I took over the site last year. My goal is simply to expand what the site is about instead of being strictly niche.
As I've stated privately, and I think it needs to be heard publically, Niche forums are popcorn in the pan. Big pop for a minute or two and then they are done. BoomerShooter is a perfect example. The original owners banned anybody that wasn't 100% competition related, and after the 1000'th question of is a 9mm better than a .40 for major scoring, it's done.
I've been a moderator on two forums that were single issue prior to BS, Arkansas Deer Hunters, and Arkansas fish and game that the owner decided to change the successful forums into an archery only format. I was the food plot and deer hunting forum mod. Both failed shortly after because how many questions can you ask about the right broadhead before all archery only subjects are answered a thousand times. BS followed the same pattern.
I'm a retired Moderator on OSA, (Oklahoma Shooters Association), and the Admin on OklahomaHunter.org.
OSA is humming along pretty steadily, because they have a diversity of participants that want to talk about different subjects with gun ownership and 2A Issues always the focus. Politics, the issues in Virginia, parking tickets, Blah, blah, how the reciprocity in other states will work, whats a good recipe for thanksgiving and so on. Why do they allow that off topic from guns or competition?
Its because every one of the folks posting about a great pizza recipe is also a gun owner, competition shooter, and casual shooter that has different thoughts in their minds they would like to discuss other than just competition shooting. When you allow a diversity of opinions on a forum about different subjects, you form a community that becomes loyal to the forum.
The community is what makes the forum successful.
There was also some infighting among the Alpha males on BS that caused a serious outflow of members that formed a falsebook group from what I've heard. I'm not a member of that social media outlet, so take that intel as some information that may be true and may not be true as it's second hand.
The forum is too difficult to navigate for a lot of folks that visit forums that aren't computer savvy. That's why falsebook is so popular. They can just log on, and all their interests are just a scroll down the page.
Way too many sub forums and that has been a complaint from the beginning from folks I've had conversations with.
Hope I didn't make anyone mad, and tried to be neutral in my comments, but I was asked for my opinion, and here it is.
I have zero problems with anyone contesting my opinion and will readily accept their constructive criticism in further discussions.
