Prepping Dynamics

[Sniper-T]

Lol!

Ok, now that we've had lunch and recess I'm ready to bring school back in session and advance my next questions:

What sets us apart? What puts us a cut above? I cannot take anything away from the rapport and camraderie we 've already discussed. I enjoy it myself, but at the end of the day we are a survival/ prepping website, not social media.

I have my own thoughts on that, but I'd like to see whatbyou have to say first.

Annnd go!

I tend to disagree, While we obviously are a prepping/survival site, it is social media as well. This isn't just a regurgitation of facts, or one person preaching 'this is how it is done'. It is all of us sharing our lives, our experiences, and ourselves with each other. I enjoy hearing from everyone, and when someone is absent for a while, they are missed. Daring to sound cliché, but we are like a family. Albeit a somewhat estranged and even deranged one, but that isn't unlike most 'normal' families. We are a extremely diverse group, differing in age, background, race, sex, creed, colour, and obviously location but we are all here for the same reason... To live and to learn.

The best part is the mutual respect we all seem to have for each other and for different points of view. Even if someone posts something that you don't agree with, rebuttals are expressed and worded carefully to not offend, unlike many other sites. This differences of opinions has spawned some amazing conversations and discussions.

Granted, we've had some drama queens and some trolls sneak in here too, and they learn mighty quick that certain types of behaviour, certain types of comments are not welcome and either they join in or they don't. and if they don't they either move along or are moved along.

This place contains some of the nicest people that I know, and yet have never met.

cookie anyone?

[mitunnelrat]

I can see the logic behind that. I'll have to chew on it for a bit with one of those cookies.

[helomech]

LMAO, kitten cookies.

[bacpacker]

DG get feelin better!

MIT, I have to agree with Sniper on this one. This is the best site around IMHO. And there is no doubt it is first and foremost a prep site. Just look back thru the thread from years past thru today. You can find about any prep topic that comes to mind, most of them discussed in depth by several folks. There are a lot of how to's, manuals, product reviews, and such on lots of various things. I have learned a ton of stuff on my time here.
But the best thing I have picked up on here is the friendship with some great folks. I have gotten to meet some of you, many others just talking on here. Other have been around and for one reason or other left or at least been somewhat in-active. Those are truly missed.
While not a true social site, there are some traits, support, helpful hand or thoughts when needed, even just a phone call or e-mail to see how things are going. As a rule that don't happen on other sites to amount to anything. I can count on one hand the times that has happened to me. One of them is the very first friend I met from a forum from my area. His wifes car is parked in our driveway while she is out of town right now. On this site, I feel like I could ask for a hand with just about anything and get multiple offers to help. Just the way things are around here and that's what makes this site so special.
But there has only been a handful that has come and gone that tried to push things in the direction that lots of other forums have went. I'll take this site any day of the week.
One last thing I want to bring up. I appreciate the owners and moderators on here. Some sites are wound so tight, there is no fun to be had. Others are, well lets just say the lunatics are running the asylum. On here the owners have built a fine site that just runs and has had very few problems and when they do crop up, they are fixed right away. All the mods will let things play out until things start to go seriously downhill. Then the hammer comes out. To me balance is the key to life, same with forums. And at this point I want to thank each one of them.
Just my .02

[Sniper-T]

As an aside... I cannot remember a single thread being locked on here because of anything... I may be wrong, but I can't think of a single one... ever.

[Katrina]

I. Was invited by lhk13 and I can'say enough thank you's enough. I am late comer to "prepping" In the 2-3years I've been here,I have learned that while I've never claimed to be sane,I have been accepted as me and not been treated like an idiot(like a couple of other sites have done) I found another site that is a bit like this and have enjoyed it BUT I feel this is home. I can ask my questions and learn from you all. whether you realize it or not. ,this is much more than a "prepping \survival" site. Sometimes it feels like a life line to me.

[ak474u]

I. Was invited by lhk13 and I can'say enough thank you's enough. I am late comer to "prepping" In the 2-3years I've been here,I have learned that while I've never claimed to be sane,I have been accepted as me and not been treated like an idiot(like a couple of other sites have done) I found another site that is a bit like this and have enjoyed it BUT I feel this is home. I can ask my questions and learn from you all. whether you realize it or not. ,this is much more than a "prepping \survival" site. Sometimes it feels like a life line to me.

We're all here because we're not all there. Lol

[mitunnelrat]

Hmmm...

I'm going to stand by what I said, but I will try to qualify it some. I realize any website designed to get people together and talking is, in fact, social media. I just make distinctions between sites like twitter/ facebook/ snapchat and forums. To me, the former is more generalized, the latter more specific. The former actually makes me more misanthropic, this keeps me social.

Looking back at my post I'd have perhaps been more accurate to say I already know our camraderie sets us apart, but what else? We've got a great group of people here, and I know that's what keeps us coming back. "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care" plays into that.

We've also done alright with drawing people into the fold through word of mouth, but I doubt any of us would say that's easy, and I know we're all doing all we can there.

Then, we also attracted a good number of people through search engines. Its here that I think we can do more. No, maybe not more, but different. We don't offer discussion on politics or religion, and I still think that is a good thing, but I also think they create an emotional connection/ charge that gets people talking. I'd like for us to tap into that energy elsewhere, and I believe defining our identity, where we fall in the dynamic I started this thread with, can help us do that. We have a certain pride in being who we are, in what we do, and how we do it.

RJ and The Stig took their vision of what a prep/ survival site should be and made it reality. I'd like to see that vision grow, and I think a clear sense of identity will help that along.

My apologies if there's a lot of typos or errors making this difficult to read or follow. I should have spooled up my laptop for this one, but instead did it on the dumbest smart phone I've ever seen. Mine.

[robsdak]

MIT.

one of the reasons i come and stay is the 'lack of religious and political discussion'. let me qualify this, before i get yelled at. i feel there is a time and place for it and what you believe or who you voted for is personal. sound right? i don't really care for folks that have too 'shove' either subject in my face. sound better?

i don't really do 'social sites'. i have one i started for my paracord stuff, but it has gone by the way side. i come here for information, hang out and be around like minded folks. glad RJ and Stig have shared their vision with us as a group and hope the site continues to grow. i have invited several people to come and visit, i think 2 have stayed. i know 1 for sure.

my phone is stupid.... it doesn't know what the interweb is... LOL just the way i want it.

[mitunnelrat]

You won't get yelled at for that here.

Anyone that's met me from here or that's connected on facebook knows I have some pretty strong opinions on each of those myself, but at the same time I am rather... zealous?... in keeping the forum free of it. I've been a moderator on another site that allows it, and believe me, I'd rather be thought an ass here for squashing it than having to do that again.

Every once in a while I do end up locking or removing threads, and/ or pm'ing members over certain posts, but if I do my job right it doesn't disrupt the normal flow here. I like that. It leaves me time to read and contribute.