State of the forum Address 7/09 - Please Read! (Caution: Epic Post)

[Fenway]

Dear INGO Members and Guests

About a year and 1/2 ago I started this site with $500 and alot of time on my part. I put hundreds of hours into this place getting INGO off the ground and had no idea if it would be a success. I created this site as a place for Hoosier Gun Owners to hang out, meet up, promote our love of firearms and have fun. I wanted a quality forum with great members and this place has become that and much more!

It was never my intention to have this site grow as fast as it did. I think it has grown fast for several reasons. 1. Hoosier Gun Owners really needed a dedicated place to hang out 2. We had quality members from day one 3. The election played a big part 4. I think I put together a good site. I'm pleased with the growth but it was never my intention to have almost 5000 members in less than 2 years.

If anyone thinks I'm getting rich off this site or can quit my 40 hr / week day job please think again. This site costs money to run and Scutter has quite a salary (joke) It was never my intention to make money off this place. I didn't create INGO thinking I would be breaking even or making money and for many months I lost a significant amount of money. I didn't quit.... I kept making this place better and the members we have make this site what it is today! I created it because I wanted a place for us to hang out and have a place to call home.

That being said as this site has grown so rapidly I can no longer treat it as just a little hobby. INGO has become a part time job for me. When I get home from my day job I spend at least a couple of hours a day making sure this place runs and try my best to answer emails and PMs. I have a fairly large server bill that will be increasing significantly in the next month or two as we have once again outgrown our current server. (many people have noticed the slow speeds at night when we get over 200 members at a time)

This site was a lot of fun when we had 1000 members and some members say they like the old days better. Well I like the old days as well but we also have strength and diversity in numbers and I'm not about to shut new members out. As this forum has grown so rapidly I have had to make changes. You can't have a 5000 member forum this active and run it like a hobby. I don't make enough money at my day job to run this site out of my own pocket. I rely on Site Supporters and Advertising Site Supporters to keep this place going. I have had to make some tough decisions lately as this site grew so fast and I made them in the best interest of the forum to keep it going for the long haul.

A couple of points

Classifieds

When I started this board I envisioned a trading post for members. The popularity of the board turned our classifieds into a mini gunbroker. We tried a 10 post minimum and we had lots of people asking for more posts before access to the classifieds. At this point you must have 50 posts or become a Site Supporter to access the classifieds. With this change I now have people telling me I'm a jerk and I don't respect members who have been here a while but don't have 50 posts. Yet some of these same members have about 60 + in the classifieds (posts in classifieds don't go to your post count) My answer to that is why don't you show this community some respect and participate beyond the classifieds. I didn't build this forum for the classifieds. I built it for the community. It is quite simple.... You can make 50 quality posts (not one liners) or if you don't want to do that kick in $10 and Support the Site. You can get into the classifieds right away and you will keep the site going.

Site Supporters

If you appreciate this site you can consider becoming a Site Supporter for $10 / year. That comes out to about $.03 / day. Site Supporters get perks and those perks can be found here.

I don't think $.03 / day is outrageous and I have never once asked for money on this board. I have made it clear that Site Supporters make this site possible but I have people upset at me when I give these supporters more perks.

Everyone is treated equal on this board. Everyone has access to everything here for free. Supporters will have perks because they donate money so we can all enjoy this site. I'm not asking for more money and if you don't really enjoy this site please refrain from donating. BUT don't get upset if these supporters get a couple of extra features. Everyone can search, everyone can display an avatar, everyone can post but Supporters will get perks. Supporters make this site possible for everyone!

Advertisers

The advertisers on this forum keep it going as well. Please support them. In the beginning this forum was a free for all and everyone could advertise as much as they want. As this forum grew I had to make a change and some members got upset. I'm very sorry but if you want to promote your product or service on INGO you must be an Advertiser. This protects those advertisers who pay money to promote their products services. Thanks for your understanding.

Language

I want a family friendly forum. I feel that we have an obligation as Hoosier Gun Owners to present the best image possible. I'm not sure if many are aware of the kind of traffic we get here at INGO but we have people from around the State and around the world checking our community out daily. Keep in mind not all of these people are gun owners or even gun friendly. I want this to be the kind of site where a mother or father can browse with the next generation of Hoosier Gun Owners and not have to worry about the content they see here. I want someone who is not comfortable with firearms or maybe even a little scared of them to come here and feel at home. F bombs, inappropriate material, members fighting with one another etc is not what I want and can turn people off to this site or worst case scenario... turn newbies off to firearms in general. Let's try to take the high road and treat each other with respect. I realize most of the other gun boards on the web do not have language restrictions like we do here. We are not like other gun boards and I have a different vision. I ask that you watch your language on this board and keep content PG-13.

The MODS

We have the best mod team on the interwebs. The INGO mods spend hours a day watching over this forum and they do it for free. They do it because they love the board and I give them free hats... I hand picked these mods after meeting them in person. I think they are great people and they are fair. They are enforcing the rules I have in place for the forum and they make it run. Please show them the respect they desrve. They do not have an easy job but they do it for free and they want the best for the forum. Thank you mods!

Every once in a while I might say "if you don't like it here please feel free to leave" I am not trying to blow you off or be mean or stomp on "your rights". With nearly 5000 registered members it is absolutely impossible to please everyone. This forum is 100% free and the mods and I do the very best job we can to provide Hoosier Gun Owners with a great place to hang out. If you don't like it there might be other places that fit your posting style better. We do have some rules that not everyone agrees with but I ask you to respect these rules because I came up with them and I own the site. I'm not on a power trip. I just think the rules I have in place are best for the site.

If you find your self fighting with the community all the time, antagonizing the mods, breaking the simple rules, trying to "push buttons" or you aren't playing well with others we will ask you to please change your ways or leave the forum.

I don't want to lose any members and I really hope everyone enjoys this forum but we simply can not please everyone. We don't want to ask people to leave but we don't have time to mess around here. There are about 1000 posts a day and there is no way the mod staff can keep up with every post. We just need everyone to do their best job to interact with other members like they would if they were talking in person at an INGO group event or at the 1500.

In closing I want to thank each and every member for being a part of the INGO community. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would have a board this active in such a short amount of time. I'm very proud of this forum and will do the best job I can everyday to make this a great place for Hoosier Gun Owners. I appreciate your support and thank you for being a member

Thank you,

Mike