I’m convinced that sometimes stuff just happens.
It really wasn’t part of the original design for The First Shot,
for example, to include a user bulletin board. Therefore, when we added
the bulletin board back in May, we didn’t have high expectations.
A few months later, the bulletin board has doubled traffic to the odcmp.org
site, which now takes 800 to 1,000 hits a day.
Some observations in the brief history of a backyard communication
paradigm shift:
• Readers tend to set up their own rules:
I may be the editor, but I really haven’t done any editing. There
hasn’t been a need. Certainly, we had concerns early on that people
would misuse the site—using foul language, writing page long rants
against selected politicians, selling firearms, etc. Interestingly, the
people who regularly use the bulletin board, though, seem to have set
their own protocols.
• Question and answer: Shooters have apparently
fostered the habit of helping each other, and the content of the bulletin
board reflects this. For example, one reader asked “What is a good
solvent to remove cosmoline from metal and/or wood?” This one question
received 23 replies, a range of solutions (including mineral spirits,
Easy Off oven cleaner, and Scrubbing Bubbles), a World War II story (“It
was winter in France and I was detailed to help clean the cosmoline from
some replacement .50 caliber machine guns. We opened the box and inside
was a solid block of cosmoline so hard that you could cut shavings off
of it with a knife.”), and a host of comments. Editor’s
Note: we don’t recommend putting your rifle in the dishwasher
“while the wife is shopping.”
• A well-informed readership: The Internet
has clearly created a means for gun collectors and shooting enthusiasts
to swap information without having to wait for the next clinic or shooting
match. What’s really interesting is the level of intelligence traveling
across phone lines. As Junior Royster at the CMP Store mentioned to us
while doing research for last month’s issue, the CMP doesn’t
have to advertise when a new shipment of M1 rifles becomes available at
the CMP Store—a coast-to-coast alert goes out across the Internet.
Thus far, the bulletin board has offered only two categories
(Ideas and Opinions, and Feedback). It’s time to add to the list:
• Story Line: We can’t print everything,
but we do like stories and features from readers.
• Competitions and Events: Someday, on-line
bulletin boards may become the most effective way to promote activities.
It already is the least expensive.
Mike Wallace is President of Spectrum Research
& Consulting, and holds a PhD in Mass Communications from Florida
State University. Dr. Wallace serves as editor of The First Shot. He can
be reached at spectrumresearch@earthlink.net.
