if it was up to you ....?

[Scythe13]

I think this is a very interesting post and people's opinions are important to hear.

Actually, that's what I'd like to hear more of. More people asking questions and more positive responses. Some people phrase things wrongly and they come across as being a negative-nancy, even if they don't mean to be negative.

But really, that's all I'd change. I'd ask people what they wanted to know and how their preps could be helped. We're all on here because we have stuff we need to know/ask/learn, and we're also on here because some of us have information we can provide.

I want to hear people's requests for help. Questions like, how can I hide my car? How can I double the distance my car can travel? What is the best food for bugging out? What bag would you recommend for....? And things like that. I want people to post up their victories like HL and his Behind The Compost Super Cache. Or SD to tell us about his latest hunt. As well as people to tell us about their mistakes, like NR blowing up the solar panel (haha, I still laugh about that....Urm, my solar panel is smoking!!!). The thing is, we all make mistakes. No doubt I'll bust my foot (or my whole self) through the ceiling while building the loft storage. But that's part of the fun of prepping. Trying, having a go, then learning a lesson, whether success of failure. Then post about it so everyone can have a bit of a laugh, an ooh-ahh, or whatever.

I would say I'd like to see the news section back, but then we'd be back how it was a while ago where there was 15 active "Today's threads." and 12 of them were news articles. Not an issue, until you realise that 4 or 5 were of the same thing.

So, to improve on the forum, I'd just like to see people posting their thoughts, developments, changes, realisations, projects, and the alike. For me, the fact that nobody has actually posted about their success of failure on the September challenge of trying to make fire using self made tools was a real surprise. But people were not asking for help with how to do it, or anything like that. I think it was TL that said it's a skill we should all know, or be learning, but nobody really seemed to be keen on taking up the challenge. I tried with one of WnC's challenges, and I won. Not because I was a success, I won by default because nobody else even tried. I won a £70 one man mosquito mesh tent. The thing is awesome!!! Stored in the house ready for some summer fun! Have used it 8 or 9 times! Thanks mate. Anyone want some awesome prizes? Try to make fire by rubbing sticks together. Nobody tried, so nobody won any survival gear from me. It's free gear! Whether I said I was going to give a prize or not isn't important, people shouldn't need encouragement to improve their skills.

Unless you know everything there is about homesteading, bushcraft, construction, electronics, and the alike, then you should be asking questions. What I would do to improve the forum, I'd get people to ask their questions.