or has there been an unusually high level of new member sign in on the survival forums of late?

I've been monitoring a few different sites, and it seems the activity level is pickup up. Could it be folks back home are taking survival issues a little more seriously?

Just an observation. Welcome to all our new members. Glad to have you aboard.

Maybe. But at least a few have stated they've lurked for a while. Might just be that the rest saw one or two join and decided to as well.

Whatever the reason, new points of view are welcome.

No. You are correct. If you click on "use List" above, then click "registered on" you get a list in chronological order. There is a definite spike of late. Summer doldrums or paranoia?

I'm guessing there two things going on:

1) Doug and equipped.org are getting increased exposure with his PSK being sold everywhere.

2) People are getting more anxious about terrorism, and this is by far the most sober, reasonable site for getting preparedness info, at least in my opinion.

Can you imagine how popular this board would be if they update the site software and advertise the forum a little more prominently on the equipped.org home page?

Seems to me like a lot of survival, knife type sites use UBB when most all other forums I visit use VB. I really don't like UBB but it works I guess.

You said it well....I had lurked and saw a few join and decided that I really should finally. I've been involved with emergency preparedness in some way since I was about 13 years old. I had been somewhat regularly reading the forums and found its people to be very mature and open minded. They are not interested in bad mouthing people or ideas. They point out good and bad things and let you decide for yourself. They show people respect. It is nice to know that posts have been deleted for things that are not appropriate. This is high quality. I just saw a few others join and finally decided to do so.

Count me as guilt of lurking for over a year and taking in information. I guess it was just time to join rather than sit out in the cold. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Oh, by the way, thanks for all the information I got in that time.

Not to sound like a survivalist, but I think people are realising that there is only so much Big Brother/Uncle Sam can do. The paranoia is maturing into caution and perperation- kinda like the difference between primative rocket fuel and a 20 year old scotch.

I'm waiting for it to turn into an 80 year old scotch. Hmmmmm.....

Lurked for awhile then joined. Seriously lurked afterward trying to get security settings problems figured out & recently found out that I could post with IE & not Firefox. Go figure. Use firefox for almost everything else (anything that doesn't HAVE to have IE to run or needs to be run with colors specified by the website).

Ironman, it is quite simple: the government is reactive, we are proactive.

Preventative LE aside, most of what they do is, perforce, after the fact.