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[InThePitBBQ]

Has it even been a month yet since the doors opened here? Amazing to see all the new posts every time I log on it's just great to be able to come here and read them all there's really outstanding content in such a short time.

[triplebq]

I agree. Hated to see the old site go away but happy to be here.

[Quadman750]

No shortage of good info, site is growing fast.

[Chris__M]

Particularly gratifying, in comparison to my local British BBQ forum.

There, it seems, everybody has moved to Facebook. Which is great for chat and pictures, but it doesn't leave a lasting record to look back on and search for stuff of interest.

[LowSlowJoe]

Particularly gratifying, in comparison to my local British BBQ forum.

There, it seems, everybody has moved to Facebook. Which is great for chat and pictures, but it doesn't leave a lasting record to look back on and search for stuff of interest.

I enjoy Facebook for a variety of things and reasons... but Facebook is horrible for finding discussions that have taken place in the past... Another thing that's horrible about it, is that the threads aren't linear , they can have branches of discussions , which on the surface seems like a good thing, but as near as I can tell, there is no easy way in a LONG discussion , to figure out where the 'new' posts are... But I digress... Facebook basically is terrible for long term discussions that might be useful for others to look at long after the discussions on that topic have died down.. Not to mention standard web searches have no way of finding most of the information that gets shared in Facebook groups...   Unless Facebook were to make some major changes to somethings, they will never replace a good forum like this one.

[Chris__M]

Agreed, you will have no argument about this with me.

I also run a forum (Board Games, not BBQ), and when some of my members started talking about having a FB page for the gaming group, I quickly set one up myself, before anyone else could. That way, at least, I am in control, and I can ensure that there are frequent links back to the forum - for example, when an event is posted on the forum, it posts to the FB page, but with links inviting people to discuss if they are attending and what games to play on the forum.

Subtlety has never been my strong point. 

[Kristin Meredith]

It is somewhat unreal to us still.  Our first day on the site was August 22, 2017, but we weren't "operational" until the next day, August 23.  So one month this coming Saturday.  In the very first thread he wrote, Bent said he was afraid we had maybe missed the boat -- and he was sincere.  He really wasn't keen on staring this site because he did not believe we would have anyone and it would be 4 or 5 people posting a few things and looking pathetic.

I was almost the same.  I really truly believed that we would be a raging success if we had 50 people at the end of our first year.  I figured maybe we could attract one per week.  I use to sit and watch the sign ups -- "Oh, we have 2!  Look there is another one! Bentley, three people have signed up in just a few hours, wow!" And the people who signed up were experienced pellet folks who contributed quality threads and comments and gave us so much content in just a 10 day period.  I was shocked.  And it was those quality contributions which made it such a good place for those who found it a bit later on.

Now, we aren't morons -- we know that if Pelletheads had not gone down, a lot of you folks would be there and not here.  And that is ok.  PH was our home for 10 years and has a lot of great info and I am really fearful it is gone for good, although I am trying to stay positive.  But even before PH went down, we had a lot of good, solid folks contributing on a regular basis and we would have been happy to continue with them forever.  Folks that have come on board since then are just adding to the good stuff!!!

As of this morning, we had 172 members, 17 more waiting on the "activation list" and 4 wanting to join. We are starting to have 10,000 views a day and are averaging, in less than a month, what it took PH 3 years to work up to in page views.  So again, to me, this is just all unbelievable.  We realize the knowledge base for pellet pits is vastly different than when PH launched in 2007, we believe PH contributed to that growth in knowledge and we believe we are the beneficiaries of that growth.  But we are also very happy to have you all.  We are excited by your knowledge, your sharing, the contend of your threads and comments, and look forward everyday to seeing what the members post.

If any of you are tempted to post thanks, post them to yourselves and each other for what you have and are creating!!!

[LowSlowJoe]

Agreed, you will have no argument about this with me.

I also run a forum (Board Games, not BBQ), and when some of my members started talking about having a FB page for the gaming group, I quickly set one up myself, before anyone else could. That way, at least, I am in control, and I can ensure that there are frequent links back to the forum - for example, when an event is posted on the forum, it posts to the FB page, but with links inviting people to discuss if they are attending and what games to play on the forum.

Subtlety has never been my strong point. 

  Wow... I do love your idea to have the Facebook group and the gaming group kinda working as a somewhat cohesive mix...   Yet, I can see how that would be tricky to do well too.   

[Trooper]

PH was my solo home for a long time. Meredith's know that.
But PH is history now. Never to return and I deal with that just fine. Removed the shortcut off my desktop.

With all the experience Bent & Kristin obtained is fruit off the branches from here on out.

The information and posting  is flash flooding right now into this forum. It's almost difficult right now for me to keep up. But I know things will settle down soon.

[GREG-B]

2 things.   I hope we don't acquire growing pains here and I only ask this question because I'm ignorant in this aspect, (and many others) is there any financial benefit to buying a forum and then shutting it down?   Are there corporate raiders that benefit from this kind of action and if so....what?

[Kristin Meredith]

I am not the font of all knowledge, so others might have more insight. But there are a few scenarios I can think of.  How probable they are is a different story.

There are other forums that somewhat competed with PH.  But for another forum to buy PH and shut it down in the hopes that it would drive members to their site seems like a real stretch to me and not a real sound business decision.  Another stretch -- a manufacturer thought the site was giving them a black-eye and bought it to get rid of disparaging threads.  This seems rather preposterous to me as the vast majority of posts were positive and helpful and I can't see any manufacturer wasting their money doing that.  Also, numerous manufacturers acknowledge the forum helped their business.  These would be business based decisions and don't take into account personal motives.

[Chris__M]

I subscribe more to the cockup theory, than conspiracy.

Moving a site with the content of PH wasn't going to be simple, especially if it included updating the software, as I think was the intention. It would only take one thing to throw a spanner in the works and turn it from a "I've got a couple of hours to do this" job to a "This is going to take a lot more time, which I don't have this weekend" event.

I know, because I have been there.  Remember, a week seems a heck of a long time for a site to be down for the users, but presumably the new owner also has a day job to take care of.

Add to which, transferring a domain from one owner to another can hit hiccups. Now personally, I would physically get the domain moved and running, and catch up with the paperwork later, but all my transfers have been between friends and for nominal sums (i.e. what it cost them to register it originally). For a "domain with value", this might not be a viable option.

[TechMOGogy]

This place rocks
A "reset" was needed and this site will grow in leaps and bounds.
Will old archived threads be missed, yes, but soon enough those voids will be filled by this site and the great content members are providing.

[LowSlowJoe]

I don't think PH was taken down intentionally...  my best guess is that it was some sort of technical issue that went way bad...  I don't know , how the site was 'hosted', or who would have been responsible for backups...  but I'm thinking there maybe were no backups, or if there were, they were corrupt...  but then that's all just speculation.

 The only thing I know for sure, was that days before the site went down completely, the 'new grills' section disappeared and a 'new section' ( or something similar) had appeared.  I had assumed, or guess that the new owner had been wanting to start a section for Yoder, and others, that wasn't a sub-catagory of 'new grills' . But anyway, after that visible change happened , the site became unstable and was really hard to post anything new... then of course shortly after that... boom, nothing.

  I don't think the site was bought to be shutdown...  in fact, I keep thinking , any day now, it's going to emerge from the ashes and be there again.    The one thing that really baffles me, if it is all just a technical glitch so to speak... is that it would or should be trivial to put up a notice that says... "down for remodeling" or something like that.

 All fun to speculate I guess, mysteries are always intriguing... but then, I honestly do not have a clue what has actually happened.

[SmokinHandyman]

Yeppers, I like it here.
Thanks to all.