Fix The Site Or Shut It Down

[gorgothmog]

Oh look, another shill.🤢

No, I just wasn't aware of the complicated history, here. It makes more sense now that I have some context. I'd be happy to volunteer technical expertise and support to helping this site. Sounds like CAguns doesn't have the best of intentions, and wants to sweep the country, lol.

[C.G.]

CalGuns should sell the domain to CAguns with a manual or automatic redirect on the page. Maybe CAguns and CalGuns can cooperate so that the archived database is stored on the CAguns server, and linked there for a year. After that first year members can pay $1 a month for access to it, or maybe monetize it in some way just to recuperate costs. At some point we have to move on as a community, and dividing CAguns and CalGuns weakens the 2A community, it doesn't strengthen it.

Oh look, another shill.🤢

[Warbonnet]

CalGuns should sell the domain to CAguns with a manual or automatic redirect on the page. Maybe CAguns and CalGuns can cooperate so that the archived database is stored on the CAguns server, and linked there for a year. After that first year members can pay $1 a month for access to it, or maybe monetize it in some way just to recuperate costs. At some point we have to move on as a community, and dividing CAguns and CalGuns weakens the 2A community, it doesn't strengthen it.

To hell with that. I'd rather join the democrat party, and wear a dress, than have any connection to that liberal other site with the raccoon problem.

[TrappedinCalifornia]

CalGuns should sell the domain to CAguns with a manual or automatic redirect on the page. Maybe CAguns and CalGuns can cooperate so that the archived database is stored on the CAguns server, and linked there for a year. After that first year members can pay $1 a month for access to it, or maybe monetize it in some way just to recuperate costs. At some point we have to move on as a community, and dividing CAguns and CalGuns weakens the 2A community, it doesn't strengthen it.

I doubt many who are left here would condone such a merger. The reasons include what the owner of the other site pulled on this site to build that site, not to mention the 'restrictions' which apply to that site. Then there's the fact that Kestryll has declared his intent to keep this site free given that he promised to do so long ago. Thus, you're espousing a merger when many, maybe most, of the remaining, active users on this site don't want any part of the other site (including some who have tried it and didn't like it) and declaring that Kestryll should break a promise he doesn't intend to break to recuperate costs.

Then there's the idea of two sites weakening the 2nd Amendment community rather than strengthening it. Uh... Is that why the owner of the other site intends creating a site for each of the 50 states and is using his present site as the base architecture?

Ultimately, each site has something unique to offer. Were this site functioning correctly, I'm not even certain the other site would have grown as large as it has. Yet, it too has a place and a purpose. However, such is different than this one. That's without even discussing that many of the members there retain an animus toward this site and Kestryll, for a variety of reasons. In addition, they don't care for the format of this site and don't want to have to deal with it while most of those remaining prefer this site and don't care for the other. Thus, combining the two sites is an attempt to combine largely incompatible memberships. (Just as that site combined some of the Calguns membership with some of the Reddit membership, but not the entirety of either.)

I get that the owner of the other site wants not only access to and use of the Calguns brand, but has specifically stated that he would prefer the two sites remain separate so as to keep the 'unique' flavor of each. What he hasn't openly stated is how long he would keep them separate vs. ultimately merging the two once he has gained control and utilized the Calguns branding for whatever purpose(s). Likewise, at this juncture, given what he pulled, I'm dubious many remaining here would trust him or any declarations.

[davidj]

CalGuns should sell the domain to CAguns with a manual or automatic redirect on the page. Maybe CAguns and CalGuns can cooperate so that the archived database is stored on the CAguns server, and linked there for a year. After that first year members can pay $1 a month for access to it, or maybe monetize it in some way just to recuperate costs. At some point we have to move on as a community, and dividing CAguns and CalGuns weakens the 2A community, it doesn't strengthen it.

No Thank You.
CAguns janitor is a Liar, proven several times from his posts that he made here and on his site. I do not associate with such individuals. I will not even get into his position on 2A issues that he has said.

[gorgothmog]

If money could solve this problem that would be a lot simpler. I mean I am sure there is a conceivable number that could do it, but it is well beyond the scope of any site like this.

Forum software has basically languished in development for the last 15 years. There is a market, but it’s very very niche. Reddit/social media/YouTube has largely replaced forums for most potential users aside from very specific user groups. As such the writers of this software aren’t a robust team, but instead a couple of guys holding out until retirement. Competing software companies that provide similar services are in similar situations.

Then we have the history of this site. This site for over 10 years ran on outdated software that became increasingly behind in terms of versioning specifically to maintain the iTrader functionality (well, it was probably less work than upgrading as well but I have no insight into if that played a part in the decision making). When critical issues forced this site to migrate to a current version, compatibility issues completely wrecked the migration. This is almost certainly problems with database incompatibility, although it also could be database size that is causing many of the problems we see. Calguns is a very robust forum in terms of total data.

As someone who used to work on forums for a living, back when that was more of a thing, my advice would be to start spinning up alternative versions of the site with the database pruned heavily and see if would help. That being said load testing in any real sense is probably not something the site owners are prepared to do, so it might not reveal what parts of the database are causing the most issues because the alternate versions wouldn’t get hammered like this site does. The most practical answer is to turn this database into an archive, and restart the site on a new clean database. But then a substantial part of the user base will throw a hissy fit because they can’t see as easily what gun was listed for what price in the marketplace back in 2013. Or read some thread with bad attempts at humor in the off topic section from 2007. Not that they actually do these things, but it’s the principle.

Essentially kes is trapped in several no win positions, and he’s going to get crap from a bunch of the users no matter what. One has to wonder if it’s worth his time. I wouldn’t want to deal with it, and I’m literally someone who gets paid to deal with these things. I appreciate this site, I’m someone who didn’t grow up with firearms or hunting and had to come into it later in life. As such there’s an enormous amount of knowledge deficit I’ve had to overcome. I’d like to see this site function again in a reasonable manner, but traffic is still shedding at an alarming rate. While the site may be more available than it was 6 months ago, less people are visiting it. Less people are visiting it than last month, and that was less than the month before. There are plenty of tools available online to track this, but you don’t even need them. Instead just look at the last posted date in the forums. Parts of this site that used to be busy are going dead. And without people conversing, a forum stops being used relatively quickly.

CalGuns should sell the domain to CAguns with a manual or automatic redirect on the page. Maybe CAguns and CalGuns can cooperate so that the archived database is stored on the CAguns server, and linked there for a year. After that first year members can pay $1 a month for access to it, or maybe monetize it in some way just to recuperate costs. At some point we have to move on as a community, and dividing CAguns and CalGuns weakens the 2A community, it doesn't strengthen it.

[Imageview]

For those who enjoy it I say keep coming here but it is simply unusable, when I want to use it. Otherwise it works fine 🙄

There is no reason for these technical problems to exist for years, the entire internet proves that. I mean, I wouldn't put my name behind it but it is not for us to ask to shut it down. I just don't understand it. I ran two servers, built and hosted websites for ten years with e-commerce and tons of traffic and never had these issues. All as a side business while I worked full time as an Auto Tech.

It's not some mystery, someone can fix it but it costs $$

If money could solve this problem that would be a lot simpler. I mean I am sure there is a conceivable number that could do it, but it is well beyond the scope of any site like this.

Forum software has basically languished in development for the last 15 years. There is a market, but it’s very very niche. Reddit/social media/YouTube has largely replaced forums for most potential users aside from very specific user groups. As such the writers of this software aren’t a robust team, but instead a couple of guys holding out until retirement. Competing software companies that provide similar services are in similar situations.

Then we have the history of this site. This site for over 10 years ran on outdated software that became increasingly behind in terms of versioning specifically to maintain the iTrader functionality (well, it was probably less work than upgrading as well but I have no insight into if that played a part in the decision making). When critical issues forced this site to migrate to a current version, compatibility issues completely wrecked the migration. This is almost certainly problems with database incompatibility, although it also could be database size that is causing many of the problems we see. Calguns is a very robust forum in terms of total data.

As someone who used to work on forums for a living, back when that was more of a thing, my advice would be to start spinning up alternative versions of the site with the database pruned heavily and see if would help. That being said load testing in any real sense is probably not something the site owners are prepared to do, so it might not reveal what parts of the database are causing the most issues because the alternate versions wouldn’t get hammered like this site does. The most practical answer is to turn this database into an archive, and restart the site on a new clean database. But then a substantial part of the user base will throw a hissy fit because they can’t see as easily what gun was listed for what price in the marketplace back in 2013. Or read some thread with bad attempts at humor in the off topic section from 2007. Not that they actually do these things, but it’s the principle.

Essentially kes is trapped in several no win positions, and he’s going to get crap from a bunch of the users no matter what. One has to wonder if it’s worth his time. I wouldn’t want to deal with it, and I’m literally someone who gets paid to deal with these things. I appreciate this site, I’m someone who didn’t grow up with firearms or hunting and had to come into it later in life. As such there’s an enormous amount of knowledge deficit I’ve had to overcome. I’d like to see this site function again in a reasonable manner, but traffic is still shedding at an alarming rate. While the site may be more available than it was 6 months ago, less people are visiting it. Less people are visiting it than last month, and that was less than the month before. There are plenty of tools available online to track this, but you don’t even need them. Instead just look at the last posted date in the forums. Parts of this site that used to be busy are going dead. And without people conversing, a forum stops being used relatively quickly.

[Donny1]

For those who enjoy it I say keep coming here but it is simply unusable, when I want to use it. Otherwise it works fine 🙄

There is no reason for these technical problems to exist for years, the entire internet proves that. I mean, I wouldn't put my name behind it but it is not for us to ask to shut it down. I just don't understand it. I ran two servers, built and hosted websites for ten years with e-commerce and tons of traffic and never had these issues. All as a side business while I worked full time as an Auto Tech.

It's not some mystery, someone can fix it but it costs $$

[OlderThanDirt]

I noticed that the CAPTCHA feature no longer works. It's impossible for anyone new to sign up. Not that anyone new can access this site very often, but some people are into ghost towns.

[lexo98]

Some updates here and there from Kes would be nice. I know we are all busy with real life, but this site has been part of our lives for so long its just frustrating that its not working most of the time

Agreed. This site had a small business feeling. The owner would pop in and it had that cool vibe. At this point it’s disrespectful.

[Nefarious]

Some updates here and there from Kes would be nice. I know we are all busy with real life, but this site has been part of our lives for so long its just frustrating that its not working most of the time

[C.G.]

Because I can acknowledge that it’s still being used and useful for the used market while also being run by a complete and total dumbass.

Somehow you advocating that the site should be shut down does not correspond with the above statement, shill.

[InFamous20]

There has to be some solution. Intermittent time outs/Site going down is terrible

[Brilliant-Bat7063]

Why are you here then? You don't have to answer that was a rhetorical question.

Because I can acknowledge that it’s still being used and useful for the used market while also being run by a complete and total dumbass.

[chrisw]

The racoon is the owner of the other site. Some here have espoused that he is a bit leftists. He is proably reading this.
I just have a laugh trolling the suckers who throw money down the drain here. There are so easy.

They