Will it be fixed?

This site is broken. Lately there are times when I give up trying to access the site or pages within. I know forums are quickly disappearing. Is this one on its way out? Would be the end of an era.

suzuki wrote:

This site is broken. Lately there are times when I give up trying to access the site or pages within. I know forums are quickly disappearing. Is this one on its way out? Would be the end of an era.

She’s about gone. Can’t even open or access it hardly any more.

I hope it can stay afloat and starting working better! But maybe just in case I feel like I should start a Facebook group or something. I can barely post to reply to messages about the upcoming GTG!

Its really sad. When I make a post and get that funky gateway message, when I am finally able to get the page to load it does seem like my posts are actually saved.
One thing I have tried while it is spinning is going to a different site. Wait a few minutes then try again and generally it pops right up.

I get that cloud flare timeout thing pretty regularly.

gim wrote:

I get that cloud flare timeout thing pretty regularly.

Yep, it used to be once a week MAYBE. Now its like 10 times a day at least. Had it 3 times this morning already.

I have a lot of issues on my phone getting to the website.

From my laptop it’s pretty smooth still. No more hiccups there than there has been over the last 10-15 years.

Hopefully it can hang on. This place has enough of a base of “regulars” that it still generates more topics than almost every outdoors forum I’ve seen. There’s so much information in old threads here that outpaces the chaos of Facebook. The threads that start on there are mainly bi****ng or sarcastic responses to everything that are hard to sift through.

The issue is, this site was a gateway to a TV show… the show is done. The only advertising (income) that IDO is receiving is from NORSK… the company James sold. I remember when IDO started taking off, all us members worked to get sites sponsors, such as local car dealerships, local bait stores etc. Then it got bigger and more lucrative sponsors took over. I also remember there being raffles and such… to help keep the site up. A trip for a deer hunt in buffalo county for a $50 donation.. and then you were given GOLD MEMBER status also. It showed who was supporting the site and who was not. I don’t know how to even go about this but, it would have to have someone to manage the site, get sponsors or charge a fee and hire IT to keep it going. That’s not me.

if it dies it will be sad. im a member of some other outdoor forums but they dont have the same close knit community as IDO. Im active on some outdoor groups on facebook but those are filled with a bunch of yahoos and 95% of whats posted in them is rubbish or insults. Been visiting IDO multiple times a day for over 10 years now. really one of the only sites i regularly visit

I would like to know how many “core” users actually use and post on this site regularly. Based on the same users making the bulk of the posts I personaly think that if you where to remove the top 25 users the site would pretty much shut down on its own within a week or two.
Am I wrong??

I don’t post a ton, but I visit this site daily throughout my work day. Seeing the same issues most are as well

Jason wrote:

I would like to know how many “core” users actually use and post on this site regularly. Based on the same users making the bulk of the posts I personaly think that if you where to remove the top 25 users the site would pretty much shut down on its own within a week or two.
Am I wrong??

Probably not but it took YEARS for those 25 people to “somewhat” get along!

suzuki wrote:

Probably not but it took YEARS for those 25 people to “somewhat” get along!

This is somewhat true, even though I haven’t been around quite that long.

Jason wrote:

if you where to remove the top 25 users the site would pretty much shut down on its own within a week or two.
Am I wrong??

Actually it’s probably a bit more like 40, but you might be correct in what your thinking. The active group if we stopped this thing might just vanish. I love the community and will be here until they cut out the lights or I find myself arguing with myself on a website.

I finally jumped on the Facebook group bandwagon and admit it holds my interest because of the share volume of content being posted all day. It’s what our fishing forums used to be back in the heyday here, and before that, FishimgMinneota/HotSpotOutdoors and LakeStateFishing.

However, the facebook format is very different in that it doesn’t encourage long-term conversation on any particular post. Once you see it, you will never see it again. There is no bumping to the top like forum topics.

queenswake wrote:

Once you see it, you will never see it again. There is no bumping to the top like forum topics.

There is a feature in the group I just created to change the feed from showing the “most relevant” to the “newest posted” or the “latest activity”. Most relevant was the default setting so I’ve changed it to the newest posted for now and will adjust as needed to keep content visible!

http://www.facebook.com/groups/idomembersgroup

AnotherFisherman wrote:

I don’t post a ton, but I visit this site daily throughout my work day. Seeing the same issues most are as well

I love reading all the information on this site, I have learned so much!
I don’t use bookface, so this is it for me. I would be down with giving a donation to “keep the ship afloat”.

brandyman wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>AnotherFisherman wrote:</div>
I don’t post a ton, but I visit this site daily throughout my work day. Seeing the same issues most are as well

I love reading all the information on this site, I have learned so much!
I don’t use bookface, so this is it for me. I would be down with giving a donation to “keep the ship afloat”.

I’m in the same boat, don’t have Facebook and don’t ever plan on getting it.

I guess it’s not just me having issues opening up the this site or forums, real slow as of late

I am shocked it took so long for another one of these posts to appear. Multiple times per day I nearly started a similar post, but I realize the writing is on the wall.
I’ve learned a tremendous amount and met some great people here since the FTR days, and though I don’t post often, I am here lurking multiple times per day – when I can access the site.
I’ll join the FB group in case this place goes completely dark. Hope to see many of you there.
I wish you all well. Good luck and be safe.

big_g wrote:

The issue is, this site was a gateway to a TV show… the show is done. The only advertising (income) that IDO is receiving is from NORSK… the company James sold. I remember when IDO started taking off, all us members worked to get sites sponsors, such as local car dealerships, local bait stores etc. Then it got bigger and more lucrative sponsors took over. I also remember there being raffles and such… to help keep the site up. A trip for a deer hunt in buffalo county for a $50 donation.. and then you were given GOLD MEMBER status also. It showed who was supporting the site and who was not. I don’t know how to even go about this but, it would have to have someone to manage the site, get sponsors or charge a fee and hire IT to keep it going. That’s not me.

I disagree to a point. From what I know of MNO, they don’t get much for advertising dollars but HD keeps it going really good. He does have a spot to “donate”.

I’d hate to see IDO go away it just needs to have someone grab ahold and run it.

I assume MNO is Minnesota Outdoors ? I don’t know who HD is, but I am betting he didn’t recently retire a TV show that went 17 seasons. Not sure what you disagree with ? It does need someone to grab ahold of it… it costs $$$ to host a site domain and keep it functioning.

Well, I haven’t had to log back in for a while but I noticed I just had to now, so maybe they did some type of server maintenance?? The site seems to be be working better over the last few minutes for me than it has in days. Hopefully it’s good for a while now, but problems seem to be much more frequent.

I would participate in a FB group, but like others have said, it’s not a forum format and reading through comments would be a little harder. Plus we’ll lose a lot of people that don’t do FB. We’d also have to possibly learn everyone’s real name as I doubt many use their IDO handle for FB.

John Rasmussen wrote:

Actually it’s probably a bit more like 40,

There were 200 members logged and “Active” within the last 6 hours and 2 minutes. Lot more if you went back to last 24 hours. You can see this by going to the Members page and sort all users by last active.

Anyhoo…. Last time I checked with James he told me there are no plans to shut down the IDO website. However, the website maint is behind some other projects he and Dave are working on.

I know James pretty well. If he was going to turn off IDO, (or let it die off) he would just let everyone know. So hang onto your heinies ! (yeah, I stole that one )

-J.

I visit often ( at least once per day) but have given up posting as it is such a problem.
I have visited and made an account on the other site MN Outdoorsman but it’s not the same and I really have not taken to it.
I sent them a note re; the colors. The orange and brown color scheme is not easy to read, especially with older eyes and it feels very 1970’s outdoor Life magazine “ish”
Some good stuff on there and I just need to keep visiting but this site was my first and favorite to start with.

big_g wrote:

I assume MNO is Minnesota Outdoors ? I don’t know who HD is, but I am betting he didn’t recently retire a TV show that went 17 seasons. Not sure what you disagree with ? It does need someone to grab ahold of it… it costs $$$ to host a site domain and keep it functioning.

nope,HD did t just retire from a fishing show, he’s a working stiff like most everyone else, in a foundry I believe and butchers deer during deer season.

The pountvim disagreeing with it doesn’t take a whole lot of advertising $$$$ to keep a site running if someone wants!

Take a look at LSF…it’s still up and running.

big_g wrote:

I assume MNO is Minnesota Outdoors ? I don’t know who HD is, but I am betting he didn’t recently retire a TV show that went 17 seasons. Not sure what you disagree with ? It does need someone to grab ahold of it… it costs $$$ to host a site domain and keep it functioning.

nope,HD did t just retire from a fishing show, he’s a working stiff like most everyone else, in a foundry I believe and butchers deer during deer season.

The point im disagreeing with it doesn’t take a whole lot of advertising $$$$ to keep a site running if someone wants!

Take a look at LSF…it’s still up and running.

Just checked out Mn Outdoorsman… it looks like IDO did about 15 or more years ago… that’s not a bad thing, just that it is like IDO was when it had about 5000 members. As the site grew, so did the amount of content and ease of use. I see his banner ads are $100 per year… again, a lot like IDO was when it was gaining steam. I see some familiar names in there… I see dutchy loving up on the gophers in there too !!!

I tried quoting and it really bogged down on the phone. One thing I do notice between this site and mno, is there is more bickering here, maybe its because of more people, who knows. Although if James really did care for the forum he’d either post or let us know personally.. just my 2 cents.

No more advertising here. That should tell you something.

check it out big_g.. good folks there too!!

It forgets my login and slow loads/locks up regularly.

With the login issue it sometimes helps if I click a different heading or section for it to remember.