never been very active there.

One discussion there that I remember well was about powdered milk versus UHT milk. One guy just wasn't going to ever agree to UHT, nor let anyone else say anything good about it. Meanwhile, we've had positive conversations here about UHT milk as a prep item.

In any group, there are always a few who set the tone, control the group, one way or another. Without leadership that ultimately sets a good tone, there are people who will not be active. There were a couple people at PS who evidently PM'd people and were on them when they posted. It never happened to me, but I was PM'd about it.

A man who lived in my area used to get what he called "nastygrams" from a few people in our area Facebook groups, who would then post openly as though they were kind and sweet and wonderful and he was the creep. People control others in different ways. When leaders do not step in and set the tone, the leaders come from the group, selected by the admins, or not. When leaders do not push back, they've lost control.
 
Relative to all forums about preparedness and surviving, people have tried to say that the interest declined. It may have here and there, but from other places and groups, I believe that the interest is up again. People may not be as active now, but I belong to groups where daily people are asking "What do I need to be prepared?" Better late than never, but when I see that question, I want to say, "There are no Cliff Notes for preparedness. It is a lifestyle and a way of thinking." I believe that many want a quick and easy lifestyle, and for it to never end. Maybe we all do, but we have to get real. If you've lived aspects of preparedness, such as farming, gardening, raising farm animals, canning, stocking up, DIY, working hard, then you have a clue. If you have always gotten your food from a grocery store, and hate guns and other things that may not be socially acceptable, you may not be able to ever really be prepared and survive tough times, imho.
 
Weedygarden said:
There are a couple of know it all's there. We have had discussions here and in PS and when I added comments relative to the same things we had discussed, a couple of them at SB always knew better. It is one of the reasons I have never been very active there.

One discussion there that I remember well was about powdered milk versus UHT milk. One guy just wasn't going to ever agree to UHT, nor let anyone else say anything good about it. Meanwhile, we've had positive conversations here about UHT milk as a prep item.

In any group, there are always a few who set the tone, control the group, one way or another. Without leadership that ultimately sets a good tone, there are people who will not be active. There were a couple people at PS who evidently PM'd people and were on them when they posted. It never happened to me, but I was PM'd about it.

A man who lived in my area used to get what he called "nastygrams" from a few people in our area Facebook groups, who would then post openly as though they were kind and sweet and wonderful and he was the creep. People control others in different ways. When leaders do not step in and set the tone, the leaders come from the group, selected by the admins, or not. When leaders do not push back, they've lost control.
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Lol. You're right. Posting on SB was always a blood sport until they realize that you actually know what you're talking about.
 
Weedygarden said:
There are a couple of know it all's there. We have had discussions here and in PS and when I added comments relative to the same things we had discussed, a couple of them at SB always knew better. It is one of the reasons I have never been very active there.

One discussion there that I remember well was about powdered milk versus UHT milk. One guy just wasn't going to ever agree to UHT, nor let anyone else say anything good about it. Meanwhile, we've had positive conversations here about UHT milk as a prep item.

In any group, there are always a few who set the tone, control the group, one way or another. Without leadership that ultimately sets a good tone, there are people who will not be active. There were a couple people at PS who evidently PM'd people and were on them when they posted. It never happened to me, but I was PM'd about it.

A man who lived in my area used to get what he called "nastygrams" from a few people in our area Facebook groups, who would then post openly as though they were kind and sweet and wonderful and he was the creep. People control others in different ways. When leaders do not step in and set the tone, the leaders come from the group, selected by the admins, or not. When leaders do not push back, they've lost control.
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I may have actually threatened a few people there when they attacked. Seems you had to create your own space there to survive. lol
 
Camalot said:
Lol. You're right. Posting on SB was always a blood sport until they realize that you actually know what you're talking about.
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There are a couple of names that I remember. One guy from a NE State, Minute. I always avoid his comments. Knows it all! I think he is like others from his state, argumentative and always right. He's fine with drinking powdered milk and forget that UHT milk! Have at it guy. I've never had anyone else say that they are fine with powdered milk, ever.
 
Every forum will have the full range of wonks, from the know it alls, to the know nothings. Thats just life.

A GOOD forum will have system baked into it through rules, organization, or culture, that allows people to have the discussions they want to without the wonks taking over and destroying every single topic.

The most common and simplest system is to require everyone on the forum to share an interest in whatever the forum is about, even if only in the broadest terms.

If you go to the Toyota Tundra forum and continually post about how you would never own a Tundra and instead think everyone should drive a Ford, you will be banned. There is no 'rule' violation here, but to maintain the culture of the forum, you CANNOT allow people who are there just to pick a fight to continue.

On the steampunk forum, if you join and just post on every topic that you think steampunk is lame and that people should really just watch the NFL more....you will be banned.

If you join SB boards and say that being a survivalist is a waste of time and money......a bunch of people will agree with you. If you create a post and say you only want answers from people actually interested in that topic....the mods will mock you and tell you you can't do that. If someone posts a really bad and illegal idea and you tell them they are likely to get themselves killed trying that....you get banned.

But like I said....I'm glad I found this place. Like everywhere else, it has the full range of wonks....but you can actually have a discussion here without every. single. topic. being sabotaged by people who don't just disagree with the answers, but who think you shouldn't even have asked the question.

Well, I say found, but in truth it was just because I was invited.
 
Weedygarden said:
There are a couple of names that I remember. One guy from a NE State, Minute. I always avoid his comments. Knows it all! I think he is like others from his state, argumentative and always right. He's fine with drinking powdered milk and forget that UHT milk! Have at it guy. I've never had anyone else say that they are fine with powdered milk, ever.
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I had actually been a member for more than 10 years before I started to recognize and commit to memory names. I had chosen to see everything below radar.
 
Aerindel said:
But like I said....I'm glad I found this place. Like everywhere else, it has the full range of wonks....but you can actually have a discussion here without every. single. topic. being sabotaged by people who don't just disagree with the answers, but who think you shouldn't even have asked the question.
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There have been attempts at this, trying to sabotage other's threads and comments. It doesn't really work here. I can send you a couple links to see the things that have been ridiculed and attempted to shut down. What is interesting to me is that the people who have done this REALLY cannot take what they give. This is true everywhere in life.
 
I came to this forum from another site that has a few too many trolls and know it all/ know nothing types. I have been prepping for many event/ situations or world events for the last 8-10 years, food , water, security, medical and have plans for most things that may happen.
my wife and daughter are all into food preparation for long term, canning , freeze drying, gardening. I hunt deer , turkey’s, I really enjoy the like minded folks here as well as a select group of people over at DDP forum.
 
Camalot said:
I had actually been a member for more than 10 years before I started to recognize and commit to memory names. I had chosen to see everything below radar.
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Yes, me, too. The first person I could remember was Mike, the guy who lives in Colorado and built a bunker in Wyoming.
That is what happens when there is such a large group, having a difficult time knowing people and identifying names. I do recognize a few names now. I especially recognize people who are the negative Nellies, always have to oppose and argue about someone else's comments. There are a few egos there that run the show and run anyone with any opinion out.
 
I joined this forum because it seemed like the logical thing to do at the time. I didn't know it would be such a bad influence on me. ;)
 
I joined because I desperately needed a way to occupy my evening time. I remembered how much I enjoyed the forums at Backwoods Home Magazine before they shut it down, so I just started searching the internet for homesteading/preparedness sorts of forums. This place seems pretty nice so far, and gives me a place to go read and possibly interact with people when the empty house is getting to me.
 
To be honest, to share what I knew before what I knew died with me.
if anything I know saves one or two lives, mission accomplished.
 
I was on another site (mainstreampreppers) for almost 10 years, there were a core group of people (I would estimate about 25) that shared ideas and progress in various activities, but the site became unstable and eventually just died. Just before the site died one of the members talked about this site it seemed logical to transition. I like having access to a community of experts (people of experience) who can answer a question or two and I like having multiple threads on different topics so you can think of it like a library where you can check out a book on a subject. I have enjoyed the gardening threads, especially the idea of starting a new thread each year, I have found myself looking back a what people were doing this time last year or the year before and it gives me ideas of things I could do. I love the construction projects that have been shown, some of the work people are doing is just outstanding. And finally I like the global reach that this site has, members in Australia, Canada, US, Germany, UK and the heavy coverage of the US NY to AK and every place in between: For me it is almost like an early warning system to help me stay on top of what is about to happen.

Well I've spoke too much but I really like the people here, I like the idea of being able to make a mistake with out someone saying you dumb-Axx, yes there may be some constructive criticism but I never feel any hatefulness or malaise. Kind of feels like family. ;)
 
jishinsjourney said:
I used to spend time on the Backwoods Home forums, but they closed a while back. I’ve been missing a homesteading community and was glad to find this one when I started poking around. I like the vibe here a lot!
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Go to new member introductions and tell us a little about yourself! Welcome!!
 
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