- Messages
- 12,529
- Reactions
- 18,007
Let me start by saying, good morning!
Some of you may know that I recently resigned from a position I've held for three years and I am now effectively unemployed. What started as a 45hr/week job crept up to a 72hr/week job, which left me absolutely no time for the things in my life that really matter to me (my girlfriend, my family, my friends, my websites, my hobbies, etc.). This website is my passion and my biggest accomplishment thus far, and, like a father who works too much, I feel like I've neglected my 'child' for the past year or two. I'd be lying if I said NWFA isn't the main reason I quit.
Making the decision to go from what I considered to be a very well paying job to nothing was not an easy choice for me to make, but it had to be done for the sake of this community. I'm taking a risk, and making sacrifices (moving to a smaller apartment next week is the first of many), but I'm confident I made the right decision.
In the next few months there will be some changes around here; changes that are way overdue. Much of this stuff is 'housekeeping' type of stuff, tweaking the look and style of the site, fixing things members have been complaining about for a long time, making things easier to use and understand, re-evaluating our rules, policies, and how we apply them, and improving the overall community as a whole.
One of my main concerns is that we've lost that welcoming atmosphere we used to pride ourselves on. People used to come here and love it because we were unlike many internet forums, in that we were more friendly and accepting than others. There are groups of people on here now that seem to take pride in polarizing conversations and attacking other groups, behavior that I have always found unacceptable here. I've said it before, and I'll say it again because I truly believe it; we're all gun owners and we need to stick together. While it might make for some boring conversation, divisiveness is the opposite of why I created this community. I'm not singling anyone out here, and if you asked me who I honestly couldn't give you a single name, I've just seen it as I'm browsing and I want everyone to know I'm going to be more involved from now on
Something important I need to tell everyone; I really appreciate members expressing their concerns, sharing their ideas, and providing overall feedback. All this stuff is invaluable in my decision-making process. I consider each and every bit of input put forth by our membership. I know I will never be able to please everyone, and in the end I have to live with the decisions I make for this site. However, that's the reason I decided to build NWFA alone, as the sole decision-maker, and I'm ready to shoulder that responsibility.
One such idea I've heard brought up in the past was separating the rifle and shotgun classified sections. That idea came to fruition this morning
I hope all of you will re-read some of my past mini-novels (most of them are stickys) to get an idea of what my goals are for this site, then join me in working toward that vision.
Cheers!
Some of you may know that I recently resigned from a position I've held for three years and I am now effectively unemployed. What started as a 45hr/week job crept up to a 72hr/week job, which left me absolutely no time for the things in my life that really matter to me (my girlfriend, my family, my friends, my websites, my hobbies, etc.). This website is my passion and my biggest accomplishment thus far, and, like a father who works too much, I feel like I've neglected my 'child' for the past year or two. I'd be lying if I said NWFA isn't the main reason I quit.
Making the decision to go from what I considered to be a very well paying job to nothing was not an easy choice for me to make, but it had to be done for the sake of this community. I'm taking a risk, and making sacrifices (moving to a smaller apartment next week is the first of many), but I'm confident I made the right decision.
In the next few months there will be some changes around here; changes that are way overdue. Much of this stuff is 'housekeeping' type of stuff, tweaking the look and style of the site, fixing things members have been complaining about for a long time, making things easier to use and understand, re-evaluating our rules, policies, and how we apply them, and improving the overall community as a whole.
One of my main concerns is that we've lost that welcoming atmosphere we used to pride ourselves on. People used to come here and love it because we were unlike many internet forums, in that we were more friendly and accepting than others. There are groups of people on here now that seem to take pride in polarizing conversations and attacking other groups, behavior that I have always found unacceptable here. I've said it before, and I'll say it again because I truly believe it; we're all gun owners and we need to stick together. While it might make for some boring conversation, divisiveness is the opposite of why I created this community. I'm not singling anyone out here, and if you asked me who I honestly couldn't give you a single name, I've just seen it as I'm browsing and I want everyone to know I'm going to be more involved from now on
Something important I need to tell everyone; I really appreciate members expressing their concerns, sharing their ideas, and providing overall feedback. All this stuff is invaluable in my decision-making process. I consider each and every bit of input put forth by our membership. I know I will never be able to please everyone, and in the end I have to live with the decisions I make for this site. However, that's the reason I decided to build NWFA alone, as the sole decision-maker, and I'm ready to shoulder that responsibility.
One such idea I've heard brought up in the past was separating the rifle and shotgun classified sections. That idea came to fruition this morning
I hope all of you will re-read some of my past mini-novels (most of them are stickys) to get an idea of what my goals are for this site, then join me in working toward that vision.
Cheers!
