I Posted A Link To EHP on APN...

I loved our old American Preppers Network forum, but it appears that no one is concerned with even trying to pull it back together. Most of the daily posts are spam, and the few people who contribute are fighting a losing battle. I certainly don't know enough to contribute to every topic. I was there for years to glean information about every aspect of prepping, and if I learned new stuff, I tried to post what I had learned. I've tried to keep topics alive that I have knowledge of (which isn't much), but it seems only 2-3 people are posting there at all. The rest of the forums are dormant, except for an occasional post here and there, usually from noobs looking for info.

I presume some people will roast me for linking to a "rival" site, but when I got to new steps in my prepping journey, I relied on APN to take me to the next level. However, all that info is gone. There are headers, but no posts with the information. Other people are looking for good PREP information too.

ReadyMom has done a lot of work here on EHP to make information readily available to all. But human experience and interacting with each other is what really helped me build my preps. I could ask questions, and pose hypothetical scenarios that others helped me see clearly to make the right decisions.

So...I'm diving in here, and reluctantly leaving a once great forum behind.

And yes, I know I need to contribute more, too. I will do my best to post more of what I have learned about various aspects of being prepared.

I'm glad you did Cin. I posted to the APN a couple of days ago, that I had had enough and that I was done with the APN.

I PM'ed many APN members and the new arrivals to the APN about Readymom's EHP forum, hopefully they will sign up here, some did.

I quit posting on the APN quite a while back when it started getting spammy ( is that a word ?) and I try and post on here. I have learned a lot of things on here , but I am so busy trying to finish our home I don't have time for more than a quick check. We bought a house that had been gutted It was nothing but a shell and my wife works and I am doing it by myself , but i will try and post more...

Have a great day folks

Dave, feel free to tell us about your progress on rebuilding in the Monthly thread - some of what you are doing may help others take a leap into creating a home prepared for anything.

https://emergencyhomeprep.forumotion.com/t1192-2019-september-prepping-updates#4428

 THANK YOU all for making EHP your new home. I'm trying to post new links daily. I have found SO MANY sites with info. My goal is to post as many links as I can find on prep topics  ... some have the same type of info but then some have something new.

I think we're organized pretty well, here. One of the more simpler sites for navigation. Pretty straight forward, instead of 'crafty, creative'  names for a thread topic.

I just wish we had more ACTIVE, registered members who add to the conversations. I think I could make this a forum where you have to register as a member to see the info, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Some people are 'shy' and don't want to do that. My objective has always been to just get the info out to as many as possible.

In the meantime, I'm grateful for your support. If you want to share our link around ... feel free. I think I've mentioned, before, that as forum owner I don't want to tick off any other forum owners by doing that on their sites. Then I'd be a spammer

So sad ... logged onto APN today, and there are 34 new posts ... ALL spam

ReadyMom wrote:So sad ... logged onto APN today, and there are 34 new posts ... ALL spam

Yeah, I think the spammers have decided to move en masse onto APN since the admins aren't doing anything about them. Sigh.

Things change, but it's still sad to see a useful board reduced to that.

dmwalsh568 wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:So sad ... logged onto APN today, and there are 34 new posts ... ALL spam

Yeah, I think the spammers have decided to move en masse onto APN since the admins aren't doing anything about them. Sigh.

Things change, but it's still sad to see a useful board reduced to that.

I should note that I am one of the Admins, over at APN. I tried to get the board more organized, tried to find old posts to fill in where the HUGE gaps are for the missing info (when the change was made) and it was an overwhelming, daunting task. SO time-consuming. That's what prompted me to start EHP.

ReadyMom wrote:

dmwalsh568 wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:So sad ... logged onto APN today, and there are 34 new posts ... ALL spam

Yeah, I think the spammers have decided to move en masse onto APN since the admins aren't doing anything about them. Sigh.

Things change, but it's still sad to see a useful board reduced to that.

I should note that I am one of the Admins, over at APN. I tried to get the board more organized, tried to find old posts to fill in where the HUGE gaps are for the missing info (when the change was made) and it was an overwhelming, daunting task. SO time-consuming. That's what prompted me to start EHP.

Sorry. Didn't mean you weren't pulling your weight, since I know how much time you've put in on all these boards, both EHP and APN as well as your other sites.

I'm guessing the choice of forum on APN made it hard to play whack a mole with the spammers.

dmwalsh568 wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:

dmwalsh568 wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:So sad ... logged onto APN today, and there are 34 new posts ... ALL spam

Yeah, I think the spammers have decided to move en masse onto APN since the admins aren't doing anything about them. Sigh.

Things change, but it's still sad to see a useful board reduced to that.

I should note that I am one of the Admins, over at APN. I tried to get the board more organized, tried to find old posts to fill in where the HUGE gaps are for the missing info (when the change was made) and it was an overwhelming, daunting task. SO time-consuming. That's what prompted me to start EHP.

Sorry. Didn't mean you weren't pulling your weight, since I know how much time you've put in on all these boards, both EHP and APN as well as your other sites.

I'm guessing the choice of forum on APN made it hard to play whack a mole with the spammers.

No Worries ... I didn't take it that way at all! I think  most who are from APN know I've been an admin ....  just thought that since you mentioned it, I'd let you guys know what a task it's been to try and bring the site back.

I for one really appreciate everything you do here RM...

I don't get a chance to sit and read here very much but everybody on here is very helpful .. My thanks to everyone

Just a few thoughts.

Cinnamon wrote:...I presume some people will roast me for linking to a "rival" site, but when I got to new steps in my prepping journey, I relied on APN to take me to the next level. However, all that info is gone. There are headers, but no posts with the information. ...

No one has any standing to "roast" you for linking to a "rival" site. Especially posting the link on a forum that isn't going to make it, unless the owner decides to do another overhaul.

rick1 wrote:I'm glad you did Cin. I posted to the APN a couple of days ago, that I had had enough and that I was done with the APN..

I guess I should do the same. I didn't make a conscious decision to give up on them, but seeing the lack of progress and the lack of attention from the owner, I just wrote less and less over there, and drifted away.

Dave wrote:it started getting spammy ( is that a word ?)

spammy is a word.
But only in forums
It would confuse outsiders.

ReadyMom wrote:...I just wish we had more ACTIVE, registered members who add to the conversations. I think I could make this a forum where you have to register as a member to see the info, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. Some people are 'shy' and don't want to do that. My objective has always been to just get the info out to as many as possible.

I agree with you, although a banner ad telling them we would love to have them as a member would be a good idea. (I don't even know if you have that, since I never look without logging in.)

In the meantime, I'm grateful for your support. If you want to share our link around ... feel free. I think I've mentioned, before, that as forum owner I don't want to tick off any other forum owners by doing that on their sites. Then I'd be a spammer

I had been meaning to ask for some guidance on that, since I know that many forums frown on poaching. I have gotten a few people to come looking here, but only one joined. I don't understand that, since forums are one of the most important things on the Internet.

(I don't include Farce-Book and Twit-ter. To me, those are more like night clubs, where a forum is like a hardware store.)

ReadyMom wrote:...
I should note that I am one of the Admins, over at APN. I tried to get the board more organized, tried to find old posts to fill in where the HUGE gaps are for the missing info (when the change was made) and it was an overwhelming, daunting task. SO time-consuming. That's what prompted me to start EHP.

You were an Admin, but you had limited scope. There was only one person (As Far As I Know) with unlimited scope, and it didn't look like that person what putting a lot of effort into it any more. I have my suspicions about why.  

The choice of Wordpress was a uniquely bad decision, from forum operations point of view. And that is something known in the forum and programming community for a while. The only reason I can think of to do that would be to gain practice and experience on the software, and to make oneself marketable as a Wordpress expert.

I suspect the site owner has gone on to other endeavors and left the site to run itself. Allowing the trickle of ad revenue to pay for keeping the domain alive, but not really trying to do anything with it. Many people, when Trump got into office relaxed from prepping, thinking all is well, and many got out of prepping, or at least lost most of their interest, in 2017. APN's site owner may be one of those. I saw a lot of the same happen during the "dot com" meltdown in 2001.

TRex2 wrote:  I suspect the site owner has gone on to other endeavors and left the site to run itself. Allowing the trickle of ad revenue to pay for keeping the domain alive, but not really trying to do anything with it. Many people, when Trump got into office relaxed from prepping, thinking all is well, and many got out of prepping, or at least lost most of their interest, in 2017. APN's site owner may be one of those. I saw a lot of the same happen during the "dot com" meltdown in 2001.

Thanks for all the insights TR!

One thing I want folks to know ... building this site (EHP), is a hobby-love of mine. I want it to be an easy library of prep topics to look through. I've wanted to do it for a long time, but was nervous about taking the plunge. Right now ... it's just me. If we grow bigger, I'll ask for Mods for various forums (like I did for the Gun forum).  I've been prepping since about 2006, so I'm getting older  . IF and when I decide I don't want to do this any more and there is STILL interest ... I'm not going to abandon this without first looking for someone to take it over. There's just too much info here, to just let it get lost.

I think that once EHP has been active long enough (A couple of years), I'll actually go through and delete/move some of the  OLD 'conversation' from threads (if they are not full of prep-teaching hints & thoughts and just 'fun-chatter' about the topic) so that the important prep info is easy-to-find. Probably just moving the chatter to another area will be my choice, so it's 'archived' for anyone to read. But that will only be after threads get long & old. We don't want folks to be wading through 20 pages of 'water' conversation & links, and there are really only 5 pages of helpful info. Hopefully EHP can reach an 'old age', like FluTrackers has.  Most others are now gone, like PlanForPandemic (P4P, Pandemic Flu Information (PFI), etc.  Sad. There was a LOT of info on those sites!

I can see the new banner (ticker), even when signed in.
Pretty colors

TRex2 wrote:I can see the new banner (ticker), even when signed in.
Pretty colors

Does it need to be more 'masculine'? I'll look for something toned down a bit to add ....

TRex2 wrote:Just a few thoughts.

I suspect the site owner has gone on to other endeavors and left the site to run itself. Allowing the trickle of ad revenue to pay for keeping the domain alive, but not really trying to do anything with it. Many people, when Trump got into office relaxed from prepping, thinking all is well, and many got out of prepping, or at least lost most of their interest, in 2017. APN's site owner may be one of those. I saw a lot of the same happen during the "dot com" meltdown in 2001.

I thought this, too.

We've actually ramped up our prepping. Two reasons, more family have learned that if anything happens, come to us (they are building their preps and will bring what they have). And we just don't trust the economy, especially when we've noticed prices creeping up on nearly everything...a few cents here, a few cents there...but it starts adding up to dollars.

I keep logging onto APN to see what's happening and there are NO new posts anymore. It's just spam. Sad. I think it's done, for sure now. Bring down the flag.

ReadyMom wrote:I keep logging onto APN to see what's happening and there are NO new posts anymore. It's just spam. Sad. I think it's done, for sure now. Bring down the flag.

                               

ReadyMom wrote:I keep logging onto APN to see what's happening and there are NO new posts anymore. It's just spam. Sad. I think it's done, for sure now. Bring down the flag.

Yeah I keep checking in out of a sense of morbid curiosity.

I used to report the spam, but gave up a while back. Definitely a sad situation. Sigh.

I just posted a couple places over there that most of us are here, now.

Looks like APN might officially be down!

ReadyMom wrote:Looks like APN might officially be down!

It was there earlier this morning.

I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did after the upgrade.

I PM'ed many on there to check out EHP and some did join up here. I lurked every once in a while and all I saw was advertisements for people's own personal gain and couldn't believe that many were posting in spanish and I think arabic.

Too bad, it was once a good forum. I'll miss RebNavy (RIP Reb), Mollypup, Alaskan Rose, and many others.

The APN is back up, I was lurking around and of course the same thing (SPAM and more SPAM).

rick1 wrote:

ReadyMom wrote:Looks like APN might officially be down!

...
I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did after the upgrade.
...

It wasn't an upgrade.
I hate to say this about a fellow Netizen, but, here is the reality:
It was a "fix" that went bad because the owner of the board was more interested in experimenting with Wordpress, than he was interested in the Forum which, it appears, is there just to gather clicks and maybe some ad revenue (can't be sure about the revenue).

The Moderators (and maybe an admin?) tried, valiantly, to make it work, but in the end, Wordpress is not a satisfactory software for the job, and the Moderators do not have the tools to make it work well.