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Ownership Change Notice

22K views 23 replies 13 participants last post by  quychang 
#1 ·
To: http://www.utahconcealedcarry.com members

I am excited to announce I have sold the forum to http://www.outdoorforums.com. I want to give a little background and explanation. I have always felt that UCC is an incredible forum and I love being here. Back a couple years ago, Thomas, the original founder, was in some financial trouble and he needed to sell the forum. I bought it quickly. I had the money and didn't want to see the forum be sold to someone who wouldn't be a good steward of it. So I bought it knowing nothing about how to manage a forum. In the couple years since, I have had more demands on my time and simply haven't had the time or expertise to manage the forum correctly. In short I have not felt like I have been doing the forum justice to what it could and should be.

Over the last couple of year's I have received some financial support from some of the members. I am very, very grateful for this support. However the forum does cost money to manage and maintain. I have primarily footed the bill which I have been happy to do. I have felt like this is a service I could provide to the gun community and I have been happy to play my own little part in something I am passionate about. In the back of my mind, however I knew that the only real way to manage the forum would be to find a buyer that could develop it, advertise it, and grow it. I have also known that the forum needed to generate enough revenue to cover the expenses to be viable long-term. I have NOT been able to do this nor can I be this person.

A couple months ago, the owners at http://www.outdoorforums.com reached out to me and offered to buy the forum. These guys manage a TON of forums and do an incredible job. Many of you probably participate on their forums. After researching them I felt like they would be a good steward of the forum so I sold it to them about a month ago. They have moved the forum to their servers and have been managing it since then.

I have no idea what the future will hold for the forum. I am confident that we will see some wonderful changes. I know many of you have liked the fact that the forum is family-friendly. You have liked the fact that there is no advertising. There is much to like here. However, I believe there is MUCH to be improved. And the best motivation for improvement and growth is having an owner with a financial interest and motivation. I believe in capitalism strongly. So I would expect that in the future you will see some changes coming. Please realize that a forum really truly does need to make money in order to sustain itself. There are many ways money can be made on a forum and the new owners will do what they see fit. I support them and believe that these changes will grow the forum and be for the better for all of us.

I am excited to see what the new owners do with the forum. I am excited for the things they can do to grow the forum. I hope that everyone here will understand my decision to sell and will support the new owners.

Sincerely,
Paul White
 
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#2 ·
Well, interesting that they've been running it lately. I've not noticed anything untoward, so I suppose that's a very good thing.

What kind of changes can we expect?
 
#3 ·
From what I have seen on other forums that they own like Defensive Carry forum they have an advertising banner at the top and some advertising down the right side of the page but its nothing distracting. If you follow the link posted by Paul you can check out the many outdoor forums they own.
 
#4 ·
They own a ton of forums. Check them out here:
http://www.outdoorforums.com/
I would expect they will treat this forum like their other ones. What I hope more than anything is with the change they will be able to attract new members and help the forum grow.
 
#6 ·
Congratulations, Paul! You've done a fantastic job as the owner! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

It's been a great forum, although forum activity has slowed down a bit over the pass year or so, but that has had more to do with the political climate, more than anything else.

So who do I have to communicate with in order to obtain permission to continue using the UCC logo and title banner as part of the Annual Free UCC CFP Course that we've been hosting/holding at Lee Kay every Oct-Nov time frame?

I certainly don't want to pay to use it.
 
#8 ·
I'm guessing that's why we never received an answer when my wife wanted to get her username changed. :(

Thanks for keeping the site as a family friendly forum Paul. :thumbsup: Hopefully the new owners will keep it as respectable as you did.

Sent from iSnurd
 
#9 ·
Yes I will continue to teach CFP classes. I simply sold the forum so it could grow and become better. I'm not leaving the gun game.

As far as using the logo on the free yearly class, that's up to the new owners.

I'm not sure who the new admin is. I would expect they will chime in at some point. I am still an admin but I won't be doing any admin duties. Part of why I sold is I simply don't have the time to deal with all that stuff.
 
#11 ·
tapehoser said:
My guess is that they will moderate the forums henceforth with their own people?
That's what I'm hoping :)
I'm not really sure their plans. So until further notice we will just continue as normal.
 
#12 ·
We've had our differences, but I'm glad to hear that you were able to get back a bit of the money you've undoubtedly poured into the forum over the past few years. The people here are a great bunch, and I've learned a lot from their thoughtful posts.

With any luck, the new owner will turn out to be a firearms-enthusiast-driven SEO (search-engine optimization) company that focuses on aggregating closely related traffic generators into a unified approach to funneling targeted traffic to relevant advertising. It's a fairly common business model within the traffic-monetization industry. To judge from first impressions, I don't think the new owner is merely a soulless, money-grubbing corporation that elevates sheer profitability above all other considerations, the phenomenon of which has been a big problem in the past with other significant websites such as Slashdot. We shall see, though.

As for boosting UCC participation, it's entirely possible that cross-promotion within the corporation's growing family of related websites will bring more UCC members into the fold, especially if the company webmasters pay attention to gathering geographic information from visitors for use in promotional blurbs. It's an interesting thought.

Paul said:
I'm not really sure [of] their plans. So until further notice we will just continue as normal.
 
#14 ·
dewittdj said:
So far, they've (the new owner(s)) have been unresponsive to my inquiries. :raisedbrow:
Thats because they have no interest in firearms. Their interest is in setting up and maintaining advertisement revenue. I've met Paul on multiple occasions and hes a good guy, but it made me raise an eyebrow when he said he "researched the buyers" and thought they would be a good steward.

For those who don't know... VerticalScope was recently purchased by Torstar, known for the "Toronto Star," widely considered the most liberal newspaper and media outlet in Canada, and well-known for their anti-gun agendas. Interestingly, soon after Torstar bought a controlling interest in VerticalScope, VerticalScope began buying up dozens of high-profile firearms forums. I'm not saying its politically-motivated (If they are putting together an "advertisement kit" for firearms, they obviously will want to buy as many firearm-related forums for a worthwile ROE), but it is interesting...
 
#15 ·
That is indeed interesting. I suspect many here will be observing administrative actions very closely for signs of anti-gun bias. It's probably just typical liberal hypocrisy in gladly profiting from pro-gun activities whilst snarking endlessly about the so-called "problem" of guns, but watchfulness is the word. In the meantime, one wonders how hard it would be to set up a virtual clone of the forum on a cheap server from Kimsufi. It'll be good to have an escape hatch just in case of a problem.

YoZUpZ said:
VerticalScope was recently purchased by Torstar, known for the "Toronto Star," widely considered the most liberal newspaper and media outlet in Canada, and well-known for their anti-gun agendas. Interestingly, soon after Torstar bought a controlling interest in VerticalScope, VerticalScope began buying up dozens of high-profile firearms forums. I'm not saying its politically-motivated (If they are putting together an "advertisement kit" for firearms, they obviously will want to buy as many firearm-related forums for a worthwhile ROE), but it is interesting...
 
#16 ·
You know, if it does turn out to be something anti gun, even if we can't duplicate the knowledge base that exists here, we very well could pick up as a group and create our own new forum. Or talk to UGE and see if something along these lines could be offered over there as a side bar to the current sales forum.

Mel
 
#20 ·
While I have my share of disagreements with the way OutdoorForums runs their business and over-commercializes some forums, I would have to say that my impression of them is very much pro-gun (or they're at least willing to let us remain pro-gun while they profit). In my experience, they're also quite tolerant of existing "black eyes" and often just let them continue as-is (like the horrendously racist, bigoted, politically- and religiously-charged, over-the-top "Asylum" forum over at Marlin-Owners).

My biggest complaint is that, more often than not, rules are put into place that do not allow outside links to vendors that are not on the "supporting vendors" list. Additionally, links to any type of auction or classified is nearly always banned. So trying to give someone a heads-up about a good deal on ammunition, reloading components, firearms accessories, a hard-to-find firearm, etc. in any way that includes a link (or sometimes just the name of the company) often results in:
A) A warning about breaking the rules. (And I have seen it eventually result in a ban for repeat offenders.)
B) The post being deleted.
And/or,
C) A Moderator breathing down your neck while chastising you like they're talking to a 3 year-old.

I don't know that I've seen it with the OutdoorForums sites, but I've been seeing a rather irritating trend over the last 12-18 months, that I really hope doesn't come to pass here. Forums that are bought out and commercialized are, more and more often, having rules put in places that completely prohibit "speaking ill" of any brand or company - especially supporting vendors - even if you have proof of your claims.

So... If, for example, you buy an aftermarket "match" barrel for your Springfield XD, and have the misfortune of finding out that it's a complete piece of crap and the company's customer service is a sham, you can't say much about it. You're warned, punished, or even banned for going much further than saying something to the effect of: "I bought a "match" barrel for my XD. It sucked."

Though not quite as much of an issue on gun forums, it has had a HUGE impact on hot-rodding and car building forum, where there are 900 different options for the same part, so people often ask for advice on which one actually work, which ones are crap, and which ones are truly awesome. At best, you can only offer advice on which ones work and might be able to say, "There are two good ones on the market. The other 8 are no good." But you can't say anything like, "The AMD tail panel is so warped and dimensionally incorrect that you'll have to cut it in 13 places to make it fit. Buy the Dynacorn piece, instead."

Hopefully things continue without issue, or actually improve in some manner.
I would hate to see another forum get killed by the transition, like the Utah Wildlife forums did a 4-5 years back. (Mandatory subscriptions to the company's two dozen newsletters. Too many ads too quickly. Too many new rules. And too many restrictions on discussions -- like not being able to discuss wildlife laws on a wildlife forum!! :disgusted:) Within 3 months of being bought out, forum activity was down over 80%, new member registration was non-existent, and 90% of the continuing discussions were in the 'General Forum' in regards to ATVs and trucks. Even as a long-time moderator, I abandoned that sinking ship and haven't looked back.)
 
#21 ·
It would strike me that after reading some of the chatter in this thread the new admin's and/or mod's would wish to proactively join the conversation and provide at least a little insight into the intent of the new owners regarding the site. While I don't think anyone expects a mission statement or 5-year vision, something more than "hi, we're the new admin's" might be appropriate.

Of course, the idea of us being part of some kind of social experiment to see how long it takes us to conjure discontent and abandon ship is always an intriguing and fascinating alternative. :lol:
 
#22 ·
Flopian, I don't think our concerns are based on past management practices, rather what may happen under new ownership. No one is seriously talking about jumping ship at this point, we're just looking at a worst case scenario, and if it happens, what can we do about it. As forum users the answer is nothing. But that doesn't mean that we can't move the whole group to a new forum, start over and go on as if nothing has happened. While it's true that there is a huge knowledge base here from past posts, in reality if someone has a question, rather than searching the forum, they pop in and ask. Hence we revisit the same topics all the time anyway. It might actually benefit us to start over and rebuild the knowledge base. Perhaps even do some research on forum management software that might be somewhat more user friendly for PM's and searching.

I'm just throwing out ideas, but wouldn't it be nice sometimes to have real time chat capability where you notice someone like Snurd online and have a quick question about Glocks, or the training pistols he can get, and you could just pop him a quick instant message and deal with it without creating public discussion? I'm not saying we should be facebook for heavens sake, but personally I kind of miss the old time chat boards where there were options to post, or just enter into private or public chat and have real time conversations.

I have absolutely no idea if such software currently exists, but I'm not bad with google and I'm sure there are others here that are better than I am. If it's out there, and the cost isn't outrageous, I'd surely be willing to pitch in on the purchase. Perhaps even just buy it outright and donate it to the board if the price isn't too steep.

Again, no one is panicking, nor are we talking seriously about jumping ship We are just looking for options should this one not be viable. I certainly hope that it's just speculation and we're thinking about something that doesn't matter. Truth be told, this board was far more active 2 years ago when I joined than it is now days. I think it's picking up some, but it's taking an effort by a few of us to post more often to stimulate conversations. Frankly that's why you see my name so often these days. Oh, I nearly always have an opinion on a topic, but was being pretty lax about posting for a long time. Even now you're more likely to see me posting in chit chat or open forums. I still love guns, but I'm at a low period in how much and how often I shoot. And I haven't made a gun deal, or bought anything new since last summer. So unless someone asks about something I own, have owned, or have researched, I'm generally mute in those threads. I still read them all, and occasionally throw in a comment, but we need to do something to bring life back into the forum. I'm hoping new management will do that, and not what we fear. I have a pretty strong feeling that while time was definitely an issue for Paul, he also in part saw what was happening and wanted to try to give it a boost.

Mel
 
#23 ·
quychang said:
Flopian, I don't think our concerns are based on past management practices, rather what may happen under new ownership. No one is seriously talking about jumping ship at this point (...)

Again, no one is panicking, nor are we talking seriously about jumping ship (...)
I understood that, and did not intend for my statements to be taken as any kind of suggestion - or even a representation of my opinion.

My statement about jumping ship was in reference to the context in which it was found: a short anecdote about a forum that went down hill after being commercialized too quickly and too forcefully.

I don't believe that will be the case here.

At this point, everything is conjecture and I was adding some of my own thoughts.
 
#24 ·
Flopian said:
quychang said:
Flopian, I don't think our concerns are based on past management practices, rather what may happen under new ownership. No one is seriously talking about jumping ship at this point (...)

Again, no one is panicking, nor are we talking seriously about jumping ship (...)
I understood that, and did not intend for my statements to be taken as any kind of suggestion - or even a representation of my opinion.

My statement about jumping ship was in reference to the context in which it was found: a short anecdote about a forum that went down hill after being commercialized too quickly and too forcefully.

I don't believe that will be the case here.

At this point, everything is conjecture and I was adding some of my own thoughts.
Which is great, and exactly what we're doing here. I really didn't take your comment wrong, it just elicited some additional thinking on my part, not so much conjecture, but rambling about what I might like to see if we were given free reign to start a new community. I very honestly hope that you are correct and that things remain viable here. Like jf, I would hope that the new moderators would weigh in with some sort of reassuring comment at this point.

Mel
 
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