If you have never been on their forum, lets just say its THE MOST educational whitetail deer habitat resource out there (no offense Pat) and it will be a travesty to lose all the info as a year on their is like 20 years of real world experience. Anyways, it sounds like the decision is already made within QDMA and their is no reversing it.
So.....Pat.....lets make DeerBuilder the best....look at buying the forum or history or something! Its sad it will be gone, but its depressing that the info will be gone too! Just a thought/plea!
And if you are a member of QMDA....you may want to reconsider, I know I am now.
I imagine it makes BOB seed companies mad when posters specifically tell you how to avoid buying their overprices stuff......same goes for growing trees vs buying trees, etc.
Personally, I think they are "too old and cumbersome" to know how to make it run for a profit. No reason they couldn't get companies to support them when tons of people are buying from the same or similar seed, tree, etc sources. Plus, for a whitetail management forum they had ZERO hunting sponsors that I could tell beyond seed/mineral stuff. How is that....no bows, stands, saws, binos, etc.....illogical as everyone there has/uses them. Plus.....why not scrap the magazine? Dumb!!
Follow the $$....the main point of the forum closing.
Chris
Threads there are different than on Bowsite (which spike and fall quick)......some users have threads that read like novels and document success and failure real time over year and years....we are talking thousands of posts and pictures and how-to type stuff for habitat/food plots/life! The information in their threads is better than all of the printed magazines, books, etc combined.......QDMA will ne deleting it all for good......that's why people are PO'd.
"Ensuring the future of white-tailed deer, wildlife habitat & our hunting heritage"......their moto..... deleting the best source of info available doesn't seem to fit!! Bravo QDMA!
End Rant.
So, if someone was paying you to post lots of information on your resource, then stopped paying, you'd leave those resources available rather than try to repurpose them to another paying client?
It's probably QDMA's data, but they need a place for it to live, web servers to allow access, etc, that costs money.
It's not about paying for the forum at all.....its about destroying the evidence that there was once a place where the average joe could learn and in most cases be equal or better than the touted "experts"
I will now refer anyone who asks to Deerbuilder as an educational source for food plots.
Edit: I will NOT be giving up my QDMA membership though. The forums did not make me join, nor will they make me quit. I still believe in the mission of QDMA.
This doesn't pass the smell test.
Would never get in bed with them, of course there is good there but their mentality of grabbing up as much land as possible to manage and displacement of other hunters is bad for the future of hunting and direction towards European style hunting for only the wealthy...
Whitetails and whitetail hunting, hopefully should NEVER evolve to those ways...
I long for the days where you could trespass anywhere you wanted and shoot everything you could. SMH
That right there says QDMA doesn't really give a damn about helping hunters/managers. If you are truly passionate about your cause. You don't let a wealth of information like that just go to dust. One way or another, this is about money.
As a sponsor on here, I throw my OPINION on here but it's great to see others ideas and all the sharing of information.
The wildlife industry is a copy cat world. Technology is changing how businesses handle their sponsorships. I sponsor 3 hunting shows and after this year i'll need to be reevaluating that as well. There is only so much money to go around and sponsorships need to give one return on their investment.
Bowsite is a wonderful site and i believe we all need to tell more people about this wonderful resource. There is too much missinformation in the industry and it's become a product selling industry vs products that have science behind them.
Let's spread the word on facebook and social media and drive more traffic here as people need education and help.
I know they have lost hundreds and hundreds of memberships from this already (in 2 days), likely to be thousands by the time the smoke clears.
What does it have to do with??
That is not an issue with print advertising.... and for me one reason I don't subscribe, buy or read print media much anymore. I primarily use these things to gather information, not entertainment. You will never read a "bad" review about any product advertised in that magazine. Just not going to happen. If you can sift through the various forums for knowledgeable people you can get a great deal of honest and valuable information.
Advertising in forums takes confidence and faith in your product, self control and a pair of asbestos skivvies.... nobody likes their babies being called ugly.... =D
Literally thousands and thousands of pages of information from non-industry regular joes who were sharing their experiences from all over the country.
Just like Bowsite is bow centered, the forum over there was habitat centered.
You could do a search and get a several hundred post thread from a guy over a year on how he was growing Dunstan chestnuts from nuts. . . From his grow lights, and everything else. Information in substantial detail that you just don't dig up somewhere else.
That's just one example out of many. There were habitat threads over 5 or 6 years detailing brush cuttings, bush plantings, food plots, etc. Some of that stuff was hugely voluminous, and very detailed over long periods of time.
There was once a huge thread over changing the sex existing persimmon trees to make useless non-fruiting males into fruiting females. . . Sounds disgusting, but was actually pretty damn fascinating
Grafting of fruit trees, different brush plantings, food plots, native grasses. . . tons of information on each.
It's a damn shame really. A LOT of good information will be lost for those interested in such things
One of our own contributors on here is also a qdma director and i spoke to him briefly today as well. I believe there is more need for education any way, anyhow, anywhere.
I used to think so. But this move just reeks of greed. There is sooo much info on those forums that will be lost. Good, practical info put out there to help the common landowner.
Inexcusable. Period.
"Yeah, kind of like timber companies owning tens of thousands of acres and leasing them out and closing it off to the general public. It's going to end hunting. LOL
I long for the days where you could trespass anywhere you wanted and shoot everything you could. SMH".
This quote is proof your reading comprehension is still lacking. And, your desire for the last word and, seeing things your way versus the way they were stated, is stronger than you actually getting it right.
First it was San Fran, then the Military, then Disney kid's cartoon characters, and now even the persimmon trees.
LGBTQP...jeez, this acronym is getting long.
