Establishing an E-mail list where we could all communicate and swap pictures and information, etc.?
It sure beats forums and it wouldn't be the end of this blog or my website but would just be something extra.
The one thing that I would like is for anyone interested in this to join this blog, "follow" it, I hate that term, and post in the comments section of THIS post.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Don
Words Of Wisdom On A Winters Morning
21 hours ago
26 comments:
It is an interesting idea. I would be all for giving it a try.
I would definitely be interested in communicating and exchanging survival information with anyone else who is interested. I am following your blog, check me out at http://economicalsurvivalinfo.blogspot.com
Thanks for responding guys. I am looking to get about 30 people or more to actually follow this blog and then establish an E-mail list.
Hopefully, more people will respond and follow this blog and I'll set the rest of it up over the next couple/few weeks. Time will tell.
Don
Sounds good. most forums no matter how good they start out usually head south pretty quick.
Randall,
Then choose to "follow" this blog. That's what I'm shooting for, I want to get about 30 people to "follow" it, that way I know how many people I am dealing with and if it's actually worth doing anything like that. Or even continuing the blog at all for that matter.
I have a website so the purpose of the blog is to communicate with people. Like we are doing right now. Or I could just take everything off of the blog that I want to keep and put it in HTML form and just put it on my website and delete the blog altogether.
If I'm only going to have less than about 30 people who choose to "follow" the blog, it's really just a waste of my time. I could have the read-only - no communication/interactive type of format with the website alone. With only 16 "known" people "following" this blog, it's as if I am talking to myself. Even though there might be a whole lot more people reading it on a regular basis.
Don
Don,
However it plays out, I'm in.
Randall,
Thanks for clicking on whatever you had to click onto to "follow" this blog.
If this doesn't show some real results in March, I might just shut it down.
Don
Well, I have only gotten 8 followers on my blog, and it has been up for prob. 6 months. I have tons of great info & resources. Lots of visitors, just seems hard to get people to follow. I just want to help spread info to inform anyone who's interested. Hope you keep it up, if not stop by my blog. Hope this works out, talk to you soon.
I would like to join the list. When is the book(s) coming out Don?
take care,
Seb
Don,
I'd be interested. I am about to follow your blog. I took a lot of inspiration from this blog and your site for my blog at cleverconversation.net. We have similar interests and I'd like to get on that list, too.
Corey
I'm in.
Seb,
Good to see you again!
Corey,
Survival, cooking and FMAs, what else could any potential reader want? 8-)
Thanks guys,
I'm shooting for about 30 and hopefully in a relatively short period of time, people will keep responding and I appreciate all of you for doing so.
Don
Kotton,
I think the whole survival "scene" could benefit from people sticking together in the exchange of information.
As it stands right now, most people just want to sit in the shadows and steal other people's shit and re-spin it in their own words do they don't look like a total choad.
Don
I can vouch that thanks to reading your material, I certainly feel less choadlike...and hopefully seem like less of one, too! :-P
Don, you can reject this comment (it is just addressed to you) - I just wanted to say that as far as limited-access exchanges, they can work great but require a delicate balance to maintain membership as well as quality. More members, good, to a point until quality diminishes...too few members, no exchange at all.
My friend at http://datbtrue.co.uk/forums has done an amazing job. He is regarded as an authority in the field of peptide research for bodybuilding usage...you may not be interested in this, but suffice to say his forum is a great resource for nutrition/body-shaping and it maintains a VERY high signal to noise ratio...plus he moderates tightly.
There may be some lessons to be learned here. You could probably get even more members if you advertised on your personal domain, but you would need a screening process. Datbtrue (my buddy) just uses a basic application that comes with vBulletin, and he googles the email address, the username, the name (if provided), etc. Then he requires an intro post. he gives almost everyone a chance but heavily reprimands racism, sexism, stuff that could make potentially valuable members uncomfortable, etc.
If you make this list it will be a delicate balance. I don't know your views on "free speech" inside of a closed community, but I think this is something to think about. (I find the concept of private property trumps free speech when it comes to this sort of thing)
Well, I obviously value free speech greatly. No one wants any medium they are taking the time to participate in to become a toilet bowl.
If you look at the latest Supreme Court Ruling that has come down, the majority decided correctly. Yet, had the Phelps walked up near the graveside service and done the same thing, the Supreme Court would have probably ruled against them - and rightly so.
I try to refrain from using profanity on this blog because I am catering to those people who truly believe that people who use profanity do so because the person using it cannot express themselves in any other way. Which is simply not true, but it is popular to believe that and to say it. When I use profanity, I choose to use it. It's not because I cannot express myself in other, more intelligent ways. But I still don't want my blog to become a toilet bowl of my own making. 8-)
The concept of "free speech" is interesting and it runs head-on into political correctness and the policing of thought and it is the dregs. It is yet another toilet bowl that should be avoided at all costs.
For example, if you criticize our (lack of) illegal immigration policy and you don't agree with everything groups like La Raza and CASA desire, you are a bigot. You are a racist and a xenophobe and that is intolerant as well.
If you don't like something about the "gay community" or you are critical of something they believe in, you are a "homophobe."
Ditto criticizing any minority, you're a "racist" and a bigot.
If you say that child support is basically the new alimony, you are considered a misogynistic person.
These words get used, these attacks, to demonize people and to shut them up and close them down. There is more evil, right now, associated with those demonizations of people than the evil of real bigotry, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia and misogyny.
Continued...
So, when you are selling something, you have to police speech because if you don't, some woman who believes that any criticism of females is misogyny might not buy what you are selling. The same holds true for gay folks or what have you.
I'm selling life here on this blog. Nothing more and nothing less. Gay people, black people, whatever the case may be, are free to take the information and better their chances of surviving whatever might happen in their lives. So, it's a little bit different on this medium and if you are not selling something.
Other than that, especially when it comes to self-defense and survival issues, if people cannot handle a little bit of "language," well, that's an issue for them.
There are people, like some Christians, who are offended at harsh language. They should look at the Bible because there are a host of words that are not in it that they consider cursing. You know what I mean?
If I say something on this blog or on my website or any other medium that people wish to judge me on, so be it. Judge me at your own peril! 8-)
Anyway, censorship is censorship. I think ground rules can be established but you can EASILY take it too far and start interpreting what people are saying as being offensive...as I have witnessed over the last couple months on a certain forum.
Then there are people who basically say ignorant or dishonest things, right? It would be like someone going on a bodybuilding forum and promoting the use of steroids and saying they are safe. Which would be ignorant or a lie. Oftentimes, the ignorant person or the liar, as the case may be, is seen as the "victim" when someone else calls them ignorant or a liar.
On a private E-mail list that might come out of this entry on my blog, I don't think anyone has to worry about the F-bomb being dropped constantly in E-mails, etc. If I ran a forum again, I would be extremely hesitant to police language unless people were really getting hot with it for no reason except to push the envelope and basically do it for the sake of being able to do it...that's the aforementioned "toilet" I spoke of earlier. No one wants to run a toilet...well, some people do, I'm not one of them. But I also don't want to be a censor.
Long and rambling!
Don
Love to be a member of a 'civil' discussion group. Check my blogs, I think this is a great starting point.
www.yachtsecurity.blogspot.com and www.yaukungmun.blogspot.com
For sure. I suspected you'd say this, which is great, just wanted to offer an idea - in a single sentence: Maybe it'd be a good idea to build up as large a base as possible harnessing Donrearic.com, then (if necessary, and only if necessary) figure out who's serious.
Step 2 is optional I guess and you're on step 1...so. Have a good night ;-). Looking forward to this.
Don,
Great first name! 8-)
The Yacht Security and Personal Security Blogs are excellent resources! Looks like a ton of work, too. Yacht Security, as things get worse across the globe, is going to become more and more of a concern for some folks.
Don
I'd be interested in being a part of your email community. I was actually referred to this site by a friend that frequents it, as we share interests in survival gear etc. I've "followed" the blog.
I'm following, Don, and don't worry about the language, I'm capable of sifting the seeds from the shells...
:)
Most of the topics you cover are bound to elicit some kind of emotional reaction from people, but I'm sure the rest of us can handle it...
Add one more.
You know I'm in Brother.
I'm in if you'll have me Don!
Tom,
Just choose to follow my ADHD-riddled blog and you will be in.
Terry,
You are always in, no matter what. 8-)
Don
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