Survival UK Forums

Hi guys n galls , I have been away from the forum for a while due to life issues of this and that , I have looked in as a guest now and then but did not engage , down to my problems and general shit of just normal living a life but I notice the lack of members that now join in the chit chat and put in the time for the benifit of all on the site THEY like me may have their problems , or do THEY have issues with the site ? When I signed up here there were great posts and threads ....very helpfull to me and meant everything I gained a lot of great advice loads of knowledge passed down by members which was of great help to me, Soooooooooo Where have YOU gone ? I wonder.....I like many here latch on to members of a mind set simular to mine , we all have members we hold in high esteem, some we think are nutters ...but .....all have a level playing field in having their say here, before anyone kicks off about The SD rules nutter bastard bit , the site is for US provided by SD which enlightens the likes of You and Me . My question is where have you gone.........do you know enough, are you pissed off , or do you think we should kidnap sd,s chickhens and have him pay a ransome of anything go,s and kill all the mods with a rusty stanley knife, What say you lot ? ......anyone out there. ?

Summer time, very busy.

Lots of work, lots of projects, lots of outdoor activities.

I check in every day, see no need to get into a long discussion on world conditions I can do nothing about.

Hi there, S, nice to see you. I don't think anyone has actually vanished. Personally, it's a busy time in the garden and with buildings maintenance. I pop in most days for a look late evening. Back in the Autumn when the days get shorter and darker. Hope all is better for you.

A few have moved onto closed E mail groups to avoid the trolls and trouble makers, its a lost less stressful and much more informative.

Right at the start I said that this site was what you made it. I never intended a forum at the start I wanted a repository of info for people to pull down information. I was talked into a forum and it worked out fine at first. Then I had a few problems and work changed and I just simply did not have the time and it clearly wasn't strong enough to survive despite a few people trying.

Some people blame the rules but they were simple rules on common courtesy and topic, it is a prepping site, and few posts were impacted. It makes it sound like 90% of the posts were deleted due to my heavy hand but that was not the case.

As it is user driven, if users are not here then it dies. Unlike a pub where no visitors means it closes down a forum can just sit there forever with a few people adding to it every now and again like we are doing.

People need to provide articles to keep the show alive, myself and a few others did it but work overtook what I was doing and with the lack of articles the visitors died off and you guys had nothing to talk about.

It is summer and all these groups slow down in summer, but not this much.

Eventually, I'll get back and it will start again. I'm still uploading files to the file area and am looking at adding a wiki before the end of the year. The data is there, take it and use it. You don't have to talk about it.

If a forum is to thrive, grow and succeed in need a few essential ingredients.

A working editorial team including the owners and moderators producing a steady constant stream of articles, discussions, reviews, debates, quiz's, news reports etc, to encourage debate, discussion, research, cooperation

It equally need a constant support from its members who need to interact and get involved REGULARILY as respondents and active members.

What SUK appears to have is many READ ONLY members, almost no editorial input, a few trolls, some folks who think its OK to call in occasionally stir up the shit and move on, and plenty of downloaders.

Hardly a conducive environment for people who want to help others or create articles is it ?

I find it unfortunate but most of those I respect have resorted to using E mail groups to share posts and articles without trolls or assholes rocking the boat. If the only way we can stay in touch with other preppers peacefully is via direct E mail groups then so be it.

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I believe people learn more, try more, learn more and benefit most from real interaction with other preppers, an archive is an excellent source of data, but its only one facet of the skill learning and experience gaining people actually need. That comes from discussion and debate and face to face meets etc. Unfortunately as soon as anyone tries to raise many an issue or new viewpoint it just gets shot down by dogma, trolling and closed minds.

But what the heck life goes on, those who really want to develop their preps and skills always find ways around the obstacles to stay in touch with others like themselves. E mails, RVs, Gatherings, other forums, blogs, and the old boy network .

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FYI just did a quick dive onto three other Uk forums and all are attracting new members between 5 and 10 a week, so there is still a growing interest in prepping, its just the SUK team are going to need to get proactive in attracting them. Perhaps start by allowing the BOTS to access the forum again thus allowing SUK to appear in the search engines again may help.

Thank you ALL for your insights and views, just makes me want to try harder. Will master posting pics soon .....I know I keep saying it .....but I will do it .....spect you all gagging to see um. Lol

Other forums survive and even thrive without the need for articles.

The problem in producing articles is that the author needs to be knowledgeable in all aspects of the topic that they are writing about, however this is rarely the case. Most people know bits about this and bits about that and enough to get by, but what they want to do is fill in the gaps in their own knowledge, so there are going to be very few members who are going to be happy (confident enough) about writing articles, what they (including myself) need are open and active discussions between like minded individuals where ideas can be discussed and developed and their knowledge enhanced.

For example if Toff's article on Perennial Veg had been posted on the discussions forums instead of, or even as well as the main site, then I am sure this would have generated a lot more discussion and other points and information may have then been made available to everyone??

What this forum does have in great depth is a fantastic bunch of passionate and committed survivalists/preppers, where on many other forums this level of commitment is often diluted by the many wanabees who see it as a fashionable hobby rather than a lifestyle choice.

For me, the other thing that I want to get from a forum like this is to build up and develop my contacts and to develop trust and confidence with other members, both locally and also in other parts of the country. At present I personally do not find that as easy to do on this forum as it is on some other forums, however I think that that could very easily be changed for the benefit of the entire forum and its members.

All it would need is the addition of a new section for General Chat (The Peppers Arms?) where anything can be discussed and it doesn't have to be prepping related - I can feel SD shaking his head already But bear with me.....

The benefit of this would be to help develop "our community" and relationships between members, I am sure there are many things that we would like to discuss (as preppers) which just don't fit into the current forum, for example I'm sure the majority of members are taking a great interest in what is happening in Ukraine/Iraq/Syria/Israel etc but these issues are not something that can really be discussed on these forums as they is "currently" no real impact on us, but preppers are actively discussing these issues on other forums, alternatively you may just want to share a joke or have a rant about something...... none of which can really be done at present.

At the end of the day, although these items and many others are not prepping related, they are relevant to us as preppers and therefore through having increased discussions generally, we are all building up our trust in each other developing networks which are very important to us as preppers.

Anyway that's just my thoughts...............

Great points dev good post !

I got fed up with being called thick and watching some threads degenerate into a two man appreciation society, having perfectly reasonable questions where the OP suffered an all out attack or belittlement for not knowing the answer. No-one wants to post on a forum where they're lack of knowledge is a subject for amusement by others.

@Devonian I'm working on a thread on Perennial veg. It's not an easy subject to write about as I'm still learning myself and I don't want to misinform if possible.

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Oh and it's summer and I'm up to my eyes pickling, canning and preserving to put stores for the winter.