Membership Numbers

[BMCM Wray Gillette (Ret)]

I see there are 725 members here.. Just wondering if you weed out, or otherwise delete those that have invalid e-mail addresses or have decided to move on to another site...

I have no idea how many Coasties are registered on Monster's "military.com", but I believe "Fredsplace" boasts something like a 46,600 plus members. Obviously that is an over inflated number. I'm sure if an e-mail was sent out to all 46k, at least 75% would come back as not deliverable. I know I have tried to contact many on that site with negative results.

I do like the fact that all here must use real names and e-mail addresses. It certainly promotes responsible posting.

Wray... :cool:

[BMC John Phillips III]

I believe that if you are inactive for a year here, your membership is deleted. I know BMCM can tell you better, but he also cleaned up some thread which will lower your post totals and I think total members at the same time.

Did anyone read where the MCPOCG is looking to create an Official Chiefs Discussion board?

Well, I would just give this one to the CG and make it official, but I am sure there is some reason we can't do that.

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

Although this discussion board is run by BMCM Slesh and his designated moderators, I still own the license and pay the hosting fees.

I did try to get the CG to pay for this when we first started. The CMC that I talked to wished me luck, and the MCPOCG at the time never responded. I gotta say, that pissed me off. I decided then and there that this would never be a service-run entity. So far it has worked out pretty well.

If the MCPOCG does begin an official discussion board for Chiefs, it may cause the end of this one. Or, it may get ignored in favor of this one. Either way, the Chiefs will still have an open venue for discussion. It's all good, no matter how it turns out.

[BMC John Phillips III]

Dennis,

I did not mean to infer the Stuart owned this site. Only that he'd know the rules on the membership.

If I had to venture a guess, I wouldn't say that the CG endorsed discussion would not be used, but I doubt it would kill this one.

[BMCM Deane Smith]

I see there are 725 members here.. Just wondering if you weed out, or otherwise delete those that have invalid e-mail addresses or have decided to move on to another site...

If a member does not log into the site in over a year, they are deleted.

[admin]

Dennis, the force notes that were just released listed a plan for creating an intra-net based discussion board. I heard from a couple of other people that it wasn't well recieved. The BM force manager also set up that BM microsite for discussions and the last time I checked, the only ones posting on that are the same vocal members of this site.

I think this site will be around for as long as you're willing to keep it active. I get feedback about it from all levels of our service. People are getting a lot of use out of it. I find out what's going on faster from here than from our conviential ways.

Wray, I get e-mails notifying me if someone has an invalid e-mail. If I can track them down, I update that information. Otherwise, as Deane said, we wait for that year to past, and delete them from the role. Also, every so often, I look for threads that didn't get responses or are resloved(?) and we remove them, or close them and reassign them to the archives. After that clean up is done, we run a program and it recounts peoples posts.

[OSC William Allen]

Fellow Chiefs. As a new member I am very impressed with this site and have learned alot from reading the posts. This site is a great beneit and I feel it becuase it isnt CG run. I dont feel we would get the same postings if it were CG run.

Keep up the good work gentlemen

[BMCM Wray Gillette (Ret)]

The CMC that I talked to wished me luck, and the MCPOCG at the time never responded. I gotta say, that pissed me off.

I guess that proves courtesy does not always go with the job...

I think it is great how you maintain a true membership numbers and valid e-mail addresses. While the high numbers at Fredsplace may appear impressive, (mainly to Fred), they do not reflect the current registered users... I believe his numbers go back over 10 years ago. They are not only inaccurate & meaningless, but become more annoying than anything else when trying to use his e-mail system. Your system seems to be good and working great.


Wray... :cool:

[BMCS Ian McVicker]

Did anyone read where the MCPOCG is looking to create an Official Chiefs Discussion board?
Well, I would just give this one to the CG and make it official, but I am sure there is some reason we can't do that.

MCPOCG's last newsletter stated that his goal was to start discussion boards for E-7 and above, and also E-6 and below. Whether that will happen or not, or the effect on this site remains to be seen.

Dennis, I am sure that you had many accomplishments during your career, and you should consider this web-site one of them. I have said before that my mess is 400 miles away, and this site provides me that daily exspoure to a mess that I do not get here. The networking ability with this site is remarkable, and I have benifited from it many times. I am also very happy with the fresh discussions here recently with the new members that have joined (Bill, Wray, Gary, ect..).

I do wish that the Deckplate site had a little more steam and use from those folks, but mayber we're not promoting that as much as we should.

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

I don't know that they were purposely being discourteous. I just don't think that they took me serious.

We do have some advantages over Fred's Place except in one area-- reliable service. There were a couple of times when the discussion board went inop and I had no idea why. I ended up contacting some techs to troubleshoot it, which took both time and some extra cash.

I also started a discussion board for E-6 and below, which I just can't seem to get off the ground. I think that's more about my marketing inexperience than anything else.

I don't plan to ever connect advertising to the board or CGChiefs.com. Things get too convoluted and the site begins to lose its identity. I learned that from watching Fred's Place.

I do plan to attach a pay-per photo-hosting service soon. It will be strictly voluntary and will not affect anyone's ability to post to the discussion board. I figure it to cost about $24 per year for those that choose to use it. I'll use the money to pay for associated fees and costs, improvements and upgrades on the website, tech help, maybe a stipend to the moderators, and yes put a little coin in my own pocket (this is the unvarnished truth after all).

If I can get enough participation, I'll even donate 25% of what I collect back to the membership of the discussion board to do with as you all see fit. If I'm doing the math right, at current membership with 100% participation, you all would have about $4000 per year to play with.

There would be some legal and tax issues I'd need to work out, and some ethical and policy issues that you all would need to consider, but this could be a good thing for everyone concerened.

What do you think?

[BMCS Ian McVicker]

[QUOTE=BMCS Dennis Endicott (Ret)]I do plan to attach a pay-per photo-hosting service soon. [QUOTE]


What is that Dennis? I have never heard of it before.

[BMCM Wray Gillette (Ret)]

I don't know that they were purposely being discourteous. I just don't think that they took me serious.

Don't make excuses for them.. The courteous thing to do would have been to reply to your e-mail, one way or another.

Pay for pictures? Not sure what that is, but I'd say, I don't need it...

Wray... :cool:

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

If you are using photos on the internet (EBAY for example), they are being hosted somewhere. EBAY will charge you for that service after the initial photo used in your listing. Most people that use EBAY, use a photohosting service because it's cheaper.

I imagine that the guys that are posting photos on their threads have them hosted somewhere as well. Is that not true?

[BMC John Phillips III]

I do plan to attach a pay-per photo-hosting service soon. It will be strictly voluntary and will not affect anyone's ability to post to the discussion board. I figure it to cost about $24 per year for those that choose to use it. I'll use the money to pay for associated fees and costs, improvements and upgrades on the website, tech help, maybe a stipend to the moderators, and yes put a little coin in my own pocket (this is the unvarnished truth after all).

Dennis, if you have a paypal account, I would be willing to transfer some funds into it right now - sort of an in advance membership fee or just a courtesy donation for the use of the boards. I am sure several other Chiefs here would be more than willing. The reason I said "paypal" is because it's so easy to use. If you need any help setting one up or anything like that let me know. Then you could post the address here and people could start donating now as they see fit. I personally find that way much easier than a stamp and check or money order in the mail.


I imagine that the guys that are posting photos on their threads have them hosted somewhere as well. Is that not true?


There are several other free photo hosting services, but I think the majority of photos here are being uploaded straight to this site.

One example of a free photo hosting service is photobucket.com. That's the one I used for the video of my dog. I also used it when I was selling my house. It was expensive enough for the online add as it was. I just provided a link in the add to all my photos of the house rather than paying for additional photos on the real estate website I used.

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

Thanks John, but I don't think donations are necessary at this point.

I use photobucket.com too. The free services are limited to a specific amount of "space" and you'll notice that he has begun to offer pay-per plans as well. I think he'll eventually lose the free stuff entirely.

Can you upload pictures directly to the board without them being hosted elsewhere??

[BMCM Deane Smith]

Can you upload pictures directly to the board without them being hosted elsewhere??

Yes, you can attach a picture from a file and it will upload normally.

I'm glad that you're against advertising...nothing good would come from that.

[ETC Joe Jester ret]

Dennis,

My photos and pdf files are hosted elsewhere, at one of my two sites, all I ever do, here or at military.com is post the link to the image.

I do upload files [pdf and pics] on this one electronics site I frequent.

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

Deane-
When you say "attach a file", you are not referring to putting a picture in a post like this one, correct?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v91/Coastie/miscellaneous/DSCF2867.jpg

[BMCM Deane Smith]

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. Maybe I'm confused about what we're talking about.

The picture below was inserted by using the grab/upload attachment feature. The picture came from my hard drive. When you hit submit, the pictue goes into the body of the post.

[BMCS Dennis Endicott ret]

Wow. I didn't know that was possible.
Nice Picture.

[BMCM Stuart S. Slesh]

Having people wearing trops, u/w, on a buoy deck, ....Deane you should be ashamed..........

and just so the rest of you why Dennis is laughing right now, it's because everytime someone posts in the feedback forum, the site generates an e-mail and sends it to my account.

[ETC Joe Jester ret]

Deane,

I looked at the properties of the two pictures in question and yours definiately originated from cgchiefs.com while Dennis' picture originated at photobucket.com

If you wish to charge for pictures uploaded to cgchiefs.com, be my guest. I'll continue to host my own pics and link them here much in the way that Dennis did.

There may have been a little confusion, but I understood your point. If they are hosted at cgchiefs.com, you should be compensated. If they are hosted elsewhere, then it's whatever you want to describe it as ... free?

Personally, I wouldn't want to host pics on a discussion board. If people are interested in posting pictures, they would learn how to host them elsewhere and call them from within the url code.

BTW, this is my most used image over the last decade. :)

http://www.tech-service.net/images/advancement.jpg

BTW, Ebay doesn't charge for pics hosted elsewhere.

[BMCM Wray Gillette (Ret)]

Deane,
Nice picture... but, I have to ask.. Did Rocci put the name on the front of the barge? Never saw that done before.. or, the tires....

I'll have to rag on him...

Wray.... :cool:

[BMCM Stuart S. Slesh]

Joe, now that the max for sea service is 30 points.....isn't it a 210 point max ?

[BMCM Deane Smith]

Wray...I don't know who put the name on the barge, but I know who took it off.

I hated the tires at first and was going to take them off as soon as we got back to homeport (I relieved in St Louis), but now I'm leaving them on. With the amount of locks we have (about 30 in the AOR), they are a great thing to have mounted. When I was on MUSKINGUM, I got spoiled I guess. All of our locks were big. We've got some here on OSAGE that are pretty small...it's nice to have the tires.

[ETC Joe Jester ret]

Stuart,

Seatime is 30 points ... 200 total points multiplied by .15

15% of the pie belongs to seatime. :)

The old HRSIC instruction, now a PSC instruction, used the source document of CIM 1000.6(series).

[BMCM Stuart S. Slesh]

So what about if you maxed for surf points,....in theory?

[ETC Joe Jester ret]

Maxing out in any of the "big" catagories can certainly help.

If someone maxes out in the seatime, which I believe is what surfmen qualify for, God bless them. They deserve each and every point, and it makes one competing against them to have to do very well on the test to the be competitive.

In theory, one could max out in any of the big three, and they would be tough to beat on the list.

Still, the only one that beats all others is the SWE.

They shouldn't just beat their competition, they need to really outscore them. If one is looking to just beat the competition, they will be sitting on the sidelines complaining that good marks, seatime, awards, TIS, TIG, all doomed them and kept them from advancing.

[BMCM Gary Keen (RET)]

Wray...I don't know who put the name on the barge, but I know who took it off.

Deane and Wray:

It was put on by BMCS Doug Sharp. I like it better now.
Gary

[BMCM Wray Gillette (Ret)]

Another Senior Chief Alt..... ;)

Wray.. :cool: