MVPA FORUM...

[Cal_Gary]

Hi friends,
I just completed the HMV survey over at MVPA.org (recommend that everyone do it http://www.mvpa.org/mvpa-info/2014survey/) and happened across their forum-made me appreciate just how great our G741 forum is! The MVPA forum is a virtual ghost-town although M37Bruce has tried to get some activity on it. Postings over there are slim and often lack responses while our forum has daily activity and a number of postings from many of our ranks. Thanks Everyone for making this such a great place for help, banter, debate, and just a great forum for all!
Gary

[w30bob]

Hi Gary,

I haven't been over to the MVPA forum, but I agree with you that this one is pretty darn good. I don't spend much time over at steel soldiers, but when I check the posts in the M37 section over there most direct the poster to come here for the answers..........so we must be doing something right.

It's all about participation (duh), and it seems we have a pretty good group of guys on here. Whenever I'm on this site I check on the bottom of the page to see who else is on and always see more guests than subscribers..........so lots of folks we don't know are checking us out as well. There's so much good info in this site, although it's a bit hard to find sometimes.........but I'm always amazed at the info I find when I search the forum. Over the years you guys have done a fantastic job with this site and it's been invaluable for me just entering the military vehicle hobby and the M37 hobby specifically.

Don't be shy folks......keep participating and asking those questions. You are NOT the only one thinking what you're about to ask. There will (hopefully) always be newbies to this hobby just craving the info found on this forum. My sincerest thanks to everyone on here!!

regards,
bob

[T. Highway]

Gary,

Great idea posting up the survey. I agree that even if you are not a member of the MVPA, that you should give them some input. That way this hobby keeps growing with the younger crowd.

Bert

[DAP]

I like this site best and have for years. The MVPA site has so little activity I hardly ever go there. Unfortunately some of the guys on the SS can get rather testy with people for reasons that baffle me. I suppose since I don't own a deuce and a half I just don't understand. I prefer not to post on SS but direct them to this site for M37 stuff.

[m-37Bruce]

Well thanks for the kudos Gary, I tried but no dice, on any of the categories over there. I was asked if I would like be a Moderator, made me blush (a little) Robi's Forum & it's predecessor have been the main-stay of this hobby in general, Gordon's PWA is another one I participate in w/much frequency.

[Monkey Man]

All the sites are good and Gordon's site compliments this site well, it is good to have pooled information and resources as a result of folks getting together on forums and sharing, if it wasn't for the users contributing the sites would be just internet fluff of no value....

MM

[Brigand]

I believe the overweaning difference between the sites is specialization. Most of the people here are interested in M37's as a matter of course. Steel Soldiers and the MVPA sites cover a broad spectrum of interests with individual niches carved out within them by what are sometimes misguided, self appointed experts in a given field. Nothing drives people away from a site like intranecine conflict. Either that or it attracts the sort that will argue to death the location in millimetres, the location of a particular marking. It is often the case oddly enough, that those same individuals don't actually own an MV but they do have a library card and a laptop with access to Google. This is the same sort of attitude that results in the works of Tolkien becoming the basis for a religion.
I think both of the Gordon's websites have broad enough appeal and the style of the sites appeal to very different people. Some web sites are as full of cliques as a school cafeteria whilst those of us who bag it are under the bleachers corrupting the morals of someone's daughter. That is to say, actually doing something.
I do not wish to give the impression that this site is by any means tantrum free. M37 Bruce and MM can bear witness to some of the pitched battles fought out in the old Big E site and on this iteration as well. The root of most of these rows is pontification, the notion that one's own knowledge is unassailable is patently untenable and there are scores of people who will gladly point out its shortcomings. I have been wrong for some thirty-two years now, coincidentally the length of time I have been married. The moderator's here have done an excellent job of keeping that sort of nonsense to a minimum and I for one, thank them.

Can you tell who had some spare time today?

[w30bob]

Wow........word of the day is definitely "intranecine". I had to look that one up. Good thing we have Google......no one in the cubicle farm knew that one either!!!

You really do learn something new every day.

thanks,
bob

[m-37Bruce]

Brigand, You are hittin' on all 6 cylinders!
1. Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organization, or group.
2. Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides.
3. Characterized by bloodshed or carnage.

I couldn't resist it .... I remember most, if not all of the struggles!
Personally I try and stay neutral, sometimes to my own detriment.

[52 M-42]

I went over to the site and took the survey. I quit that organization almost 30 years ago because of their attitude and restricted geocentric focus. I've haven't seen any reason to change my opinion since then. Maybe I've missed something, though; I often do.

This site, Steel Soldiers and occasionally G503 and the Power Wagon website are really all I ever visit because they have a much more congenial atmosphere and lack the irritating parochialism of the MVPA website.

This site is much more collegial.

52 M-42

[w30bob]

I too took the survey. I've been a member of the MVPA for 2 years now, since I bought my first M37, but to be honest..........I don't get much out of it. I feel a bit obligated to their cause, as I want to preserve military vehicle history, but $50 added up over a bunch of years can buy a lot of parts.

I like the magazine, but it's about 10 pages of content and another 50 pages of advertisements that don't ever seem to change. My comment at the end of the survey on how to improve the MVPA and generate interest in the hobby was for them to host many smaller meets around the country instead of one national meet that most can never attend due to location. Not sure why I'm ranting here........I need to go look up what "collegial" means.

regards,
bob

[T. Highway]

I know that I have seen positive change to the MVPA in the last half a dozen years. I know that there was a major leadership shakeup a few years back to change the "we've always done it this way attitude".

I think it is a great idea to do the survey, that way they can continue making changes in the right direction.

Bert

[m37jarhead]

The web site g838 is great if you're into M151's. The form and function of this site is similar to g741.
So far, nice folks that have helped me a lot with my M151A2.
Jerry

[Brigand]

Brigand, You are hittin' on all 6 cylinders!
1. Of or relating to struggle within a nation, organization, or group.
2. Mutually destructive; ruinous or fatal to both sides.
3. Characterized by bloodshed or carnage.

I couldn't resist it .... I remember most, if not all of the struggles!
Personally I try and stay neutral, sometimes to my own detriment.

In those situations Bruce, Anything you say can and will be used against you especially if you didn't say it.

[m-37Bruce]

Speaking of did & didn't, do you ever see or hear anything from Kurt Hirte?