The Firing Line is Shutting Down

TheFiringLine ^ | 12-18-02 | self

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking. TFL will be missed.

[backhoe]

Thanks for the corrected link!

[FreedomPoster]

*This* is a serious bummer. At one time, I was there as much as I am at FreeRepublic now. It's still the best place on the net to go for firearms knowledge and lore. Yikes! What'll we do!

[FreedomPoster]

>>I've got high hopes for whatever Oleg's going to try to pull off, though

If nothing else, you know it will have a great graphic look. And Oleg was always a good mod on TFL, from what I could tell.

[FreedomPoster]

Let's make that a link (surprised yours didn't auto-linkify):

http://www.Gun-Talk.com/

[backhoe]

All afternoon & night, my email box has been filling up with this:

---

Hello johnr,
>
> erthmun has just replied to a thread you have subscribed to entitled - TFL to Close At End of 2002 - in the General Discussion Forum forum of The Firing Line.
>
> This thread is located at:
> http://www.TheFiringLine.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=146237&goto=newpost
>
> There may be other replies also, but you will not receive any more notifications until you visit the board again.

---

TFL was the first board I ever joined on the web... in pre-web days of BBS's I was on Compuserve, Genie, Prodigy, and a few more, but TFL was my "first" on AlBorg2000's Information Superhighway.

I sure hope Oleg can pull a rabbit out of his hat and get TFL'ers to migrate to a new site... the other boards some members have suggested just don't seem quite right, for some reason.

I can't quite put a finger on what it is... some are awfully small- a few hundred members, which would surely change if the majority of TFL'ers landed among them. Others have names that I suspect would be off-putting to non-firearms enthusiasts, and one of my mission statements is to "get people to educate themselves," so any barrier to getting a non-gunnie to look around is not desirable, from my POV.

[FreedomPoster]

>>so any barrier to getting a non-gunnie to look around

Excellent point. And if anyone can overcome that, it's Oleg. I just hope he has the personal bandwidth to pull it off.

>>I sure hope Oleg can . . . get TFL'ers to migrate to a new site

Another key point - the fact that so many knowledgeable folks congregated in one place, and that bad eggs were moderated out. The usefulness of a network has been said to be proportional to, not the number of members/nodes, but the square of the number of members/nodes. The critical mass that TFL enjoyed was a large part of the reason for its usefulness.

[backhoe]

many knowledgeable folks congregated in one place, and that bad eggs were moderated out...

Yes, TFL was one of the finer sites around. Let's hope it can continue in some form elsewhere.

[backhoe]

Bttt^ of regrets-

[backhoe]

A "the lights are going out..." Bttt^

Soon to be filled with Silent Keys...

[backhoe]

The replacement for TFL is up and accepting old members, and asking for new members--

http://thehighroad.org/

It appears THR will have a broader scope than TFL, encompassing civil liberties more widely. I urge all members here who are interested in the RKBA issues, technical information, tactics, etc., to take a look and consider joining.

Make no mistake, the anti-self-defense forces are waiting in the wings, licking their chops in anticipation of a fall from grace by President Bush, or another atrocity involving guns so they can trot out their "sensible firearms regulations for all the children" or other poll-tested talking points.

They have 'em ready, waiting for targets of opportunity. We need as broad and loud a voice as we can find to keep re-educating the public.

[backhoe]

A "Join The High Road" bttt^

[PGalt]

Thanks for the information, links.

[backhoe]

Thanks for looking. It will be interesting to see how many of TFL's 18,000 members actually migrate to THR.

[backhoe]

A "goodnight, sweet prince" bttt^

Final call to all members of TFL to check in one last time...

...we are all becoming Silent Keys...