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New Rifle Forum Format (merged threads)

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johnwilliamson062

Moderator
To me it makes more sense to split the rifle section by rimfire/centerfire than action. Maybe no one else agrees though. Not sure I like the new split. Seems like most of the posts are more general but end up in the forum related to the specific rifle the person happens to be using. Things like "what is the best 308 round to hunt deer" in semi-auto because the guy is using an AR-10(just a hypothetical example).
 
Although a valid point, fellow Staff members have brainstormed, theorized, and outright beat our own brains in on what would be the best compromise when splitting up the Rifle forum. Your idea was brought up in the process and was voted down.

Counterpoint: "Is "X" cartridge your go-to for medium sized varmint or "Y" cartridge?" Now, you have mixed discussion regarding two different specific cartridges. Do we make a "Y" subforum as well? If so, do we make scores of subforums for specific cartridges or sizes? We came to the conclusion that keeping the subforums general in manner reduces clutter.

Suggestion is appreciated, mind you.
 
I Miss the Mixed Rifle Forum

Wondered if anyone else misses the mixed forum on Bolts, semi auto etc?

I liked being abel to see the mix without having to go to multiple forums.

I think it was a mistake.

Wondered how others feel
 
I liked the mix too. I think it was a certain set complaining about AR post really. You lose a huge bit of knowledge base when you segregate rifles... And there's less chance of an AR vs LeverAction argument. But its 15 viewers in semi, 15 viewers in lever/bolt/etc and 300 in general. Lol.
 
Wouldn't best caliber for deer go under hunting anyway?

It seems no matter which way you split it, there's going to be an x variable that can fit between. Some forums have an AR only section, which makes the most sense to me, simply because the AR is the one most people seem to love or hate, promote or complain about. But with ARs you get AKs, ACRs, the whole shebang...and well its just complicated. Semi's and everything else seems the best, but people don't post in the right forums anyway. Optic reviews in the rifle section, bullet comparisons in the rifle section, etc.
 
I vote put it back to just one forum! Now I have to look at two forums to make sure I don't miss anything on bolt rifles, the reason I come to the forum. And I would also prefer that the semi's were put back in because I like reading about those too.
 
I hear you guys. I'm a lever action man to the bone, an AR guy by profession and a bolt action guy as the need arises. I understand there were a number of requests for separate rifle forums. The decision to separate them was apparently made just about simultaneous to my joining the staff. The two events are unrelated.

Let it roll for awhile & see how it works out. I'm hoping this stays open for a few days, so all can be heard.
 
We're listening, keep the comments coming. Maybe I will indeed start a poll on it tomorrow, and trust me, I hate polls.

[Added]
As you can tell from the post timestamps, Sarge and I were simulposting. ;)
 
Well, honestly I don't think the split is positive. It isn't a big thing, but I just don't see the difference between the rifle types coming into play like revolvers and semi-autos. I am sure it will work. If the problem was one forum becoming unwieldy then I understand completely.

I think the tactics training being in pistol only is stranger.
 
I actually agree it makes more sense to split tactical/hunting/target, but those all mix a lot also.

As I posted elsewhere, unless managing it all was a problem I am not sure why the change was made.

Revolvers and semis are a lot different. How you shoot them is different in many cases. Reloading is important and much different. It just doesn't seme to vary that much for rifles to me. I can pick up pretty much all of them and shoot them as well as any other, reloading doesn't seem as important, all the types use the same triggers, etc.
 
"I actually agree it makes more sense to split tactical/hunting/target, but those all mix a lot also."

Exactly, which is why we didn't try use that sort of nebulous, ill-defined, and constantly changing benchmark to set the sections.

Quite literally, one person's tactical is another person's horrendous-embarassment-before-man-and-God-with-97-pieces-of-bolt-on-crap rifle. :p

And if I DO have a "tactical" rifle, but I want to use it for hunting or target shooting, where should that be posted?

Mechanism type is a LOT clearer, simply because you're not going to have a lever-actuated semi-automatic single shot bolt action.

Yes, you can have some hybrids in there, like a Ballard single-shot lever action, or a bolt-action AR-15 type, but those are dramatic exceptions that, in this case, do not prove the rule.

Similarly, at its very heart, TFL is a generalist's forum, and because we've chosen to be a forum about the entirety of the firearms universe, we're not going to start sprouting firearm-specific forums.

Yes, we know that people really would like an AR-15 only forum, or a Glock only forum, or a 1911 only forum, but that's simply not going to happen.
 
"Wouldn't best caliber for deer go under hunting anyway?"

No, not necessarily.

That kind of topic is one that we consider to be equally at home in either the Art of the Rifle OR the Hunt sections.

And, since we have two threads going on this topic right now, I'm going to merge them.
 
It seems to me that there is now consistency between the pistol & rifle forums. In some ways a good thing in others maybe not so good.

I don't know how long the pistol section has been divided into "general", "revolver", & "semi auto" but it seems however long it has been folks still post pretty darn much everything into "general"!

Why?

Who knows, too lazy to read maybe?

It just seems to me that the consistency is good, but the use of the 3 sub forums in rifle is just asking for a similar mess as the pistol section seems to have as an ongoing problem. Maybe the opposite is needed, combining the differing sub sections into a simpler "Rifles" & "Pistols" would cure the posting issue while retaining consistency?
 
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"I don't know how long the pistol section has been divided into "general", "revolver", & "semi auto" but it seems however long it has been folks still post pretty darn much everything into "general"!"

It's been about 12, maybe 13 years.

And yes, some people simply dump anything they want into General despite the fact that we also have revolver and pistol forums.

That's why I came up with this:

http://thefiringline.com/forums/announcement.php?f=1&a=97

Every member was supposed to have read that. It was made a general announcement when it was rolled out last year. New members are supposed to read it when they join. It's a pop up. Seems like a significant number of them simply click the red X and close it.

They're the ones who then scream bloody murder when they come back to find that I've closed their thread because it's posted in the wrong forum.

Is it foolproof?

No.

Short of active moderation of every post before it shows up on the forum, would anything be foolproof (as in remerging the handgun forums and remerging the rifle forums?)

Don't make me laugh.

A small but frustrating number of posters will go out of their way to IGNORE the handgun, rifle, shotgun, etc. forums and post their topic specific question in the General Discussion forum.

Whether or not the rifle forum mods choose to employ a similar strategy is up to them.

And then there's the ones who make us scream and pull our hair out. They go all the way down to the forum titled Site Questions and Tech Support (NON-FIREARMS) to ask a firearms question.

Sigh.

The primary reason why the handguns forum was broken out was because it was too active. A new post could drop off the front page literally in a matter of minutes, and in a matter of hours be several pages deep.

It was very frustrating trying to keep up.

By splitting the forums out, it makes it a lot easier to keep track of threads.

We're not going backwards any time soon.
 
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