Hi Glenda,
I don't know if you are the correct person to send this to or not but you are the only POC I seem to have at Vertical Scope these days.
I am resigning as site admin at Graybeard Outdoors (
https://www.go2gbo.com) effective midnight central time April 30, 2021. I will continue to serve as site admin thru the end of April but after that will no longer perform admin duties.
It's been a long and difficult journey since I founded the site in 1997. I sold the site to Tactical Republic in March of 2014 and agreed to remain as admin for at least two years as part of the sales contract. I told them I'd continue so long as I could and felt good about doing so.
Frankly I just no longer feel good about being there. VS has done nothing but change what I had started and turned into one of the largest and most active outdoor internet sites around. At one point we were in the top million internet sites of all types on the entire internet.
At this point VS has just about killed the site off and from my perspective just doesn't seem to care. So I also now no longer care. I poured my heart, soul, blood, sweat and tears into the site and to see it ruined in such a short time since VS has taken control makes me sick.
I just can't continue to be an administrator watching it go down the drain. I will continue to visit some and perhaps post if I feel I have something to add but can no longer represent Vertical Scope as a staff member or serve as a liaison between the site owners and the members and moderators.
I have submitted invoices for March and April or more correctly my son did for me. I just can't figure out the new system put in place for being paid. And am just not going to continue to ask someone else to do it for me.
Today you have minimal activity on the site. The Cannon forum is the single most active forum there, the classifieds which you've dropped to the bottom of the forums index is the next most active mostly the TC and H&R Classifieds. Other than those the political discussion and Pot bellied stove forum (what you refer to as an off topic area) are the rest of the activity there. Your recent directive will most likely kill posting to those last two.
If you really wish the site to survive and be profitable you really need someone who understands what the shooting, hunting, fishing, trapping and outdoor community wants and needs from it. You need to listen to the membership and be responsive to their needs. Your software change this last time has cost you the majority of those folks who were active prior to it. Internet sites do not grow and prosper with the site owners ignoring the membership and doing what is comfortable to the owners. A one size fits all approach from VS has pretty much killed the site.
I will honestly be surprised if it's still on the internet and available for use a year from now. If it goes down as it has this last year it won't. Folks are leaving like rats leaving a sinking ship.
That hurts me deeply as it was my baby. I birthed it and cared for it until it was a mature site with tens of thousands of active members. Then I sold it and hoped it would continue to grow and it did under Tactical Republic, but since VS has taken over it has just withered. I never understood why but as soon as folks heard VS had taken it over folks left in droves. I asked many why and heard tales of true hatred for VS. Again I didn't understand. Now all this time later I now understood. Your company seems to buy up active viable sites and milk what you can from them but can't seem to leave alone what made them active and viable. Your company feels the need to change every site to look like all the others you own.
That might work with some member bases but it doesn't work for the base of GBO and likely not other member bases on other similar sites. But it's yours, VS owns it lock, stock and barrel and you can do with it as VS management sees fit.
But I can't be a part of it. I therefore must regretfully submit my resignation from all official duties related to the site effective April 30, at midnight central time.
Bill
Bill Graham
President, Graybeard Outdoor Enterprises
