When Habitat Forums Die Out

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MarkDarvin

MarkDarvin

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Sad day today fellas. I know many of you guys at one point were talkers at the QDMA forum. That was where I got my start in supercharging my habitat knowledge. It's been an interesting run from there. First the MN trouble-makers (of which I are one) were slowly booted. Then similar kind left voluntarily and Habitat Talk was born. Similar troubles played out there, and the tribe was on the march again. QHMG was born outta that.

Well today, QHMG officially died and was taken offline by the admin, and with it, everyone's extensive contributions including thousands of pictures and special projects. I don't know the whole story and I don't care. The point of this post is that I want to share my idea on "logging" my habitat work and contributing to the land loving community.

Today I made the decision to quit posting my habitat story and land updates on forums. Please know this is not meant to ignite an argument here or discourage anyone else from sharing their stuff. I made the decision to start my own web page to archive and share my projects. I did this so nobody else can pull the plug on me or my content. I have lost my stuff twice now. Never again.

I'm still very much pro-forum and will continue to participate here as long as I am welcomed. However, to ensure continuity of my story, I'm taking responsibility for my content and it's ability to live on. I guess my whole point is, be sure to have a backup plan for your story in case your journal gets taken from you like mine was today. It's a real tragedy when information like the adventures of Paul Knox are at risk of vanishing from the web.
 
Good comment. There is something about group dynamics and size playing out. Similar things happen on Facebook groups. You are right to claim ownership of your data.

Also makes me think of how easily electronic news or assets can be changed or removed.
 
I don't see this one dying out anytime soon and only see continued growth...we gain from 1-3 members a day and have been for quite some time... I backed all my stuff up from QDM forum in the period of time they gave us before it went away and everything since then is told in pictures that I have backed up...so much so that I can look at the picture and tell the story without issue...
 
Sam said:
share the link to your site
Click to expand...
There isn't much to share yet, and I'm still building it. Also, I don't want that to become the focal point of this post. I know there are many aspiring bloggers and pro-staffers out there trying to drive traffic to their sites, and more power to them for it. Traffic to my site is not a primary motivator.
 
Wow.....I WAS a member over there....I had no idea it went down until your post.....
 
This is an awesome forum. Where the heck else can I see a snowy/icy apple tree in northern New York State or an 8 pound turnip?
Or the continuing adventures of Geo in Colorado? Or deer and habitat management in Oklahoma? Illinois? Indiana? Etc.

The posters here allow me to see states and places I'll never see otherwise. Very, very cool.
 
W33kender said:
This is an awesome forum. Where the heck else can I see a snowy/icy apple tree in northern New York State or an 8 pound turnip?
Or the continuing adventures of Geo in Colorado? Or deer and habitat management in Oklahoma? Illinois? Indiana? Etc.

The posters here allow me to see states and places I'll never see otherwise. Very, very cool.
Click to expand...

Agree ^^^^^^^ Great place for ideas, encouragement, how to's, and wonderful pictures of our great American countryside!
 
I had the most viewed thread on QMDA Forum and I didn't save it, I don't miss it, it's past history, and I'm moving forward! I'm about learning and sharing, not about compiling a thread! I am continually learning new things here and freely sharing. This forum is made up of friends that I have known for years, new friends to become acquainted with, professionals, and lots on knowledgeable people from all walks of life. The people here are family, I know them, I trust them, and they are a great resource.

Using this forum to advertise that you are building a competing forum... REALLY?
 
I don't see them as competing forums. They are all unique with their own way. They have differing content, groups of people, cultures, and atmospheres. Most guys I know don't park themselves on only one site. They seek out many to fill their needs and get the info they are looking for. If you look around, you will see the same names elsewhere. I don't see anything wrong with letting guys know about all the options out there.
 
Brushpile said:
I had the most viewed thread on QMDA Forum and I didn't save it, I don't miss it, it's past history, and I'm moving forward! I'm about learning and sharing, not about compiling a thread! I am continually learning new things here and freely sharing. This forum is made up of friends that I have known for years, new friends to become acquainted with, professionals, and lots on knowledgeable people from all walks of life. The people here are family, I know them, I trust them, and they are a great resource.

Using this forum to advertise that you are building a competing forum... REALLY?
Click to expand...
Hang on friend. I didn't build that forum, and that wasn't my intention. I only mentioned it because J-Bird said he didn't know what happened and he was a contributor over there. In hindsight, I could have sent a private message, but I didn't even consider it. There isn't much over there for southern and eastern guys. Lots of zone 3-4 talk, wolf talk, and MN DNR talk, plus its a brutally honest culture that takes some getting used to. Not a lot gets censored there.

Anyway, I'm just sharing an idea. Papers get lost, hard drives fail, laptops get replaced, forums come and go etc. I find value in knowing what year I planted what trees, what I put on for lime, what the next soil test showed for it, is my potassium leaching, how much growth am I getting etc.

No need to yell fella. It's all good.
 
I think you are wise to back up your data. The plan is to keep this forum up and running and free forever, but forever is a long time. A lot can happen with technology that is unforeseen.

I'm always amazed at how dedicated people are to their Property Tour threads. They require a lot of work and time. It would be a shame to lose it all (as we QDMA refugees know all too well).

As far as I'm concerned, this forum will always be available. But if I get hit by a bus tomorrow Al Nipper might become a PETA member and shut it down. ;)
 
Imagine each time you go out to your property, you take 20-30 pictures, keep ten, post them, and add a narrative. You do that 10-20 times per year over ten years or more and you've really got something. Then it all vanishes. I bet all the thread guys have gone back searching their pages to dig up that one picture that would help a guy with what he's asking about. I know we're all happy to do it, so the loss of that is a heart breaker, and it's happened to me multiple times.
 
I'll see if there are any technical ways to allow folks to save their own threads to their computers.

I run a number of forums and don't intend to disappear (and have a 15 year track record) but as Cutman said, I could have a heart attack tomorrow. More likely is the forum gets hit by a hacker or something weird happens that causes data loss. There are backups, but lightning does strike.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
 
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