Continuing the discussion from Were you guys TRYING to kill this forum?:
IMHO, 99% of all M4 Carbine members would much rather have the old M4Carbine forum back with just a few minor tweaks. I believe that is undeniable and undebatable. It is clearly evident the current owner or owners don’t care, so you have a dead forum.
Sadly, there IS no bringing back the old vBulletin, the software is End Of Life. Trying to tweak a vBulletin install now is like trying to paint the nails and do make up on a patient in slow but progressive and untreatable organ failure.
There ARE however other boardwares closer to vB in fit and function than Discourse, but I suspect SOLGW was influenced by what Palmetto was doing and wanted to “keep up with the Joneses getting something new and hip and modern and slick” not understanding how change-averse the userbase here was.
They aren’t even keeping up this new format. We’ve been complaining about the dead, black space and having to scroll all the way down to find the forum for weeks, which has been completely ignored. They could fix all the glitches and market this forum on their website to get more shooters back in here but honestly I think they DGAF.
Supposedly their in-house marketing team is taking over administration, maybe some user emails to SOLGW Customer Service will tell them there’s something seriously broken they need to get their crap together and fix.
Not like I have any leverage on future purchases to wield as a Clue-Bat, WA has banned all AR variants by name or design and won’t even let C&R FFL’s get antiques to their doors without a local state-licensed dealer and state registration.
Fuck, I wish this wasn’t happening, but I think getting everyone used to the new shitty format was just a bridge too far.
I did it, and will go down with the ship, but just hate to see it happen.
It’s like we need some massive outreach, advertising campaign, to get old members back, or new ones, or something…fuck, I don’t know.
Agreed. And I too am sticking around even with this weird format.
I was open to the new format, and it is better in some ways, but the bugginess of it is a problem. If it just worked right, getting used to it would be easy.
Get outta my head, dude, it’s a scary place in here… I was just saying precisely that in a moderators channel last night. 
We have a certain negative rep in some circles to overcome… I’m also over at Palmetto and when I asked one of their mods about an information-exchange to pop each other headsups about trolls and other troublemakers was told “we already have that with ARFCOM” like M4C has lost all relevance.
The negative rep thing is something that was there. I joined initially in 2012, had to rejoin several years later when I my old email went away. I always read through the forums, but never started posting until like 4 or 5 years ago. At the time when I started reading the forum back then, there was a LOT of attitude from the mods and other members. “Use the search bar!” “Glad you’re happy with your shitty AR!” “This topic has been discussed!” “Go over to ARFcom!”. But, if you looked, you could get all the info that you needed or wanted. As time passed, it got more friendly, either due to the guiding members, moderators, getting older, moving on, or sadly passing away, but it was more mellow. I look at my age right now (68), and I don’t spend a lot of time online as much as I used to (forum wise). Blogs I’ve followed for a decade or more have ceased, it’s just the nature of the internet. At this time, I have no idea why this site exists. I spent 99% of my time in discussion or technical. That was the meat and potatoes. How’s that going right now? I fooking hate the new look. Yeah, I’m old, but I don’t want to adjust, cuz it really sucks ass. It makes me gag when I compare it to the old look. It’s dying, I just dont’ know why it’s still existing. That being said, I’ll still pop in to see if there’s anything in tech. Okay, done with rant.
That was a shitty time. I remember the site was relatively slow too so WHO CARES if we rehash an old topic?
The era prior to that was the TRAINING RESUME douche bags. It was all about whose class you could brag about taking.
They used to lick Pat Roger’s balls here, then he betrayed the site. I laughed my ass off.
After all that BS, the sight normalized. I’d all but forgotted about some of the stupidity that pops up on the forums until I started posting elsewhere. Kel Tec threads, etc. WTF?
Those comments used piss me off to no end, especially the “use the search bar” comment even though they were never directed at me. What a great way to run off new shooters and members and stifle discussions. Some guys purchase what they can afford or, like a lot of new shooters, buy first and then join forums later and learn about what is quality. But hey, tell him he made a shitty decision and don’t ask any questions before searching the whole forum first.
Agreed. That was a terrible way to treat new members. And the custom build forum had some nazi-esque rules for posting too. Just dumb.
Frankly, I woulda liked something like an “IraqGunz Basic Course in a Thread” approach. “Bought one of these brands? Start HERE for a quick and easy tuneup” kinda thing.
If we can turn around the death-spiral it might STILL have value as a “Common Problems & Their Solutions” resource.
Good evening.
I am not actually Rob, so sorry if it looks like that. The backend of the site is pretty busted at the moment so I’m unable to create a new system admin account for myself.
I have been handed this. I was part of the migration team 10 months ago, but I had nothing to do with actually running the forums.
I don’t have a lot of direction from those above me as of yet, but I see how many of you are passionate and upset about the way things are going here so I figured I should check in. I have some experience running very large forums (The Donald, for instance), so once I get some more direction and hopefully feedback from the membership here, I will either make necessary corrections, work on passing the torch, and either way I will communicate things with the community as best as I’m able.
For now, just know that things are changing, I am here and I am listening, but sadly I do not know the future of the site as of yet. Chime in, I’ll respond to what I can, and hopefully we can keep M4C up and running whether we’re running it in the long term or not.
Thanks
–JC Williams
An effort needs to be made.
I imagine ad revenue has been crushed, and my guess is that it wasn’t great when purchased. Side note: I was always suspicious when “double posts” would happen for a little while then stop.
But, you’re right. People still here are passionate. And if you can make this place show up on Google, it is one of the best, or the best reference, points for what “works” in the AR platform. It’s also a cool reference for the timeline of system development through much of the GWOT and rise of civilian training.
An effort needs to be made.
A) Make it easy to find in searches.
B) Make it easy to look at (it isn’t bad now, but need to make an easy default setting for those who don’t want to personalize)
C) Combine some subforums
So… you’ve been handed a turd, given no direction from the forum owner, haven’t the authority or ability to even make your own Admin account, but you express hope that M4C will continue. Interesting introduction. Welcome.
As far as user feedback… Reading the Site Feedback section would be a good place to start. There’s a lot of constructive criticism and solutions offered from users going back to last Summer, including those expressing frustration who have since abandoned the forum. Recommend a hot cup of coffee or an adult beverage and taking the time to actually read what folks have been saying.
Best of luck.
Yes, a lower priority (in my opinion) than fixing the format, but there are too many subforms in the EE, in particular. With as low traffic as we have right now, basically all the subforums are redundant, but hopefully that changes.
Read “general” too, there a whole thread on there about where users are looking to go as they abandon this forum. Maybe check out some of those places briefly to see what they offer @M4C_Admin
According to Discourse the three largest threads in the Site Feedback section are 9min, 7min and 4min reads. Perhaps if you provided links here to GD threads worthy of reading there would be an hour or so required for JC to get up to speed with user feedback.