How many plan to walk away from QDMA?

j-bird

Well-Known Member
so with the closure of the old forum how many of you are walking away from the QDMA organization? I know I am. It's more than just the forum, but the forum issue was the last straw. I still believe in he QDM principles - but I don't have to be a member to practice.
 
The forum is what got me so into the QDM , The knowledge I learned there is unbelievable, If a ton of guys get spread all over to different sites it wouldn't be the same, lets hope that doesn't happen.
 
I was not a member but was contemplating a sponsor membership. I only used the forum and it was my only draw personally. I do not have any issues with QDMA and I am sure I will continue to be friends with many members. I will not be signing on for a membership now though as the forum and mainly the folks attached to the forum was the only reason I was there.
 
I found the QDMA by doing a search on the internet that first led me to the forum 12-13 years ago. After that I joined the organization and started contributing to the forum. As life goes (wife,kids,job) my time to dedicate to deer has shrunk and I had let my membership lapse a few years ago. Just two months ago I re-upped my membership, wish I hadn't now! I hope this forum becomes as good as the old one was. My old QDMA name was bush hill, now I am a potato, onion, and recently apple farmer so I went with tater.
 
I am not ready to make that decision yet. Some great people who have become friends were met thru the QDMA forums. I have also enjoyed touring forum members properties as well as showing my property to other forum users. I enjoyed the QDMA book on scouting cameras as well. Other than that I've not used any of their other member services; the magazine is a quality magazine but the forum provided more info practically everyday rather than just the magazines; one day quarterly production. So for me it really depends on what these "new" better ways to communicate with the membership are that will be on their new website. The forum put in place by QDMA has been a tremendous asset for me in terms of new learnings, motivation and new friendships and for that I can at least wait to see where they are going before deciding on walking away or not.

That is not to say I agree one bit with the way this has ended; but heck even I "ain't" perfect.

I definitely will be starting a property improvement thread soon on one or two of these alternative forums as well as participating in others threads.
 
I've always had issues with how QDMA horribly twisted some key facts to best serve their agenda, when they have a bunch of biologists that helped forum QDMA that know better. In most ways, that "twisting of facts" actually nudged ppl to closer line up with my personal management goals, but, even when it works for, not against me, I HATE it when ppl/politicians/companies/organizations knowingly twist reality to further their agenda. If your agenda is legit, there's no need to present anything more than the honest, straight forward truth. When it's not, I don't want to be a part of it anyway.

Unlike many (and it's completely understandable that most wouldn't realize this), I knew from the start that QDMA is really a for profit business enjoying the tax benefits of pretending to be non-profit, which, unfortunately, describes waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many "non-profits." Being able to peek behind the curtain made that obvious.

So, their lack of support of the MN guys and this latest move didn't surprise me in the least. It also appears my suspicions were correct when I first read LT's post. this is ALL about message & info flow control. THEY want to be the source of info, as you little ppl don't know what you're talking about. THEY are the experts, despite none of them doing close to the amount of habitat and deer management that most of you here do. Egos need feeding and info that contradicts their agenda needs squashing. Read the responses that those that have emailed and called received and there is one theme in all of them...info control/greater power over messaging. So much for education being a corner stone. If LT does indeed respond to my email (pretty sure I made an enemy when I hit send), I'm sure it ill be similar to what others have been given as responses.

Despite it saying I'm a member on their forum, I canceled my membership when they wouldn't even give the MN guys any research that they'd requested and was told was on its way. the second the MN DNR caught wind and complained, they suddenly couldn't send the research. I've been out since then.
 
Done with QDMA! Money is their main focus and thats a shame! I get it that they need to make money....However, they have lost their focus on what they are supposed to be all about!!
 
I ate about 18 months of a 3 year renewal back when I learned what QDMA really was about, long before the rest of you realized "who" and "what" the QDMA is really about (and it ain't about deer and its members). Plenty of the recent refugees were backing corporate to the hilt when they wouldn't support those of us in MN. I hate to say it, but there's some karma in the air.
 
My husband had a conversation with them a couple years ago...I don't remember what it was about at the time,but they ended up in a conversation about the forum and why it didn't get more coverage at the convention, in the magazine and even on the QDMA home page, it was hidden. They said at the time that the forum had very little to do with the organization and the educational direction of the organization. The forum was more of a pain than a gain for them. I personally believe that many of the "good ole boys" had ego issues. They could only learn from each other...no one else.
 
Here's a little known and almost never discussed tidbit of info....QDMA was originally going to be TDMA. There was actually some polling done in GA and it was found that Trophy scored very, very poorly, but Quality scored quite high. So, they launched as QDMA instead and have pretended ever since that it has nothing to do with "trophy" deer, just the improvement of deer & habitat health, along with getting bucks to maturity and tightening buck:doe ratios, as having mature bucks trying to kill each other is helping to somehow promote deer health (helps hunting a ton, but actually increases stress levels on the deer). Having known a bunch of stuff like that for a long time ruined any delusions of purity for me a long time ago.
 
Im walking from them, I first heard about QDMA on the show "Whitetail Properties" and on every episode a guy from QDMA is on there preaching about how education is vital and one of the founding principles of the QDMA organization, yet here we are... I was going to purchase a membership this fall but that aint happening. That forum was the sole reason I was going to get a membership there, but without the forum QDMA is like a car without any gas.
 
Hello everyone. I'm another former QDMA member and I plan to make the best of their poor decision and move on to other forums, this being one of them.
I'm familiar with a lot of the new and existing members on this site and I feel privileged to be able to post along side of them. I'm humbled by the level of their knowledge and their willingness to share it. QDMA's loss will be this site's gain.
 
I think it's funny how the forum wasn't a good resource for them.....I personally know of at least one case where a forum thread resulted directly in an article in QW for them. Now that isn't tooting my own horn.....I just know that I did all the work (the wording the pictures and all that stuff - they simply tossed it all together....they got a great little story (if I do say so myself) about how a pee-on like me made some head-way practicing QDMA. That all started as a "property tour" type thread on the forum.......I was sharing with those in that community and saw it as a chance to do the same with a wider audience when Lindsay approached me about it. Little did I know then........
 
I almost joined several times because I felt guilty getting access to so much information for free. End of the day, I should have just sent doubletree a check for all his efforts. The forum just gave him a platform to share his/people's very well researched and tested experiences.
 
Back
Top