I just noticed that I joined here in 2008 so I have only been around for 10 years - I'm just a rookie!

Paul -

All of the forums I visit regularly (half a dozen, at most) are falling off in the number of posts since their heyday. And most of the posts are from long term members. This seems to be a phenomenon going on across a wide spectrum of forums. Maybe it's just the type of forums I tend to visit. The few forums I hit that are highly active are what I'd call "informational forums". Questions are asked, answers are given, but there is no feeling of friendship. It's like looking something up in an encyclopedia. It gets the job done, but it's not terribly exciting. Most of my forums I hit because of the people, not the content. ETS is one of those. Although the content is excellent, there is more of a draw to see what friends are up to than to get a specific question answered. Maybe this is part of getting older - I just don't have that many questions anymore, or I've forgotten what it was that I wanted to ask about!

I've also noted that long timers will drift off of a forum for a while. Sometimes years. Then out of nowhere, they're back! That's fun to see when it happens.

I would say the main focus of ETS is preparation for adventures that go wrong, or disasters. That, and also general outdoors type stuff. I imagine there are many here now who are as old as, or even older than I am. I'm 61-1/2. There are some really healthy and in shape folks this age, but unfortunately I cannot count myself in that group. I'm doing fine, but I'm not climbing 14k mountains anymore. I'm not going on two week wilderness backpacking trips anymore. My camping trips? Heck yeah, I'm going on one in a couple of weeks with my friends (we do it every year)! We cook gourmet food, fire up the waffle iron and Kuerig in the morning, eat frozen gelato for desserts ... you know, "old peoples camping". If the heat gets too bad, we fire up the air conditioner in the trailer. We used to go for one night when we started 35 years ago. Now we stay for four. We don't do additional activities, it just takes us longer to do the same old ones these days (hiking, biking, kayaking). I used to bring my telescopes, but not anymore (we don't stay awake late enough to be able to use them).

Times change. So do forums. Sometimes we go nostalgic over the old days of the forums, and forget that there are still good days to come. We're just "taking a nap" a little bit right now in the overall post count.

Everything has a life cycle I suppose but I expect ETS to be around for a good while.

Relevance is the key. Good questions, well thought out responses, professionalism (courteous, intelligent, valid, honest, objective), and good subject matter are what I look for, and I think most other people do as well. This is what makes this forum the only one I visit. I have looked at others over time, but have only stayed with this one. I do not want to sift through tons of bad comments to find a gem. When I need information, I will research it myself. If I can't find an answer, or would like to find someone with more experience, then I ask these people, and it has always worked. There is a lot of relevant experience on this forum, real experience in the real world actually having responsibility for accomplishing these types of tasks. That is very difficult to find elsewhere. I too look forward to many more years of discussion here.

That being said, hosting this forum is not free. What are the issues with maintaining it?

You forget that small number of contributors read elsewhere and bring recommendations of other sites and information from them. I'm a UK hiker and camper, you follow my advise on surviving where there's wilderness, deserts, mountains, jungles, dangerous creatures, extreme weather.....it could well get you killed! :-)
But I can point you to places that can give you good information. And we do it with decent discussion. We recently had posts on a political commentator I regarded as a psychopath and others thought a decent man. No one called anyone any names, we were all on good terms at the end of it. The ace up our sleeves is the moderators who soon shut down trouble and the nutters leave.
And really how much information has gone out of date? Dougs advice in the links on the home page are still first rate though written over a decade ago.

qjs

It is always helpful to those of us residing in the more favored regions to receive the insights of those in strange, far away lands like the UK and Alaska....

When I first found this site, it was before the prepping craze, and it was the only one I had seen that had comprehensive reviews of the available survival kits out there in a methodical and organized manner. That motivated me to make my own, and while I don't mess with the PSK stuff that much anymore (I've moved on to other camping and hiking stuff) I still have one and remember the younger version of me fondly, learning all I can about that stuff.

I'm not as active as I once was, but I love ETS! My on-line life has changed considerably in the past 15 years, especially over the last few years. To be honest, after my initial couple of years flurry of reading, studying, and soaking in everything I could on this site, I forgot about all of that other stuff and just started coming here, to the forums.

It was you guys that helped me sift through the information overload, stop being overwhelmed, and start to be able to recognize and focus on my real personal priorities. That hasn't changed at all, in fact, it's probably more true today than it was way back then. Y'all feel like family, like my favourite super smart distant cousins that I wish I could see more of. I'm sentimental about ETS, but there's a mature, pragmatic, level-headedness here that I truly appreciate. The respectful, often fun and personal, dialogue is so welcome in this world of hostile keyboard commandos. THANK YOU All for that!

I love you guys!!