Attention John, what do you think?

[tooln]

Now that the site has been up and running for a while what do you think?
Is it going as expected?
Are you happy with the results?
Are you surprised with the rate it has grown?

Personally I really like this new format over the vBulletin.
Is there anything any of us can do to help?

Keep up the good work and again THANKS

 

[biglakeba$$]

This is a much better set up from a users viewpoint. I really like it a lot.

 

[John-W-WI]

Its gone way better than I expected (except the whole "starting over" thing) it's been great!.

I wanted to run xenForo for a couple of weeks to see how it did before I invested time and money in customizing it. It seems to have passed that test. My busy season is coming to an end in the next week or two, then I'll get to hacking on this to get it tuned up a little.

How can you help? Keep visiting, stay civil and enjoy yourself!

I have a few ideas to cover costs some day, but we aren't there yet. Maybe some day but not now.

Thanks everyone!

-John

 

[UP Powers]

I really love the site. it's awesome. 2 months from now this is going to be a model people look at for forums.

 

[chummer]

I still need help with pictures. The only way I can get them to post is to crop them way down. I take then with an iPhone. Other members seem to have full size pictures. What am I doing wrong? I tried to change the settings on the phone but didn't see any. I can't get any plot or big tree pics to fit, after cropping they are not worth posting.

 

[Alpha Doe]

I still need help with pictures. The only way I can get them to post is to crop them way down. I take then with an iPhone. Other members seem to have full size pictures. What am I doing wrong? I tried to change the settings on the phone but didn't see any. I can't get any plot or big tree pics to fit, after cropping they are not worth posting.

I post all my pictures through photobucket

 

[John-W-WI]

I still need help with pictures. The only way I can get them to post is to crop them way down. I take then with an iPhone. Other members seem to have full size pictures. What am I doing wrong? I tried to change the settings on the phone but didn't see any. I can't get any plot or big tree pics to fit, after cropping they are not worth posting.

You don't need to crop them, RESIZE them instead. Resize them to 800 wide x any height... And you'll be all set. Or use an online service as mentioned above.

-John

 

[tooln]

Paint in Windows is real easy to use to resize pictures.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Looks nice

 

[foggy]

Looks nice

Welcome back Steve! Much improved site. :)

 

[bat man]

When the banner ads start running, will the guys (not me) responsible for the phenomenal content and traffic be able to access a portion for causes they are passionate about?

Those guys and their passion will likely be the partial root of any financial gains the site receives and I would love to see them share that love where they see appropriate-

 

[bat man]

the value left when the value left

 

[John-W-WI]

I have ZERO plans for banner ads. I don't care for them when I surf the web, and I imagine nobody else does either. Here are my LOOSE thoughts - feel free to criticize :)

Eventually I would like to create a "commercial" section. Where people trying to sling product are allowed to post what they have to offer. Those same people would be allowed to post in all of the other forums so long as their signature clearly identified who they represent. All posts outside of the commercial section (by those people) would have to be in a helping manner, not advertising. Those same people would be expected to contribute in a meaningful way to the site. Not just talk about their product.

I hope to come up with a "user rating" system, so regular users get to 'vote' for or against commercial people's posts. Too many details to work out to explain it all. But that's where I'm heading right now. None of this will even be started for a month or 2 or 3. First I need to make some improvements to the site to make it 'better'. Starting with that #(#) logo at the top :)

(thanks for coming back Steve - glad you made it)

Thanks,

-John

 

[tooln]

John
What you have done so far is great. There is nothing in your plan to criticize that I can see.

 

[Steve Bartylla]

Thanks Foggy and John.

As far as your "loose" plan goes, your site. You can do any darn thing you'd like, seriously. That said, sounds good to me.

Very, very, VERY few things bug me on the internet, as I can always hit the X or choose to ignore it. The one thing that does really rub a nerve are posts that are all dressed up as, "I'm just trying to provide "good" info," when it's really a subversive push to sell products and/or services. I'm ALL for people trying to sell their stuff. Frankly, I have zero issue with people buying those products or services. However, the "good info" is almost always trying to massively overcomplicate or flat out not right, just to sell those products or services. So, now you have people that believe this hogwash that are trying to improve their hunting or property doing things that at best don't work and at worse are actually working against their goals...All because someone was trying to "help" the little people by sharing their vast knowledge of super effective secrets no one else has discovered. Unfortunately, this industry has many extremely good salesman/marketers that are great at convincing others that they know sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more than they really do and that they are just here to help the little people, because they care so gosh darn much.

I don't know how you stop that.

 

[bueller]

I don't know how you stop that.

You call them out on their BS when they lay it out there! I don't think that we will hesitate to do that over here ;)

 

[Steve Bartylla]

You call them out on their BS when they lay it out there! I don't think that we will hesitate to do that over here ;)

Yeah, I personally believe that's the best/only method. I have absolutely no problem when someone is straight forward with what they're trying to do. I always respected Tony LaPratt for getting on stage and telling the audience that, "I'll give you this much for free, but you have to pay for the rest." After that, it was up to the audience to decide if they wanted to pay for more or not...Or to believe what he said or believe it was a sales gimmick. It was all on the table.

The tough part is when people like me say they are doing it to help. Specifically, in my case, I'll flat out tell everyone that I do this because I'd bet somewhere around half or more of you have paid to see my seminars, bought a book, bought magazines I've been in, watched TV segments I've done or were a client, on one level or another. May sound cheesy as heck, but I know darn well that I'd never have been able to do this is it wasn't for you people doing that stuff, and I KNOW how much I love being able to do this as a career...It's a flat out dream job for me.

So, am I telling the truth or blowing sunshine to unleash some future product or service that I'm going to try to suck you all into buying? How can you tell for certain, either way? Maybe 20+ years has been a carefully orchestrated, well crafted persona I've tried to build, just for that purpose. Think that's ridiculous? I know at least 3 people in this industry that are as fake as a 3 dollar bill on TV that have kept it up (starting with video) for longer than that.

Challenging us is about the best approach I can see. It isn't fool proof, but at least most that are real aren't afraid of being challenged. They won't ignore it or run away for a couple weeks or longer every time it persists for more than a post or two. After all, they believe what they are saying. So, they aren't afraid to try to prove it. In fact, trying to prove it often provides new insights and learning opportunities for all involved.

Not a perfect system, but I do agree it's about as good as it gets, so long as it's not done in a "you're stupid," type manner. John's site and he can do what he wants, but I hope he allows that to happen.

 

[tooln]

Welcome Steve. Glad to see you here.