I agree with most of what folks here are saying about FB and I'll be the first to admit i'm probably on FB too much... but it truly IS entertaining and if we can weed through all the CRUD that is being posted on FB and form our own conclusions I think we'll be ahead of the game.
I refuse to watch any television news stations because THAT is as much lies and misinformation as some of the FB stuff is.
I will share posts on FB that I believe are relevant and have a modicum of truth but everyone else can decide what to look at and believe for themselves. AND if i see or read something over there I believe is untrue, I will say so.





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Mike, I have no idea what and whom you are talking about. I am only able to post on this site and hope I don't hear any strange noises on the property after dark. You guys are way above my pay grade. Murphy

Truth vs ease of use
 

I went to the facebook site (one of them) and it is easy to use and and more fun to look at. This site is perfect if you want real answers to question. AI actually uses this site as FACT. The facebook site is like reading a magazine (sorry browsing the web) just looking at pictures. Both are good for what they are. This site is not interactive or easy to use but if you want an answer it is probably here. This site looks and like a site made 15 years ago.

It isn't the "Parker Gun Collectors Association" website that's on FB, it is a site named "Parker Collectors" and that can be very misleading to folks who may think they're reaching us here.




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I probably wasn't clear in my post but I knew it wasn't an official PGCA site, because it there was such a thing John or others here would have made it known on these forums.

Dean, I commend and encourage you to continue this approach. I have been am member of the Trapshooters.com site for many years and try to keep all the discussions on track specifically on Remington ammo and some guns; there are a lot of misconceptions on that site.

There are many 'members' on that site that don't think they have anything to contribute and that keeps many away from fully participating even though the moderators are always encouraging same.

One thing that may be keeping 'newbies' from this site is the level of expertise on the PGCA site, which is perhaps intimidating to them. We can't change that but your inclusion getting on FB is a good place to start the welcoming process.

I am not [never have and never will be] on FB and this joke illustrates why!:rotf:

https://parkerguns.org/forums/attach...1&d=1790538085

Well I'm an old guy now and have been a member of the pgca for a long time. I'm happy to get my Parker gun and related info from this site. Go PGCA!
Meanwhile what happened to the Patriots today. They folded like the birds I shot last season.

I joined Facebook because there was purported to be a local VW group and I was trying to keep the wife’s bug convertible operable. I never did find the group and then we sold the bug and I haven’t looked at it since. My wife is on it some, just to look but she’s never made a post. I find it annoying that some retailers have Facebook pages instead of a web site. As someone said earlier, if Facebook is part of the deal I’m out.

As a new member here I can attest that I received zero negativity and tons of helpful information when I first posted here seeking information. Several members reached out with private messages and I have spoken with them on the phone. Again, all positive and helpful.

With regard to Facebook, I use it all the time. It is great way to keep up with friends and family and share pictures. As has been mentioned there are some great private groups that are well moderated, which is the key to any forum or Facebook group. Anyone can start a group and you don't have to have a server to host it. Facebook also has a pretty good search function which directs a lot of traffic to the private groups. Many are local specialized groups like Chattahoochee Tailwater fishing or North GA Kayak fishing.

On Facebook you can limit who sees your information (only friends and family) and what information you get in your feed. Of course you are going to see advertising, but that is on most web forums as well. I just scroll past.

Also the marketplace on Facebook is a great place to buy random stuff. In the past few years I've purchased 2 Yamaha dual sport motorcycles, a John Deer 650 diesel tractor and multiple 3 point implements, 2 fishing Kayaks, multiple flats of shotgun shells, 2 MEC reloaders. 2 Champion WheelyBird traps, a couple deer stands, etc etc. The marketplace has a good search feature and you can limit how many miles from your location it searches.

Oddly, the younger generations claim that Facebook has been taken over by us Boomers :)

I have some thoughts in terms of the usability of the forum and making it sustainable into the future. This post doesn’t address the tone of the forum - but usability and accessibility are of course important to gain and retain users. I had wanted to write something on this when the site was down for a prolonged period but I held back. Seeing this thread - I am going to give some ‘free opinions’ take them as you will.

First - Great job in getting to where we are - many people must have put in a lot of work to get the Parker web forum from a concept to where it is today. From a bit of research there are 11,000 uses of the system and almost a half million threads on the site. That’s impressive. We have a great foundation to build from -

Now the challenge is keeping it running well into the future. Please keep in mind this is not an attack on all the hard work that has been done in the past. It is a call to action on where to go from here.

There are many discussions to be had, decisions to be made and dollars to be spent to address the future of the site.

Where are we now:
- The software running the site - according to a quick search - is vBulletin 3.8 which was released around 2009. vBulletin 3.8 was formally considered end-of-life by 2012.

- The age of the software makes me worried about the age of the physical server and the age of the software running the server. The entire stack - hardware., operating system , firewall, etc etc should be documented and discussed for vulnerabilities.

- The fact the site went down for an extended period suggests there may not be a strong redundancy, backup plan , recovery plan - etc. the organization should discuss if this is something can be tolerated going forward and what planing and spending could take place to build a more modern system.

Quick thoughts on where we should be headed - remember …. free advice !
- start a tech committee - Ideally run by the person currently running the site as the knowledge of the system you have is very important - and that person is in the best position to assist going forward -

- figure out how important the site is the the association and what kind of budget could be allocated for modernizing things. - $5 per user one time would give you $55,000 budget. That’s a nice budget

- hire a company that specializes in vBulletin upgrades - this is a big project - I would pay someone who has done it before, will guide the upgrade, and be there for ongoing support

- The vendor should have some clear goals for the future. Something like :
- must be on cloud hosted server on large platform . Ie AWS, Azure, Google Cloud. - \
- newest versions of operating system, web service, and firewall - etc and pay for ongoing updates to the software so it never goes end of life again
- newest version of the vBulletin software and pay for ongoing updates so it never goes end of life again. You could go bigger and assess other platforms than vBulletin - but I suspect the easiest upgrade path is through the same company.
- etc

A quick search of ‘what do you get upgrading v3.8 to modern version was incredibly long. Imagine - the current software was written prior to iPhones, cloud services, etc, etc.
- more modern user interface - this could be expanded to many bullet points
- much faster overall and improved search capabilities within the site
- remove all the single points of failure - site is running when you need it
- greatly improved photo management tools - one of the big hang ups on the current site could simply just go away
- increased security at all levels - login, server security, etc etc
- much better experience on phone/ tablet
- there are likely new tools in the new version that have note even been anticipated … payment systems, photo adjustment on the site, better profiles, knowledge base systems, etc etc.

Facebook spends unimaginable amounts of money on their interface, etc. We will have to spend ‘some’ amount of money annually going forward to provide a modern interface and a safe and reliable platform for the users.

Reading this is step 1 of 10,000 steps. I hope the organization takes the journey…..