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Promoting The Forum


neil

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Well guys and gals,

 

It's been over 5.5 years now since starting the forum and it has grown slowly but steadily, however I still feel that it could

grow exponentially with a little help from the current membership.

 

If I can therefore ask those who do not mind, could you please help by raising awareness in your local clubs and counties

to try and turn this into the target shooting forum on the Internet. It's already pretty high within Google's search results for

certain keywords but can always benefit from more members. There are so many other things I would

like to do with the site but at the moment, there are simply not enough hours in the day - one day though ;)

 

Many thanks

 

Neil

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There are plenty of clubs and counties without websites and the skills to do them and probably without the money to pay someone to do them.

 

This forum could be the answer to that need by:-

  • Having a general area to deal with what is the sport all about etc in a public area before you get to put in your password etc
     
    The general forum as it currently exists
     
    The potential for public/private areas for individual counties/clubs where they can have their own club forum and post results or whatever

This would then help increase the membership but also provide a great service to clubs etc

 

Any views?

 

Robert

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As a fairly recent member to the forum, I thought that some of the background of how I came across the forum may help in working out how best to attract other members (or not as the case maybe).

 

I had been taking part in FT/HFT at a club - not seriously, but enough to go along to a few competitions. I enjoyed both, however I also started to get an interest in target shooting.

 

I did quite a lot of googling etc, to try and find clubs, or other sources of information - along the lines of 10M, Olympic etc etc. The only site I came across seemed to be TargetTalk, so I posted a request for further information on there. (We are talking a concerted search effort, not a casual few minutes of searching).

 

Some of the first responses were from David Levene, and Rob Stubbs, and they pointed me in the direction of this forum. (something which I'd like to thank them for again!)

 

It turns out I had visited the unregistered section on earlier searches, but thought that it was no longer active, as I didn't realise that you had to get registration/ approval to access the most useful areas. Its not a criticism really, as being a member of a number of shooting forums, I have come to find that all though the frequency of posting on here is lower than most, the level and quality of posting is very high.

 

I have to also say - and this is in no way a criticism of the forum, that target shooting in general is much more difficult to find information about, than say ft/hft.

 

I'd thank everyone else for postings and Neil for hosting, but it would sound like a BAFTA or something!

 

 

Steve.

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Guys,

 

Thanks for all the suggestions and taken on board.

 

As I'm sure you're aware that I run the forum when I can basically and have to leave it to 'self-police' as I simply do

not have the time between work (still here at this time on a Fri night :() and training at a sufficient level to represent

my country.

 

The forum actually now has the ability for subscriptions for example. I've deliberately kept it away from a paid resource

but Robert, going by your suggestion and playing on it a little ... maybe each club that wanted to a section could pay

a nominal fee per year towards hosting.

 

Being honest I would also probably need to look towards some junior admins (on top of the current moderators) to

help with the accepting of new registrations etc.

 

Steve, your point about the forum not looking active is a very valid point. The reason it is like this is to prevent unwanted

attention so to speak. The last thing I want is critics who are not interested in our sport and cannot contribute or add any

value.

 

I actually visualise more than just a forum but the work to plan and set it up is what puts me off right now.

 

Like the ideal of clothing etc - an online shop ;)

 

Cheers folks, keep the ideas coming!

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Guest tiggerfinger

Neil,

 

I've got some very useful help from the forums, particularly the recent one on 3P. There was a lot in there to help me with standing air rifle. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

If you want to promote the forum, which I think is a great idea, then I'd be happy to take a flier down to our club to put on the board. Just needs someone with more artistic talent than me to put one together and post it for us to copy off. Any volunteers? I'll also happily e-mail the site details on to some of the juniors we know.

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Neil

 

 

Have a good word with Tiny (Mark Parry)

 

He has contacts for embroidered clothing

 

Sweatshirts, t-shirts, polo t-shirts, fleeces, hoodies

 

And they are at very resonable prices!! before you add anything on to make a little profit!!!!

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The Forfar website has a link to the forum on the front page... :)

 

For promoting the forum it would nice to have a logo - any thoughts.... ;) anything but the pic of Neil in the Malls!

Edited by sjb1604
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The Forfar website has a link to the forum on the front page... :)

 

For promoting the forum it would nice to have a logo - any thoughts.... ;) anything but the pic of Neil in the Malls!

 

I'm no artist but what about a bullseye target in the middle with the silhouette of 4 shooters at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock firing towards the target from each of the prone, kneeling and standing positions and 1 pistol shooter :D

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A lot of forum members are a little shy and like to have a forum name other than their own.

 

A number of us who have been about for a while are happy to use our real names because we know that the forum is closed and not available to the public and that entry is policed by Neil.

 

This is especially good when Neil, Mac, Chris, David, Mike, Martin, Walter and various other creditable shooters are happy not to remain anonymous.

 

This gives the forum greater credibility as their views will be respected, well most of the time anyway, and this must be attractive to the rest of the membership to be able to seek and get advice from the experts.

 

I would like to see more people use their real names so we stand a chance of getting to know everyone better and even have avatars that are actual photos so that we can actually recognise each other and say "Hi" on the range.

 

As a long standing member I still have no idea who some of the regulars are who have obtuse forum names.

 

Is anyone else with me on this? This is also very much encouraged on a similar American forum that I have joined.

 

I am sure that this would add to the appeal of the forum or certainly if some more of the high profile shooters declared their real names it might encourage some of the shy ones to become more public.

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I think using real names is a good idea, says he hiding behind "crossshot". The smallbore journal requests real names are used which prompted me to want to revert to my real name here...but couldn't see a way to do it!

 

Rgds

Steve.

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Steve, Colin,

 

All you have to do is ask

 

Gents you have a login name and also a display name which the public see. Both can be changed if you want, or simply the display name.

 

Colin, the reason you must have signed up with Coiln was that Colin had already gone to one of my club members ;)

You could have <firstname><lastname>, or something else if you wish.

 

Best PM me so I don't miss it ;)

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You could always add a signature - see your controls section - and this would add your name to the foot of every post automatically - this would save Neil having to update lots of names if this idea takes off.

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