Looks like Snipers Hide just fell on its sword.

[Irving]

Welcome aboard!

[TheBelly]

I'm still on the fence about whether I'm going to hang out at new Hide or move on. If a lot of people move on, so will the advertisers. If they bail, then Frank will have bet the wrong way for sure.

I believe he still has the option of walking away from the new location and turning the old site back on. If I had my way, it would go back to the old site. My reason? I kinda rely on that 'new posts' button.

[Alpha2]

Not a fun experience so far, think I'll wait a while and check in again. I had to register twice to make it work, then it took some time for the registration to actually take effect. Not promising. One of the best things about the prior setup was that it was a one-interest site.

I agree with the prior poster, wading through all the other stuff is not something I'm interested in. The overall amount of good info in Snipershide is too good to pass up, though.

[MarkCO]

The shooting sports ARE growing (witness 3Gun, IDPA and Rimfire Challenge) and some of the "sniper" guys want a slice...however trying to take "sniper matches" to the mainstream is exactly the opposite of what the industry research says works, or will be generally healthy. If rich bass fishermen and Perazzi owners go buy LR rigs, they will soon be up for sale, which, in part benefits some manufacturer's short term and maybe some second tier competitors a bit further out, but it is probably not a sport that will be grown by mass market appeal. Just my opinion of course, which might be totally wrong...time will tell.

I do know in 3Gun, at majors, you now have to lock your car, never leave any gear behind, and on some squads, work twice as much as the "Me Only" generation is moving into the sport. Many veteran 3Gunners despise what "3GunNation" has "brought" to the sport.

[XC700116]

Unfortunately, growth in any sport brings those same kinds of issues, it's just the nature of the beast.

However Frank's justification of "growing the sport" is pretty fantastical at best. Sure there might be a couple here and there, but nothing significant. If you look around the rest of the forums on scout, the average users online are in the 30's at any given time, and the fantasy football ones should be on fire this time of year. SH is BY FAR the largest and most heavily active one of the bunch.

[Starbuck]

The shooting sports ARE growing (witness 3Gun, IDPA and Rimfire Challenge) and some of the "sniper" guys want a slice...however trying to take "sniper matches" to the mainstream is exactly the opposite of what the industry research says works, or will be generally healthy. If rich bass fishermen and Perazzi owners go buy LR rigs, they will soon be up for sale, which, in part benefits some manufacturer's short term and maybe some second tier competitors a bit further out, but it is probably not a sport that will be grown by mass market appeal. Just my opinion of course, which might be totally wrong...time will tell.

I do know in 3Gun, at majors, you now have to lock your car, never leave any gear behind, and on some squads, work twice as much as the "Me Only" generation is moving into the sport. Many veteran 3Gunners despise what "3GunNation" has "brought" to the sport.

Thanks for your perspective, Mark. I will talk to Frank this weekend at the Trigger Gime Gun Club Extreme Long Range class-match-whatever and post up some more thoughts - as if Frank would change his mind based on my views, LOL. He's no wallflower as you know, and he is after all the owner of SH, and his view seems to be that he owes the SH members nothing - the members who have contributed much of the content, as Frank surely has as well.

His view seems to be "Fuc& the members who have contributed in the past - this is my website, which is not in dispute - and now I want to grow this big time...." This is surely his prerogative, but he will lose I believe many of his loyal followers, as well as paying advertisers.

As I suggested earlier, his decision to stay with the Scout Media people or take the Hide back "private" will likely be based upon whether his advertisers like Mile High, EuroOptic, TNVC, and others stay, or bail out.

My $0.02....

[MarkCO]

One thing I am sure of about Frank, his decision will be dominated by the monetary considerations first. I would not say Frank and I are enemies, nor friends and our interactions have been rather nuetral, so I hope I am being objective. I have a lot of respect for Frank's knowledge and skills, and always consider his advice or suggestions on various shooting related topics. But the cumulative of the knowledge base on SH was why I went there, not Frank. Sure, there were some old retired mil types who spent too much time searching for threads to crap on, but once ID'd easily ignored. All told, I will miss it.

[jmg8550]

The move to Scout (whatever that is) appears to be a real mess. The old posts are gone, as are all PM's. It also looks like you might have to pay $130 a year now, though I'm not sure of that yet. We'll see what happens when the free 7 day trial runs out.

So now that your "free trial" is over. Do you still feel the way your thread title states.

I see you're still posting over there.

[XC700116]

I do, the new site sucks balls, compared to the old one, and I find myself no longer giving a crap to add to any discussions. And I'm not the only one, there's a LOT less traffic/posts per day now than before.

[Alpha2]

I just tried to log in again. Won't accept either my old Snipershide login or the new and improved Scout login. I'm through, and that really saddens me. I'm done with this crap.