HoleHopper
Member
I too will miss that! The good is that you can still ask and be specific, and there should be some very good advice going your way, and for others as well. Thanks to Cuttman and others for there efforts!
How many plan to walk away from QDMA?
- Thread starter j-bird
- Start date
I am glad to see some familiar names on the new forum. I read the other forum much more than I posted but if I felt it was a subject that I had some experience with I would throw my two cents in. I agree with everyone else. I got much more from the forum than I ever did the magazine. I have walked away from organizations before so it looks like I will again. It always bothered me that the QDMA always grouped Virginia into the northeast. I am proud to be a Southerner!
Good to have someone else from Southwest Va.
JohnL48
Well-Known Member
Cutman,
After seeing what's going on in your new forum and the Facebook thing I'm starting to think this will be better for us and a yr from now the qdma will be a distant memory
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backcreekwv
New Member
Im done also. Thanks for the new site.
LetThemGrow
Member
Just found this tonight. I hope the great resource that was QDM forum can be continued here. Paul Knox changed my world...and I'm a very disappointed QDMA member at the moment. While I was a member since 2001, the forums and Paul became a huge asset when I found them a few years ago. I'm on the fence about things now....
Kabic
Active Member
That is kind of how I feel about NWTF "Turkey Country" magazine. I am mostly interested in the Sweat Equity & Landowner Resources columns, but they usually just scratch the surface of the topic.
Tenured Student
Active Member
I am not severing the cord with QDMA just yet. Kabic, I too miss the Leopold landscapes section of Quality Whitetails.
Many thanks to cutman for setting up this forum to keep us all together! I had a long running thread on the old forum that I don't miss a bit; what I would have missed was the people if this forum hadn't come to be.
With the resurrection of old threads, I'm seeing the best of the best being retold, which is great info being freely shared... friends helping friends is what it's all about.
With the resurrection of old threads, I'm seeing the best of the best being retold, which is great info being freely shared... friends helping friends is what it's all about.
I sent this letter to Brian Murphy at QDMA. No response.
Brian,
By way of introduction I am Rusty Baker from Pineville ,La. I have been a member of QDMA since its earliest days and have actively raised thousands of dollars for your organization by auctioning deer hunts on my property. Years back I was active with our local chapter which had some of the most successful fund raising banquets in QDMA history. I am writing to tell you that I will no longer continue my membership with QDMA.
There are several reasons why. The most recent is the decision to discontinue the forums feature on your website. There is an old saying : It’s not what you do but how you do it that matters. While in my opinion it is a questionable business decision far more important is how poorly it is being handled. Minimal notice, no explanations, destroying years of effort from people who passionately contributed their time and experience believing in the QDMA cause, and a rather cavalier attitude about it all has created tremendous ill will. Very poor execution from a professional organization. Not something I choose to be a part of.
The forum was my last interest in QDMA. My dissatisfaction began years earlier. I had hoped that QDMA would be the voice for all factions of the wonderful world of deer. That QDMA would be the leader in bringing all aspects of the deer community together thru unbiased education and leadership. Instead I perceive the results to be divisive, polarizing, and incomplete. The opportunity has been there and squandered by choosing sides, alienating factions, segregating, and not supporting the totality of the whitetail world.
I’ll give a couple of examples. It is my appreciation that QDMA has been fully opposed to the deer breeding industry. I am not a deer breeder and in fact don’t find it interesting. However QDMA has awarded it’s very highest honors on one of the pioneers of the deer breeding industry and in fact frequently quotes knowledge gained from his work. That is Dr. Harry Jacobson formerly of Ms. State and now a private consultant. This is an appropriate acknowledgement to one of the best researchers in the business and a wonderful man I hold in the highest regard. By any definition Dr. Jacobson ran one of the most well known breeding operations ever and in fact seeded many start up breeding operations with deer from the colleges pens as well as provided quality guidance. Much valuable research spawned from his work. The QDMA position seems contradictory here and while you had a wonderful opportunity to educate, and create understanding about what deer pens are , what they aren’t and how much good has come from them the decision was made otherwise. As a result there is much misunderstanding, strong emotional biases and polarization with very weak science as a backdrop for justification of your position.
Another example is game fences. QDMA has done nothing to educate the public about what game fences are, what they are not, the risks involved, as well as the opportunities. A wasted opportunity curious considering you association with Al Brothers. The first game fence I ever saw in the 70’s was on property managed by Al Brothers in Tx. in fact I would consider him to be one of the earliest U.S. pioneers understanding the value of game fencing. Game fencing is very polarizing in the hunting community yet QDMA has done nothing to address it through education. Odd since your highest Awards carry the name of Al Brothers…a man I have great respect for. Another wasted opportunity allowing dissension in our community.
I could go on but I see no value to furthering the rant. I am disappointed. I had such high hopes but frankly I think QDMA has not only fallen far short of its noble mission but now is doing as much harm to the image as good.
Sincerely
Brian,
By way of introduction I am Rusty Baker from Pineville ,La. I have been a member of QDMA since its earliest days and have actively raised thousands of dollars for your organization by auctioning deer hunts on my property. Years back I was active with our local chapter which had some of the most successful fund raising banquets in QDMA history. I am writing to tell you that I will no longer continue my membership with QDMA.
There are several reasons why. The most recent is the decision to discontinue the forums feature on your website. There is an old saying : It’s not what you do but how you do it that matters. While in my opinion it is a questionable business decision far more important is how poorly it is being handled. Minimal notice, no explanations, destroying years of effort from people who passionately contributed their time and experience believing in the QDMA cause, and a rather cavalier attitude about it all has created tremendous ill will. Very poor execution from a professional organization. Not something I choose to be a part of.
The forum was my last interest in QDMA. My dissatisfaction began years earlier. I had hoped that QDMA would be the voice for all factions of the wonderful world of deer. That QDMA would be the leader in bringing all aspects of the deer community together thru unbiased education and leadership. Instead I perceive the results to be divisive, polarizing, and incomplete. The opportunity has been there and squandered by choosing sides, alienating factions, segregating, and not supporting the totality of the whitetail world.
I’ll give a couple of examples. It is my appreciation that QDMA has been fully opposed to the deer breeding industry. I am not a deer breeder and in fact don’t find it interesting. However QDMA has awarded it’s very highest honors on one of the pioneers of the deer breeding industry and in fact frequently quotes knowledge gained from his work. That is Dr. Harry Jacobson formerly of Ms. State and now a private consultant. This is an appropriate acknowledgement to one of the best researchers in the business and a wonderful man I hold in the highest regard. By any definition Dr. Jacobson ran one of the most well known breeding operations ever and in fact seeded many start up breeding operations with deer from the colleges pens as well as provided quality guidance. Much valuable research spawned from his work. The QDMA position seems contradictory here and while you had a wonderful opportunity to educate, and create understanding about what deer pens are , what they aren’t and how much good has come from them the decision was made otherwise. As a result there is much misunderstanding, strong emotional biases and polarization with very weak science as a backdrop for justification of your position.
Another example is game fences. QDMA has done nothing to educate the public about what game fences are, what they are not, the risks involved, as well as the opportunities. A wasted opportunity curious considering you association with Al Brothers. The first game fence I ever saw in the 70’s was on property managed by Al Brothers in Tx. in fact I would consider him to be one of the earliest U.S. pioneers understanding the value of game fencing. Game fencing is very polarizing in the hunting community yet QDMA has done nothing to address it through education. Odd since your highest Awards carry the name of Al Brothers…a man I have great respect for. Another wasted opportunity allowing dissension in our community.
I could go on but I see no value to furthering the rant. I am disappointed. I had such high hopes but frankly I think QDMA has not only fallen far short of its noble mission but now is doing as much harm to the image as good.
Sincerely
Hoosier hawkeye
New Member
I am done with QDMA. They know good and well the forum was the largest database of knowledge available to the public. For them to say that the only reason to do away with the forum was because it is not the way of the future. That's ridiculous, there will be forums around for many years to come and it should be a component of any good organization such as this one. You will never convince me that this is not about the money, it almost always is.
I am pumped for this forum. I was not excited to join up with another established forum as I think it will be a nightmare trying to mix all those personalities. Lets make this better than the QDMA forums.
I am pumped for this forum. I was not excited to join up with another established forum as I think it will be a nightmare trying to mix all those personalities. Lets make this better than the QDMA forums.
ng270
Active Member
I joined the QDMA forums in 2012, having just purchased my first hunting property. A few months later I bought a membership because I felt the membership dues would help to support a forum that was, frankly, mind-blowing for me. I rarely posted there, but was there virtually every day, learning and enjoying what other folks were willing to share. About six months ago, I let my membership expire. QW seemed to offer very little of value and I had the nagging feeling that the brass of the organization were all about ego and prestige.
I am thankful to QDMA for the years that they did make the forums available to me. Now that the forums are gone, there is absolutely no reason for me to rejoin their membership, so I won't ever be a member of QDMA again. I unsubscribed from their email lists and don't care to hear from them again in any respect.
If scrapping the forum really was about keeping up with advances and changes in how the world communicates, the QW paper version would have been the first to go. Internet forums are light years ahead of that dinosaur.
I am thankful to QDMA for the years that they did make the forums available to me. Now that the forums are gone, there is absolutely no reason for me to rejoin their membership, so I won't ever be a member of QDMA again. I unsubscribed from their email lists and don't care to hear from them again in any respect.
If scrapping the forum really was about keeping up with advances and changes in how the world communicates, the QW paper version would have been the first to go. Internet forums are light years ahead of that dinosaur.
I never was a member of QDMA. I found the forum like several of you did by googling "Hinge Cutting" of all things... I was only a participant of that forum since 2013 but it opened a whole new world for me. My intention was always to join but I didn't know of any local chapters and didn't want to be the lone stranger. I had actually made up my mind to join this year just because of the great resource the forum was but always had an uneasy feeling about the way the money was spent especially since we were reminded over and over the past couple years how the forum was not a good resource for them.
I put my heart and soul into my land tour thread over there and they are just tossing it like it is trash...If we put different excerpts and stories from our old land tour threads together we would probably have a best selling book!
I put my heart and soul into my land tour thread over there and they are just tossing it like it is trash...If we put different excerpts and stories from our old land tour threads together we would probably have a best selling book!
Crimson n' Camo
Active Member
Oh, you missed the fallout then. There was a thread where people were canceling memberships and posting unhappy testimonials that got somewhere around 350-400 posts in about 36 hours. They shut it all down and deleted the threads.
whitetail3080
New Member
I don't understand why they would take it away. I mean I've never used another forum as much as theirs. I guess I'm just confused as to what the purpose was to take it down. I don't see whatever "benefit" taking this away is?! Looks like it'll cost them a ton more in the long run....
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whitetail3080
New Member
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