GL/CB/RG site layout, ????

[geargnasher]

I've been trying to figure this out since I joined, and with the updated layout on "Gunloads.com", I'm more confused than ever.

This domain is three sites in one with unique username/password and registration requirements for each, yet they are truly redundant in so many ways I can't even figure out the purpose. Castboolits.gunloads is obviously the most frequented and has by far the largest membership, but it has grown well beyond it's scope to include a bunch of stuff covered by the main site as well as the reloading data site. I don't understand this at all. It seems to me that this ought to be one, big site under the same domain name with one registration required to view it all. I just don't see the point of three distinct forums here, with two of them languishing while one prospers, and much of the discussion topics covered in three separate places.

Now I see options for member blogs on Gunloads, which is kinda neat, but what does that mean when/if Castboolits gets the same update, are the blogs going to be confined to their respective sites like member IDs, or is the umbrella going to open over all three? Why is there a Reloader's Guide forum and at least one specific load info forum on Castboolits, not to mention Gunloads?

And what is the purpose of this, "shooters.com", a "general" subforum of "castboolits" which is a sister forum of "gunloads", which is a general gun forum in and of itself?????

Somebody please explain the method to this madness, and where it's headed, because it seems to me like it's turning into a trainwreck.

Very confused, :confused:

Gear

[waksupi]

Gunloads existed before the current Cast Boolits site. We were badly in need of a home, and Willy offered us one. So, that IS the parent site. We are eternally grateful to Willy for what he has done. He really went out of his way to set this board up for us.
I think it would be nice if they all merged, if the members of the other forums were agreeable. The ones I have had contact with seem like nice people, and I believe would fit in nicely here.
Willy has the final word, of course!

[Jim]

Ric,
I kinda' think Gear has a point to be considered. What would it take to convince the powers that be here to approach Willy about this?

[Blammer]

There are other forums?

really?

[btroj]

Blammer, I have heard rumor of other forums. Have not investigated out of fear of the unknown.
Who knows what kind of heathens exist outside of this site?

[MakeMineA10mm]

I feel EXACTLY the opposite, and here's why:

1) This forum is growing extremely fast in membership and number of forums. Most forums, when they get much bigger than where CB is right now, start losing their way. I was a member of GlockTalk back in 1998, when there were a few hundred members and it was three sub-forums. It is now something like 40k members and close to a hundred sub-forums. I rarely talk to the people that I developed great relationships with there, because the place completely lost it's intamacy. When you feel like your the member of a large, extended family, you talk more, connect more, trust (advice, purchases, etc.) more, and participate in general more. When it gets to be like GlockTalk, most guys like us lose that, and site becomes something commercial.

2) Cast Boolits has succeeded because it has specialized. When/If it becomes a general firearms website, encompassing a lot of other stuff, it will become, just one of the other gun websites like THR, GT, ARFcom, etc. I don't think those sites are successful completely. (Big, yes, but you really have to dig and find just the right sub-forum to get really good help/advice or intelligent conversation.) I think CB was far more successful for it's subject than those sites were for their subjects. Get too far bigger or too far off the specialty (we're teetering closely to that right now), and CB will lose all that...

If we need a software upgrade, fine. We can utilize all those neat features, without incorporating a bunch of new members, who obviously knows this place exists, and chose not to join anyway...

[geargnasher]

Well, that's starting to make a bit more sense. If Gunloads took us in when the Aimoo relationship went south, then I can see that it would have made a nice triad with Gunloads and (I'm assuming) the Reloader's Guide, but it seems to me that times have changed a lot since then.

Castboolits, like 10mm said, is teetering on the edge of too big for a good community feeling, and it seems to me that part of that is due to having too many non-castboolit related sub-forums. If we were one big site, and I could go over the "Gunloads" section to chat about leverguns or general hunting and outdoors topics without having to log on as a different user, or could just click over to the Reloader's Guide site and find many detailed subformums there including very special ones about cast boolit loads and loading techniques, the whole thing would make more sense.

I think it's a disservice to to the other two forums to have so much duplicity on Cast Boolits. If the much larger Cast Boolits membership were more connected, they could share their knowledge and post questions in the Reloader's Guide instead of creating similar subforums within Cast Boolits. If Cast Boolits was still specialized, it could be more streamlined and the sense of community would remain, but if I want to discuss tack or holsters or shooting backstop construction, it would be neat to do so with everyone on the whole Gunloads domain, not just those registered to or viewing one portion of it. Lots of outdoorsmen use holsters, not just the ones that shoot cast boolits.

I'm not complaining here, just trying to understand, and thought I'd throw my experience of the three forums as a whole out there. I seem to be one of thousands of Castboolit members that just sticks at home and doesn't venture to the other two forums because it's too much to keep up with, too many "like" areas. Since I wasn't part of the old castboolits crew that started this place, I have no perspective on the sense of community developed here and the original aims of the site when Willy took us in. I'm supposing that the castboolits community has grown and expanded the scope of discussions well beyond cast boolits while still wanting to "keep it in the family", and that's how it's become what it is today.

10mm you have some very good points, and after considering your post I don't think we disagree as much as it first appears. Part of my concern here is that Castboolits is getting too UNspecialized, and that all those UNcastboolit-specific subformums might should be somewhere else where the Castboolit members can still easily get to them, yet keep Castboolits just about what it is. Doesn't make sense to me to expand Castboolits to cover so many off-topic areas already covered by the other two forums. The issue is that all three aren't linked, so Castboolits keeps expanding in all directions and subjects.

Sorry for the ramble, trying to get my point across when it's still fuzzy! How ever it shakes out, I'm still going to be here as long as you'll all have me.

Gear

[Bret4207]

I think we should leave well enough alone.

BTW- Stopguncontrol.com is also part of this outfit, although no cares enough to do anything at all about their gun rights and it's pretty mush at a standstill.

[oldhickory]

Glad you brought this up, Gear. I've been a member on all 3 sites for 2 1/2 years and all but forgot about the other 2. Just visited them today and put them in my favorites. I only saw a few familliar faces over on the other sites though.

[firefly1957]

I have to thank the Moderators too for keeping things on course and this is the first group I have seen that stays civil even in disagreement. And I like the auto removal of bad words too even though some of them may not be justified such as CR*P which just happens.

[MakeMineA10mm]

I think we should leave well enough alone.

BTW- Stopguncontrol.com is also part of this outfit, although no cares enough to do anything at all about their gun rights and it's pretty mush at a standstill.

Wow, I had no idea... Where's the link to it?

Up top of every page are the links to the three places gear brought up, but I don't see the link to stopguncontrol...?

[Gunload Master]

Greetings all,
Here's some background.
When I first started GunLoads.com back in 2003, it was basically a database that I was trying to build up with my own personal reloads on it. As I expanded on that, I coded up a program so others could submit their loads and create a larger database. As I wanted to expand on that I created a forum (now the "General" forum) so people could try to interact with one another.... As time went on I decided to create another forum called the "Reloaders Guide" as the General forum was more for hunting and general chit chat with other individuals I wanted a forum that was all about Reloading. At that time if I had the coding knowledge to combind both of them under one database with one membership.. I would have.. Then I met Ken in 2005 and we talked about moving Cast Boolits on my server. Back then I believe there was 800 members? So I basically re-created all the forums/subforums that cast boolits had back there onto this individual forum. Cast Boolits had it's own community built up and to keep all things somewhat seperate I kept the forums seperate from one another. As time went on I did think about merging all three sites to have one membership, but the coding for it was not out there and I could not find anyone to do it.. It's been a couple of years since i've looked into it so the code might be out there.
I've also thought about discontinuing the General forum and Reloaders guide forum and have talked with a couple of moderators I have watching over the places and they don't mind watching out for SPAM and such, and it really don't take up much space on the server so I've just sort of kept them going. There's really no future plans for them at this moment in time. And I am using the General forum right now to help test some new software out that "might" find it's way over here someday...

Anywho... There's your history lesson for the day :)

[runfiverun]

i get on the reloaders guide as often as i get on cast boolits and the general once in a while.
the reloaders guide is much slower paced.
and actually could see more traffic that stops in here for some things that fit in there better.