[benos]

Almost 10 years ago when I started the forums, I had no idea what a huge workload enforcing its few simple guidelines:

Please be polite. Or if not polite, at least respectful.
Antagonistic, offensive, or quarrelsome tones are not acceptable.
Policy and political discussions or debates of any kind are not welcome.

...would create.

So a huge THANK YOU to all the Moderators who donate a massive amount of their time, every day, to keep the forums the great place for learning it has become.
Brian

[SiG Lady]

The bigger the forum gets and the wider net we cast for members, the more likely we'll have to herd cats or chastise the unwise. Truly, the guys here leap on offenders quickly.

[atbarr]

Yeah, there are a lot of sheriffs in this town.

A.T.

This post has been edited by atbarr: 24 September 2009 - 06:29 PM

[SiG Lady]

It's a big town.

[atbarr]

SiG Lady, on Sep 24 2009, 09:45 PM, said:

It's a big town.

You got that right!

A.T.

[G-ManBart]

I've said it before...spend some time on other forums and it makes you appreciate this one even more. Sometimes I'll start to think "yeah, they could lighten up on this or that" and then I realize that it won't take long to devolve into something less than it is now. R,

[JimmyZip]

+100! Even though they have given me the sting sometimes, (yes I deserved it) I'm glad that they show no preference in whom they enforce the rules upon.

Because of their work around here, this place rocks! I like it more than T.V. and it feeds my curiosity for all things related to our sport.

JZ

[North]

++100

They are a great bunch.

[Duane Thomas]

Thanks, Brian.

And thanks to everyone else who posted, and will post, in this thread. The words of appreciation are muchly, um, appreciated.

Y'know, I came on this board, I think it was, the second day (or was it third) it ever existed. I know I'd eventually have found it anyway, but how I got in on the ground floor is, I think, a funny story.

I was laying in bed one morning, sound asleep during daylight hours as is my wont as a night person. I had the ringer on my bedroom phone turned off but the volume turned on low. My attitude was, if I want to talk to you I'll wake up and do it, if not I wanted the volume low enough it wouldn't totally wake me up so I could achieve just enough mentality to hear who it was, then go back to sleep. A system that worked well, actually.

So, as I said, I'm laying there and suddenly from my phone I hear, "Hey, this is Brian Enos. Listen...."

Shall I tell you how fast I woke up? Bear in mind at this point in time I had never met Brian, never talked to Brian, I was only aware he existed through reading all those articles in American Handgunner that raved about him....and owning and reading his book, of course. This was kind of like a Rolling Stones fan laying there in bed when suddenly the answering machine clicks on and you hear, "Hey, this is Mick Jagger...." I practically got air friction speed burns as I grabbed the phone.

Turns out Brian had just started up a web site, like, the day before; he'd also read a review of his book I'd recently written for Dillon's Blue Press (you can find it reproduced elsewhere on this site) and wanted to know how much I'd charge him to reprint it. Pfffftttt! Yeah right, like I'm gonna charge Brian Enos.

Shortly thereafter I'm down at the library (I did not, at the time, have Internet access at home) typing in that web site addy that would come to mean so much: www.brianenos.com. And here I was. To those of you who weren't there back then, so early on, I wish you could have seen it. WAY different than the monster it has since become. One little page that could fit on your computer screen all at once, a pre-packaged downloadable message board with a whopping six forums to it. Most of which had no posts in them at all. If memory serves me correctly (and it may well not), the only four people who had posted on this board before I did were Brian, Flexmoney, Al Capizzo and Pat Harrison. I actually had the privilege and pleasure of making the very first posts in several of the forums. There was an extraordinarily high signal-to-noise ratio back when.

And even as I was making my first few posts, I knew - KNEW - that one day this board would become as popular as it has today. It was just too good not to. Too good to not become the resource to serious shooters that it has, to become what it is today: the finest competition shooting message board on the planet. In my own, completely unbiased opinion, of course.

[boz1911]

This is the only forum I spend time on. Mostly because of the policies outlined above. I've heard the horror stories about other forums and choose not to even venture in to those waters.

[Pat Harrison]

And a big thanks to all the members here who have made this place enjoyable. I've had the great fortune to meet many of the members, in person, at matches around North America. Hell I even met the great gunwriter Duane Thomas once!
With over 18,000 members and more than 1,000,000 posts, this is one awesome place!

[danscrapbags]

I enjoy this forum because Most of the members are polite and very helpful, I have had the Mods close a couple of my posts because of political issues and for that I am sorry. I truly do appreciate the time and effort that you all put into keeping this the best shooters forum in the U.S. Keep up the good work!

[Duane Thomas]

Quote

Hell I even met the great gunwriter Duane Thomas once!

Was it good for you, too?

[Duane Thomas]

Quote

I've heard the horror stories about other forums and choose not to even venture in to those waters.

I made the mistake one time, WELL after I already knew how awesome is BrianEnos.com, of venturing into another shooting related forums board (which shall remain nameless) that had been described to me as "a snake pit." I found out why that was the case fast enough. Ick! Now I just stay here.

[dajarrel]

I occasionally go to another forum for some specific item of interest, but I don't stay long. BE.com must be a magnet that attracts civility, because most of the other sites have a severe lack of it!!!!

Thanks for starting the forums, Brian. Moderators and admin, thanks for keeping folks like me in line


dj

[Seth]

I'm not a great shooter.

But I come here tp learn, participate when I can, and have a laugh or two. I'd rather turn to the guys here and ask a question over just about any other place. The quality of the counsel, the integrity of the members, and the genuinely polite demeanor makes it an absolute pleasure.

Thanks to Brian and the mods for creating that environment. Its the BEST resource for so much more than poking holes in cardboard.

[spankaveli]

I know the site I run isn't nearly as high maintenance as this one and, Brian, you and your staff do a great job of keeping things in line. Kudos to you sir.

[Bigpops]

Seth, on Sep 25 2009, 01:04 PM, said:

I'm not a great shooter.

But I come here tp learn, participate when I can, and have a laugh or two. I'd rather turn to the guys here and ask a question over just about any other place. The quality of the counsel, the integrity of the members, and the genuinely polite demeanor makes it an absolute pleasure.

Thanks to Brian and the mods for creating that environment. Its the BEST resource for so much more than poking holes in cardboard.

Ditto to what Seth said.

Sometimes with the written word is tough to decipher the meaning or tone behind it. You guys do a great job.

[murkish]

Brian set the rules, but having rules is only part of the equation. JimmyZip touched on it above.

What I really appreciate about the moderators here is their fairness in applying the rules. There is no favoritism, nepotism, or any other kind of "ism."

Thank you for your integrity, fairness and fellowship,
Jack

(Hmm....Integritas - Aequitas - Communitas....perhaps the next DVC...)

[spankaveli]

murkish, on Sep 25 2009, 12:20 PM, said:

Brian set the rules, but having rules is only part of the equation. JimmyZip touched on it above.

What I really appreciate about the moderators here is their fairness in applying the rules. There is no favoritism, nepotism, or any other kind of "ism."

Thank you for your integrity, fairness and fellowship,
Jack

(Hmm....Integritas - Aequitas - Communitas....perhaps the next DVC...)

Need some Veritas thrown in there for good measure.

[BayouSlide]

To cadge a riff from Jeff Cooper, "A polite forum is a useful forum."

My sincere compliments to all involved.

Keep up the amazing work in preserving a sense of decorum and sanity in a least one small corner of the Internet.

Curtis

[atbarr]

This forum is like a kid, you can't beat it.

A.T.

[Duane Thomas]

Quote

To cadge a riff from Jeff Cooper, "A polite forum is a useful forum."

Actually that would be Robert Heinlein.

[SiG Lady]

When I joined in 2002 (holy crap, I just passed my anniversary [Sept.12] and totally forgot it!!!!), there were about 1,245 members. Now we have countless thousands as it began to grow exponentially, especially over the last three years. How I've managed to accumulate nearly 10,000 posts since then, I'll never know. But it's been great. I had just begun shooting at that time and discovered the forum by accident--was researching some music by Brian Eno and our very own B.E. kinda popped up in the search returns by default. Such a fortuitous defautl! But I did learn a lot and watched the forum evolve and expand in the process. A well-managed Internet site to be sure...!!

Yeh, Brian called me one evening and we talked for quite a while. That was kinda awesome, to say the least.

[BayouSlide]

Duane Thomas, on Sep 25 2009, 05:32 PM, said:

Quote

To cadge a riff from Jeff Cooper, "A polite forum is a useful forum."

Actually that would be Robert Heinlein.

Ouch, right you are, Duane

If it's any excuse, I used to be much brighter, but the years have taken their toll

Curtis