Am I just pissing in the wind about getting anyone back to BLiNC?

[mknutson]

I look at all the postings on DZ.com and feel like ****!

I remember the days that everyone stuck together with anyone who was dedicating themselves to BASE alone, knowing that there would never be money or glory, but at least comradery. Now I just don't see any of that. Times have moved on, the days where I could spend 40-60 hours of my spare time on BLiNC instead of my wife have gone, thus, it seems so has the people who once were here.

I can't afford to pay thousands on software, and I already pay heaps to keep the dedicated server, but alas, that does not seem to be enough...

What the hell am I to do?

Who do I even help anymore?

Was everything I have done just a waste?

The software upgrades I need to do to get BLiNC faster are around $500.00 or more. This is why I am contemplating right now whether to spend that money on something that nobody will care about anymore.

Funny thing, I still remember the day I got the email (years ago now) from Sangrio about him NOT delving into BASE on his site, and I should not delve into Skydiving. Then I also remember first finding out about the BASE Forum on his site, yet I still have stuck true to my word. I guess that is the cure of BASE. There is no true way to win, and you are always going to be confronting everything on your own.

Sorry to babble, but you weren't listening anyways.

[Mac]

I can only speak for myself, but although I have posted alot on DZ in the past, this was due to the fact there was more traffic and more threads to respond to or more people to respond to questions (I always posted sensible questions to BLiNC too) - I have recently not posted on DZ alot recently as I found either the threads tended to move from a starting discussion to aload of posts which I could not be arsed to read through due to various reasons. I have to also say that the moderation of DZ (sorry but I am not trying to slag you off here Tom as I know you have a long and sometimes boring job) was inconsistant, it seemed to be becoming as clique driven as the other DZ boards.

Having been off line for a while I came back and looked at the DZ board and decided I could not be arsed to read through all the posts there and not due to quantity. I have now decided to post mainly to BLiNC or the UK Board as for me these two places suit me. I actually prefer the BLiNC set up and look to DZ, I also like the ethos and goals of BLiNC compared to DZ, I am sure that the DZ traffic is self perpetuating, everyone seems to say they would love to have BLiNC more active, but the same people post more to DZ for some reason. Perhaps someone would like to try to explain the reasons behind this, I am not a talented enough word master to put down my thoughts to paper.

I do feel sorry for you Mick, and wish I had the answers to your questions. I can only say that for an immediate change then the DZ board needs to go, but as this will probably not happen, then maybe a change in focus of what the DZ board is about. Originally I thought the DZ board was there for a place for skydivers to ask questions about "getting into BASE" - it seems now to be a BASE free for all but with a feel of the cliques that DZ is full of.

I have not been online for a while, so I have probably written aload of incomprehensible drivel anyway.............

Mick, I think people appreciate what you do, and all it needs is the first few to move away from the cookie jar and start the movement back to where BASE discussions should be, I owe alot to BLiNC from when I first started looking into BASE about 5 or 6 years ago to when I started jumping about 3 years ago . I appreciate this resource.

Keep ya chin up mucker.......... remember everything seems to go in cycles anyway, well except midgets as their legs are too short..........

Michael

[baseninja]

If nobody else is saying it, thanks for all your efforts for blinc. I can only imagine how much time, energy, and money it takes to keep this show going.

I would be all about sharing information, knowledge, and techniques, but only if it is a bitch-free board. No personal vendettas. No stupid local fights that the world doesn't care about. No need to post just to stick one of these on... And if only BASE jumpers were allowed on somehow, so I don't have to hear someone with 25 skydives tell me about his opinion on freefalling 200', etc. (Nothing personal or ****ish, I just don't want to deal wiht it) Or make it so only BASE jumpers can post. I am pretty much done with people posting about "I want to BASE jump, what are the right reasons?" And having 50 people post their opinion, but nobody responds to a question of technique requiring an actual BASE jump.

And, assuming that BASE jumpers are 18+, let them read bad words...

The more and more that I BASE jump, the more and more I see skydiving and BASE as totally independent "sports". Advertising BASE to a bunch of skydivers on a skydiving website, and seeking their opinions and the associated chatter seems ultra silly...

Just my opinion, I learned to BASE jump from the internet, now I can’t stand it… Maybe blinc is best keeping it as a BASE secret...

[Scott R]

Hey Mick,
Thanks for keeping the board alive and I hope you can keep it going.

[ZegeunerLeben]

>>Mick, I know you're still getting volume, just not alot of people posting. I feel this may be due to the flame fest's in the past, and not alot of people want to post for fear of getting slammed. As far as I'm concerned, this is place for serious BASE discussions, and if you read through some of the older threads there're some big names and great discussions in there. Do you really want alot of noise in your forums just to generate traffic?

[base695]

Just a thought maybe the tighter moderation was the beginning of the downward spiral.

It used to be a right laugh and I think it reflected the true basejumping community of funny buggers and nutters and how we are with each other in the real world....always taking the p!ss and not taking anything too seriously.

There was always plenty of fresh new instructional stuff amongst it too. Top stuff.

And at the end of the day if you couldnt take the bitching all you had to do was move to the next topic or go back to playing golf or something.

So I think free the board up, maybe even go back to letting people post anonymously and I am sure the traffic will flood back.

[stinkydragon]

Yo dude, cheer up! I know massive people read this thing. I think many people don't post 'cuz sometimes topics turn into a bit of a spray fest and it's a bit weird talking about stuff like this with what amounts to, in most cases, total strangers. I can definitivly say this website has helped me to hook up with people in distant cities and buy and sell big ticket stuff. And I'm not talking about hookers, drugs, or automatic weapons. For that I am totally grateful brother.

[528]

Mick, there are still a lot of us out there dude!!!, I have been on and off over the last few years and your site have helped a lot of jumpers in countries where we are a handfull of jumpers. Keep it real boyz you know the true base community!!!
Thanx Mick......rock on brother!

[BASE_689]

> Sorry to babble, but you weren't listening anyways.
Wrong. We are listening. I will never be able to thank you enough, Mick, for tha BASE Board and all the things I found here, and in fact, my BASE journey strarted thanks to the BASE Board.
I confess (in line with what Mac says): in the last year I never posted a new thread on Dropzone-BASE zone, rather (I confess) I replied and partecipated to lots of threads simply because somebody posted something worth to be answered/to partecipate/to join the discussion.
We are in a sort of "wrong loop" with BASE Board and Dropzone-BASE zone: lots of people (basically skydivers) start posting threads on Dropzone-BASE zone, and then comes a rush of BASE jumpers filling up the thread with lots of posts, myself included.
We should start to break this "wrong loop" and take the committment to post our new threads here on the BASE Board; then, with new threads open, lot of BASE jumpers are "prone" to answer and join the discussion.
Honestly, I miss the time when honest rantings and honest good verbal fights were going on the BASE Board, with (nearly) no censorship.
On the other side, I do not appreciate at all the fact that on DZ-BASE zone, at the first slight OT (Off Topic), to say the less, not to mention (small) personal attacks, the moderators pop in and cancel posts, move thread, close other threads, giving no room to replies, banning users from entering again the forum: bùllshìt.
A forum for BASE jumpers (the BASE Board) must allow personal attacks, rantings, whatever (still, with the final supervision of Mick) and must let BASE jumpers feel free to post their idea, their technical proposal/ideas/stories/whatever.
Skydiver can have all the forums they like.
The BASE Board is for BASE jumpers.
If skydivers feel like posting here (the BASE Board), they do at their own "risk", always ready to be flamed. If they don't like to be flamed, they can go and post on DZ-BASE zone or in any other forum/chat they like (Yahoo, Lycos, Google, Altavista, whatever).
I commit myself to start posting here on the BASE Board.
Thank Mick for the enormous work you did and you are still doing.
We appreciate so much your effort.
Take care.

[spinerugo]

Hi Mick!
I'm would say that I'm on daily basic on Blinc. Reading tehnical archives, old posts...
Basicly all that I know came from here, cos if I would be honest, I would say that I don't have mentor. My course was pack lesson, and rig renting. So thanks for all your work.
I would defenetly like to see more posts here, so I'll try to post more, and I'll tend to stic here.

Thaks again.

[Tree]

Hey Mick,

I grew up (in base) on the base board. I really miss all the fun that used to go on here. THe moderation killed it. If people could not deal with the sport, its loonies, and the hijinx, they should fu(k off. Oh yeah, censoring foul language is pretty anti base. Base is all about freedom, and the moderation was all anti freedom. The result is everyone went somewhere else. I would hate to see the BB dissapear from the net, but it should be apparent by now that the changes killed the BB. Remove the censors and the moderation, let base jumper have their club again, and they are sure to return for better or worse.

Cya.

Tree

[truckerbase]

Please keep the base board up, Mick. You havent done it in vain. You have helped hundreds of people get into base safely and you are the original in the genre (Nicks board aside). You are like Fedex. Other package delivery companys arose to challenge, but when people need a package overnighted they say "fedex it" even if it goes UPS or Airborne. Who doesnt know what "check the Base Board" means? Youve become a cultural icon and dont forget it. Obviously, dont upgrade beyond a certain point since this is business and the business doesnt currently call for it.

Thanks for the reminder, however. I am extremely guilty of being an off topic post whore, but this is why ive contained myself to dropzone when posting; its an unimportant frivolous environment. Sorry, the rest of you have wives and children and lives to go home to. Im 24/7 on the road and my laptop is my family. Hence the chatter and humor and crap. This really torques alot of people on dropzone, likely even more so here.

I think of these boards as a place to be myself and to have a good laugh with friends, but everyone has their own reasons and needs for being on the boards and the place that lets the most people do this is the place to be. More activity and stimulation on dropzone = more posts. Its like the old adage "you need money, to make money" a circular argument which applies here as well, "you need posts, to get posts". I would suggest writing articles (since this is a magazine) and posting them, articles that people could respond to, augment, disagree with, or even ****ing blow their top over. If you dont want to write them, find people who will, from the first timer describing her/his first jump to old crusty McCrusty telling us about the days when he had to walk through 20 feet of snow just to jump... some kind of article, sometimes good sometimes not...

Lastly and most importantly, logically this is between you and Tom Aiello. If the purpose of the dropzone base board is to answer questions about base to skydivers, then clearly, all that needs to happen is that Tom puts up something under Base Zone that just simply takes the person over here. All purposes are accomplished. And if Sangiro has violated a gentlemans agreement with you over the division of business for each website then again Tom Aiello shouldnt be bothered greatly with helping a fellow base jumper over a dirtbag non jumper. It would clearly reduce the strain on the dirtbags server, as well as giving tom some much needed time off...

I agree completely, the Base Fraternity (of brothers and sisters) is indeed challenged....

[Mac]

basically an Italian says it better in English than I ever could (which is sad I know as an English man! hehehe) - Andrea had it right, always love ya work man! must speak soon as would like to make a vist to you this year on my return back to jumping.

As spinerugo says, I too gained most of my knowledge from BLiNC, I spent years here before I jumped learning from the people that really did know alot about the sport.... (sadly some of these people have since passed but its still so so worth reading their posts - dont let their knowledge die with time)

I agree with Tree, moderation should be slack. No site naming, no advertising, but all else should be free for all....its how we are in real life.....
.. If you cant stand the ribbing and the pi$$ taking and flaming then maybe you should not be around BASE jumpers or skydivers in the real world anyway, DZ's and BASE trips are full of it in real life so if you cant deal with it on the net then you have no hope.......

and I also agree with Trucker, we all know where the "base board" is, we have all posted on DZ to either take the pi$$, get a response, or just reply to BASE questions, in the end we all know where the heart is.

but as trucker says, I do beleive this is something that needs to be discussed between you, sangrio and Tom A - I do think there is a compromise here - but who am I to even suggest anything in this world...........

spread the love people....... lets keep the BASE board the place where BASE jumpers go.......... it may sound arrogant, ignorant, and even perhaps south african (hehehehe sorry Will) but sometimes segregation seems a good idea...........

be cool people.............

[bps]

Hi Mick --

My first visit to the BASE Board was in October of 1996...well over 8 years ago! BLiNC was my discovery of BASE and hands-down, it became a life-changing experience for me. Did you know that I have read every single post to come across the BASE Board since 1996? Call me a geek, but I'm an information hound and I like to stay informed.

Thanks for all that you've contributed to this site and I hope it NEVER goes away.

Now get off your rump and come visit in Idaho. And let's knock the dust off those rigs!

Luv ya,

Bryan

[colalucat]

Hi Mick, sorry you're having doubts about the value of your website, and I can't help but respond to a couple of your comments.

I look at all the postings on DZ.com and feel like ****!

Are you reading these postings? Pretty much skydivers pumping up there post numbers. You have to weed through alot of crap before you find anything useful.

Who do I even help anymore?
Me.

Was everything I have done just a waste? Certainly not. B.A.S.E. is nothing like skydiving, the equipment is different, the inherent risks are higher, it is foolish for anyone contemplating B.A.S.E. to think they will find the information they need from a skydiving site.

Also, my mentor has informed me that if I post any B.A.S.E. questions on the dz.com site, he's gonna flame me himself...so, you see how important blinc is to me?