A whole lot of this board is free. They charge $11 a year to be a member and you can pay with paypal if you want to use the Buy, Sell,Pitfalls of Ebay, and the general discussions portion of the site. This keeps much info from the pulbic about complaits about Ebay sellers inside the club and lawsuites.
It's about time this board looked at a version of this and this would help with the sites costs IMO.
I believe this board would be fine with allowing the public to join and comment on the gun threads. It seems most spend most of there time the discussion and buy and sell portions of this site.
Not going to lie. I was originally attracted to OSA because of the classified. Once I was here I discovered what a great community it was and I come here almost everyday and hardly ever even go to the classifieds anymore. Not sure if it would help or hinder the community by adjusting it. I understand your reasoning, but it may cause a lack of interest.
Haa, my post count does not even reflect my 'word' count. I cant help it, I think fast and I talk fast so I guess I just get to thinking and end up typing what Im thinking and before I know it Ive wrote a novel. I have been trying to leave smaller posts lately.
I remember when I first came around and was just lurking mostly since I was only here looking for gun info back then. I did some posting here and there but when I did post I felt like I needed to say more than the usual shy 3 word or even one sentence posts. (There is no such thing as a one word post as someone said about people trying to build up posts so they can do classifieds as it wont let ya just type in one word). And much thanx to Mr JB who years ago PM'd me once about writing good information (he must have been drunk) but pointed out my terrible typing, mainly my spacing. I was just trying to fit more words in dude. Lolllllll.
One day I just decided to start getting more involved in the general population discussions so I could be more a part of the 'community' here. And in my experiences here I have never once got my feelings hurt by something someone said. As a former boxer and jock I am probably about as competitive as the next guy and when I get pushed I push back, so I have never had a flaming problem. You have to read what is said in the FGST threads to see most of these guys are born comics and its all in jest and good fun around here, it hardly ever gets really serious, serious enough to meet for a fight anyways. (And if anyone does want to box, PM me, I have the boxing gear and we can do it up right, safe and all).
But I do appreciate this place tho, greatly, I have learned alot about firearms, shooting, the laws, politics, as well some good tips on places to eat and a few recipes, etcetc. I was glad myself when I got my requisite posts in and could start buying/selling via the Classifieds because ever since I did I have met some really great guys with good info that I wouldnt have met other wise, and no, they havent all been with the same 3 people. Being self employed in several small businesses located in 2 far away states and an artist and musician I dont work the usual 9-5 and home at night type of job, Im out on the road gone alot hustling up some moneys. But when Im home Im just chilling or up late at night bored so Im either here posting or in one of the many other forums I regularly post at.
Anyways, glad I found this place and you people and its been a blast to be here and I look forward to more great info and community involvement. I will even try hard to make some of those eatnmeets and shootneats.
JB, sorry for the brief de-rail, but I saw the comments about changes, community, and sarcasm, and I can't help myself from posting this:
That said, I can seem the point Veg and others are making about the Classified section helping people find the board, it makes sense.
That said, I've only done a couple of transactions with folks from the boards, and they've gone just fine. I know some folks use the feedback thread and find it very important, and I guess that's okay too, but it doesn't do much unless someone goes out there and generates a thread for you. A rep system wouldn't be horrible, but still, it still doesn't help lurkers.
Ok, if we are going to talk about changes, how about, if its a ridiculous attempt at price gouging, then its ok to BS in their thread? I know there are a couple on there right now that I would sure like to tell them what I think about it!!! Some of these people! Sheesh!