changes?

[Jim in Wisconsin]

I wonder what these changes to the website are going to be. There isn't a lot of activity here - but then again quality is better than quantity!

[Jim in Wisconsin]

I Love a Mystery!

[RobD]

The core goal of the TMA has always been the sentence at the top of every page ...

The TMA is dedicated to preserving the rich and fascinating heritage of the traditional muzzleloading firearms of early America.

For more than a few reasons, TMA forum participation has dwindled over more than a few years.

"Ya can lead a horse to water but ya can't make it drink."

We all at the TMA officer level have done a buncha things over the last few or more years to encourage participation in our organization.  IMHO none have been effective at bringing in new forum registrants let alone contributing members.  This may be due to other like minded forums that have a longer established membership, and that the TMA was more of a physical "localized" get-together organization that lost some or most of that local group.  I dunno exactly.

Add to this the continuing trend of social media leaving forums for linear "fast food" media such as Facebook, Instagram, Tic Tok, and the like.

What we have now is a TMA club of sorts where the forum is more of a loose gathering of like-minded folks sitting around a campfire and chatting.  Not a thing wrong with that.

What it takes to keep this virtual campfire going is the website forum server space and domain name.

What next, you say?

[Bigsmoke]

Rob, I think you nailed it in a nutshell.
Too many of the original people dying off and not enough people to replace them.
And you are spot on about the social pages drawing people away from the forums.
The forum Beaverman started for horners, for example,  suffered near catastrophe when it started a Facebook page.  It went from a very active site to me being nearly the only one posting about horns.  And that was mainly about horns in my collection, not what I had been working on.  Nothing new there, move on.
What's the answer?  New members.  How do you get them?  I dunno.
John

[RobD]

At the Officer level there is a discussion of just this topic - what the future bodes for the TMA.

Nothing has been solidified as yet, but suffice to say there is a strong possibility that changes to both the TMA website and forum will occur within days or weeks.

I believe there is a greater interactive value for dynamic forums over linear social media.  We shall see.

[Jim in Wisconsin]

I don't exactly know what social media is - facebook or something like that I suppose. I have never looked at that stuff, am too old (78) to learn and don't care about it anyhow. These discussion forums are ok with me, although I have never figured out how to put pictures on them.
I used to be on a different and much bigger forum, but there was too much arguing and insulting going on. Some parts of it were completely dominated by one extremely insistent person. I never look at it anymore.
I am interested in American history - especially the Civil War - and in percussion guns. Others are more interested in earlier times and flintlocks.
I hope this one can attract more people and stay mostly "within bounds" - although an occasional straying into other topics isn't so bad as long as the "third rail" (politics and religion) isn't touched.

[RobD]

"Social Media" are sites such s Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter/X, and others where the format is linear - just one long never ending vertical stream of posts and conversations.  As such, it's "fast food" because what you see in an hour or day or week or month or year disappears down the line real fast.

Forums are sites that show individual threads, posts, which are much easier to see, navigate, and most important they are easy to search, find, and continue those individual conversations.   

Video channels such as YouTube, Rumble, and others are just that - accumulations of video presentations, and are quite different from social media sites and forums.

Society has broken away from forums and has, for the very most part, endeared themselves to fast food social media websites.  It is what it is.

As times have changed, so have forums - but only in with respect to less interest in them and thus less activity, as folks have moved on to social media use.

What will probably happen with our TMA is a change in presentation but not goals, attitude, or content.  We will respect and honor the good folks who started this association, the founders and original Charter Members.  Wouldn't be here without their good visions and hard work. 

We will continue to insure that all threads and posts are civil and constructive, not destructive as seen elsewhere on too many other firearm sites. 

We will continue to preserve, support, and promote anything and everything about traditional muzzleloading firearms and the peoples and times of the 18th and 19th centuries.  This will mean predominantly firelocks that use flint or percussion cap ignition systems, but we can look back and also talk about hand gonnes and matchlocks and other such primitive ignition systems of previous eras just as well.

We will also no longer be monetary based - no need for Contributing Membership to pay the internet bills.  Funding will be on a voluntary contribution basis and those who do will be acknowledged. 

As it is now, there will be no paying sponsors - we will hold no special interest allegiance to any company, beholding to no one but our goals and forum registrants.

We will no longer need to have a bank account or subscription services.  No longer a need to legalize as an incorporated entity.  There will no longer be a need for TMA Officers.  A council of elders will maintain the website/forum and keep the TMA on course in a positive direction.  There will be common sense rules for all, along with fair thread/post moderation, no more or less wanted or needed. 

This is what your TMA officers have been discussing for some time, and it's only proper to share this with forum registrants.  Without you making threads and posts, there is no activity and thus no forum ... which is what has been happening less and less over the last 5 years or so.

Thank you for continuing to enjoy the TMA forum.

[Jim in Wisconsin]

Thank you - it sure sounds like you are heading in the right direction.
Our model airplane club is a legal entity - considered non-profit at the state level but not at the federal tax level, because something wasn't done right from the beginning. Kind of a mess.  A club of any sort should be fun and interesting for everybody, not a tough chore for the people running it.
There must be members of other muzzle loading forums that would like this one better, I wonder if they know about it. An example of a real nice discussion forum is the Civil War Talk site.
I'll continue to look at this one and try to contribute semi-intelligent comments.
Jim S.

[Salty]

RobD, I appreciate and support what you are doing. I enjoy this forum and try to check new postings every day. I try to come up with interesting questions to inspire other lurkers.
Please keep doing what you are doing.
I plan to encourage people on other forums to come for a visit.

[RobD]

Thank you Jim and Salty.

Of a number of house keeping things to do, one is to have a less "busy" forum by eliminating boards that have little to no use. 

In that vein, would it really matter if there were separate boards (sub-forums) for different firearms or perhaps one, or maybe a few?  Currently, there are at least six TMA boards for a variety of weapon types. 

If instead there was one board that spoke for all powder fueled weapons, perhaps it would encourage more dialogue because folks only concerned about flint ignition MLs would get exposure to other ML ignition systems and find similar experiences and share their knowledge - a cross reference of data that normally would not take place because of the segregation of firearm disciplines,  That could/should increase thread and post traffic - but that is not the goal - the real bonus is the sharing of good data and the learning. 

This is just one example of TMA forum change.

[Bigsmoke]

Rob,
I think all sorts of pistols could be grouped in one sub-forum.
I would prefer to see rifles grouped as percussion;  and flintlock; and all others.
Since there are few people here that are interested solely in handgonnes or snaphaunces or matchlocks, there is no need to seperate them individually.
Although it appears that the concept of club or association is going away, I think it would be nice to continue to at least have the designation of Charter Members.  Granted there are fewer and fewer of us, it's kinda nice to feel like somewhat of a pioneer.
Wondering if there is still going to be a "club store"?  If that is going away, I better hurry up and replace my coffee cup, as after gallons and gallons of coffee going through it and many of those cups were warmed up in the microwave, the inside is starting to show signs of wear.
I will stay tuned to see how this all works out.
John
PS:  I never minded paying dues here.  I always felt it was worth the money and I got a lot of value for it.  Hoping we will continue to have postal shoots.

[RobD]

Rob,
I think all sorts of pistols could be grouped in one sub-forum.
I would prefer to see rifles grouped as percussion;  and flintlock; and all others.

Currently, I see it as handguns and long guns.

Since there are few people here that are interested solely in handgonnes or snaphaunces or matchlocks, there is no need to seperate them individually.
Although it appears that the concept of club or association is going away,

NO, just the opposite.  We have been and will continue to be both an Association and Club of like-minded folks.

 I think it would be nice to continue to at least have the designation of Charter Members. 

YES, I've said that all along.

Granted there are fewer and fewer of us, it's kinda nice to feel like somewhat of a pioneer.
Wondering if there is still going to be a "club store"?  If that is going away, I better hurry up and replace my coffee cup, as after gallons and gallons of coffee going through it and many of those cups were warmed up in the microwave, the inside is starting to show signs of wear.

That may continue.

EVERYTHING about TMA change is going through an Officer discussion, so nothing has been solidified as yet.

I will stay tuned to see how this all works out.
John
PS:  I never minded paying dues here.  I always felt it was worth the money and I got a lot of value for it.  Hoping we will continue to have postal shoots.

TMA Postal Shoots WILL continue!

[Winter Hawk]

I am afraid that there won't be much uptick in younger members until/unless there is a block buster movie or TV series depicting real muzzleloaders.  The majority (can I say, vast majority) of younger people aren't interested unless a gun has black plastic and semi-automatic operation since that is what you see on the screen now.  The states all accepting non-traditional guns for muzzleloading seasons doesn't help either.  As we age out there are far fewer people interested in filling in behind us.  How many rendezvous are still being held?  Most of those that are still going have lots of grey hair, unlike 30-40 years ago, and I don't see it changing.

[RobD]

I am afraid that there won't be much uptick in younger members until/unless there is a block buster movie or TV series depicting real muzzleloaders.  The majority (can I say, vast majority) of younger people aren't interested unless a gun has black plastic and semi-automatic operation since that is what you see on the screen now.  The states all accepting non-traditional guns for muzzleloading seasons doesn't help either.  As we age out there are far fewer people interested in filling in behind us.  How many rendezvous are still being held?  Most of those that are still going have lots of grey hair, unlike 30-40 years ago, and I don't see it changing.

At this point in time and society, it's no longer a need to increase TMA forum registrants or have Contributing Members.  Neither are no longer a valid necessity.  They will come or they will not, it's up to them, whomever "them" are these dayze. 

Our TMA goal still remains to preserve and promote trad MLs and all of their times and history. 

In that vein, here we are to help the newbies and not-so-newbies.  Will some young 'uns back fill our depleting ranks?  I think so, I hope so.  Time will tell.  But here we are, and we're NOT going anywhere, certainly not fading into oblivion.

In order to be a current viable source for all things trad ML, we need to somewhat restructure the TMA.  The discussions of and for that continue.

[No Powder]

It has been said that those who make voluntary contributions will be acknowledged. How will that be done? There are some who would like to support by contributing, but don't want a pat on the back or any other recognition. Sorry if I've asked something that will be worked out at a later date.