BM is allowed here isn't he ?
NO, actually he isn't. He long ago wore out his welcome even before Marlin shut down the MT site and you guys came here.
It really matters not in the least to me who opens up new sites. Heck I'll even give you some good advice and help myself just as I did Larry. Of course he didn't listen to me and you may not either. But when the time comes and BEFORE you spend money on a server contact me and at least listen to what I have to say on the subject.
I guess it does however strike me as strange what's going on with you Marlin guys. You say "generally at least" you all want to stay together. But in fact you've scattered to the four winds and opening up more sites is just scattering you more.
When MT shut down groups of you went to various sites like mine and many others and asked for "special forums" to be set up just for you rather than fitting into any site and what was already there. Many of us did as you requested and set up these special forums for you. On most sites I know of the activity on those new forums was so low it really was a waste of time to have them. Some dropped them. Some like me have left them even tho they are very lightly used.
Then Larry decides he needs to open a new site to bring ALL of you into one place. Well that didn't work either. He had less than 1000 registered members last I looked. I believe there were 14,000 + of you at MT. Now you're thinking of doing again what Larry has already done and set up one more site to pull you all together. Fine. I have absolutely no problem with it.
BUT from my experience in visiting forums for about 7-8 years now and owning one for darn nearly as long all you're gonna do is further divide the folks and lessen the chances of any one of the various places where old MT members are surviving. Now if you guys abandon these Marlin Forums I've set up it won't really matter to me. If some of you still use them you're still welcome to them also. I make no money on them and they really cost me none either so to me it just doesn't matter.
What I have seen tho is that the proliferation of new forums has really impacted old ones and also new ones. There really is only so many folks who are out there to visit them. Sure most folks visit more than one. But most folk's time is limited. They can only visit so many in a day. So they tend to develop favorites and only go there. I've seen many of the truly big old sites close since I opened mine.
When I first got online back in early '97 or so there was a site called SPAV which "may" still exist that was one of the really big ones. Last I looked it hardly had any activity and may now be gone. All Outdoors Coffeeshop was a true monster in size. It too is history. Josh's Hunt Info was another of the really huge well used sites. It appears on it's last legs and hardly anyone visits and posts anymore. At one time he and one other guy fully made their living from that site. I've seen hundreds of small sites pop up and fade in this time for a variety of reasons.
Trust me owning and maintaining a web site like this is a serious pain in the you know where. It is a thank less job and you bear all the burden of costs. At one time before I went to a dedicated server those costs were eating me alive. Some years I lost money and some years I broke even. Now my costs are fixed and while high at least I know they aren't going to rise on me.
I've watched many sites whose owners claimed to need huge amounts of money to keep them running and the loyal fans of it dutifuly tossed money their way. I don't know of a single one of them who have been honest with the members regarding costs. I know of one who demands his members each year front him a mimimum of $2500 for a dedicated server. That site has more advertising revenue than any other I know of. I have the largest server package I'm aware of on the second largest web hosting company in the US. I pay less than $1000 per year to be hosted. For that I get 1000 gigs of monthly data transfer, 80 gigs of hard drive space and a guarantee of 99.9% up time. Any site owner spending more on a server is wasting money, or lying to their members.
So back on subject. From the 14,000 registered members of MT I'm thinking maybe 1500 Marlin guys came here initially. Now I doubt 200 of you use the forums you asked for. Larry has maybe 1000 registered. Where are the 14,000? Beats me. I've looked at the various major forum sites I'm aware of and sure haven't seen the influx. I think 12,000 of them are a vapor and have disappeared never to be seen again. You guys are never gonna ALL be together again.
If you really want to "be together" then those who feel that way just need to communicate and decide among yourselves which place to go. Then do it. Here, at Marlin Owners or anywhere else you chose. But setting up another ain't gonna be the magic wand you expect it to be. Ask Larry. Running a more or less wide open site as you think you want is a sure fire kiss of death. You really can't. No server company I know of will allow it. If you try sooner or later you are gonna come to their attention as violating their rules and you'll be homeless in a heart beat. Why do you think most of us have the rules we have? Because all legimate server sites have basically the same rules that apply to us as site owners.
So have at it. Call on me if you wish. I'll help if I can. But in less than one year you will find you've made a mistake and that it hasn't become what you'd hoped. You'll be out some money and will have gotten so disgusted with the idea you'll wish you'd never even bought your first computer. Oh yeah, been there done that. That's the voice of experience speaking.
GBO has lasted since late '97 and we're still growing faster than most any other site of similar nature I know of. Believe me not without daily headaches. Were it not for you guys who moderate the various forums taking a huge part of the burden off me it wouldnt' exist. We've had minor flare ups and had small groups leave always predicting the end of GBO at their departure. In spite of it we continue to grow. Why?
I think because of the very think many of you are wanting to set up another forum to avoid. Moderators and rules. Decent folks want some semblance of order. They don't want caos and anarchy. They don't want personal attacks, they don't want name calling, they don't want cussing and other things some call "freedom of speech". They want a nice clean site where they can feel free to allow their children and wives to visit and not worry about what they will see or read. That's what GBO stands for and why in my opinion it continues to grow at the rate it does.
Off soap box. Next up.
