Dedicated Optics Gate?

[DrGunner]

To the Moderators-

Have y’all ever considered creating a separate gate for the Optics forum?

As it currently stands, it took me quite a while to find the Optics gate the first time I wanted to post here, and now that I’m coming back two months later to post another thread, I have to say it feels almost as if this forum is “hidden“.
It would make more sense to me to have a dedicated link to the Optics gate visible on the rolling tab of gates on the main page.
Placing it under a main tab of “reviews“ gives the impression that it is not a place to post general questions or seek information from the community.

Just my $.02, FWIW.

Respectfully,

DrGunner

[uncle paulie]

Sorry you missed it, it's called Scope and Optics Gate which I see you have found.  This is where you can find anything specifically relating to these topics. I suppose we could just name it Optics....But then we'd likely get folks asking where is the "Scopes" gate.

pv

[WesBob]

I think what he was saying was maybe this should have its own main gate and the reviews could be a sub heading under the main optice and scope gate, instead of the other way around.

[Rob M]

Too many Gates as is .. no one knows where to post anything or even find Gates already in existence as demonstrated here...we need to vote on 10 gates to erase to be honest. Not trying to be rude just telling it how it is. nothing to do with Drgunner, even the veterans here have no idea where anything is supposed to be

[Rob M]

gracious. I run the desktop site on my phone.

[DrGunner]

Sorry you missed it, it's called Scope and Optics Gate which I see you have found.  This is where you can find anything specifically relating to these topics. I suppose we could just name it Optics....But then we'd likely get folks asking where is the "Scopes" gate.

pv

.

What OP is saying(i think) is that the scope/optics section is hidden under a few sub categories. Not that it dont exsist, but hard to find.  And i do agree... everytime i go to find this section, i end up going to google and searching "GTA scope optic" and it comes up with posts in this section.





As far as finding gates.... its also a pain on mobile using the "jump to:" , WAYYYYY to much scrolling and i always end up passing up where im trying to go....

That’s what I meant.
Sorry, I am highly educated but not always all that bright.
Maybe it’s just me, But I’ve been pretty active on many forums for many years, and never had this much trouble finding a subsection that for all intents and purposes is a rather major part of the shooting sports.
I did not mean to stir up any trouble here, and I certainly know all about over division of a shooting site, on the one I moderate on, I am currently responsible for 14 different subforums.
On that site, we certainly need to pare things down.

But my point in this case, is that the current position of the “Optics and scopes” section is hidden under a main heading that is a bit confusing, at least for me. Maybe I’m just getting old, but when I go to spin the dial to find the gate I’m seeking, I kind of expected a main heading relating to Scopes/Optics/Reflex and Dot sights. When I saw “Reviews” in the main heading, I moved on thinking that that was not the appropriate section I was seeking when asking advice about a scope for a particular rifle.

Whenever we run into a quandary like this on the place I moderate, we usually put it to a vote and let the people decide. That said, if the moderators on this site are happy with the way the Optics gate is situated, I certainly do not want to push. I have the upmost respect for all who volunteer here, the generous nature and helpful demeanor of this community speaks volumes about how the site is run and I am very thankful to the community and the moderator team for welcoming me here. The Pay it Forward gate that Dave/ezman604 started for me when I wanted to donate my Gamo Compact Target Pistol to a deserving member is a prime example of what I mean. That gate has exploded with people giving extras to each other, which makes me smile to see.
I just thought that a main “Scopes/Optics/Dot Sights” or whatever you want to call it should be given some consideration.

Respectfully, 

DrGunner

[DrGunner]

Too many Gates as is .. no one knows where to post anything or even find Gates already in existence as demonstrated here...we need to vote on 10 gates to erase to be honest. Not trying to be rude just telling it how it is. nothing to do with Drgunner, even the veterans here have no idea where anything is supposed to be

Rob- I didn’t see your post as rude, at all.
Just stating the facts as you see them.
I’m certainly not trolling or trying to rock the boat- just pointing out that a rather major sector of the site is difficult/confusing to find.
I don’t think that any new gates need to be added- a name change here and there would make things much clearer. Judging by others’ responses, I’m not the only one who thinks so- or in my case, not the only one with this type of navigational dyslexia.

FWIW, I get lost in shopping malls, too.
I can drive there and back better than anyone in the family, but once inside I am easily confused. I’ve taken to actually bringing my wife so that I don’t get lost, even though I swore I would not go shopping with her anymore after an incident when we were engaged 20 years ago.
  She dragged me through nine different shoe stores looking for “THE” shoes to go with a dress for a formal Drs ball. She never did find shoes she was 100% happy with before the ball.

Got to say, though – That dress and shoes looked amazing on her!

DrG

[Rob M]

its not easy ( shopping with the wife or navigating the forum )
I think the gates with sub gates are worse.. Generally , when i joined the forum I would bookmark info by posting a reply.. Then ,. when i needed to reference that later , id go to " my profile " then  " posts " , and i could scroll my own posts and find it quickly.. Now i have a few different strategies, But I dont categorize the info by gate anymore ( well not in my mind anyway ) and try to post in the most generalized gate such as " the darkside " etc

[DrGunner]

its not easy ( shopping with the wife or navigating the forum )
I think the gates with sub gates are worse.. Generally , when i joined the forum I would bookmark info by posting a reply.. Then ,. when i needed to reference that later , id go to " my profile " then  " posts " , and i could scroll my own posts and find it quickly.. Now i have a few different strategies, But I dont categorize the info by gate anymore ( well not in my mind anyway ) and try to post in the most generalized gate such as " the darkside " etc

I think the reason why it’s difficult to shop with the wife is inherent to our genetic roles in the universe. We were hunter/gatherers for at least 50,000 years. Men would go out and hunt, women, children and the elderly would gather nuts, roots, berries and anything else edible.
It’s only relatively recently in human history that agriculture and industry have removed the need to constantly hunt for food.  When I want something at the store, I pretty much research and know exactly what I want, trudge with purpose to exactly where that item is located, buy it, and get the heck out. More often than not, I don’t even go to brick and mortar stores. I buy 90% of what I need on Amazon.

My wife & daughter prefer to browse around and look at everything, checking prices and often going online to comparison shop. Drives me nuts.

That’s a great idea- bookmarking posts. I’ll use that trick for sure.

Which brings up another question. On other forums that I belong to, Clicking on any user profile often brings up navigational choices like:

“Show all posts by DrGunner”,

And more to the subject of my question-

“Show all threads started by DrGunner”.

Is there a way to Look at a list of all the threads you have posted yourself on this site? Or look at a list of threads posted by another member?

DrGunner

[Rob M]

good question Doc.. Im not really sure, but that would be useful since you could then track down all the posts started by a specific person regarding a topic. Agreed on the human transition , we forget how recent it was that food was paramount.. There was a presentation  not too long ago ( at ted x ) demonstrating how a person born in 1890 couldn't think in abstraction , since the reality of "here and now " was simply too real. Meanwhile , in 2020, kids are taught with abstract concepts daily/

[DrGunner]

good question Doc.. Im not really sure, but that would be useful since you could then track down all the posts started by a specific person regarding a topic. Agreed on the human transition , we forget how recent it was that food was paramount.. There was a presentation  not too long ago ( at ted x ) demonstrating how a person born in 1890 couldn't think in abstraction , since the reality of "here and now " was simply too real. Meanwhile , in 2020, kids are taught with abstract concepts daily/

I’ll watch that vid in its entirety. I love ancient history and evolution- and I’m a man of Faith.
Don’t wanna break the rules here but suffice it to say that I believe in both.

I recently watched a documentary about Neanderthals and humans. It was long thought that Homo sapiens killed off the Neanderthals,
But it turns out that it simply isn’t true. Advancements in genetic research have allowed us to prove that people still have Neanderthal genetic markers even today. They did not die out, but mixed with and interbred with human society. It’s also interesting how far back civilization and artwork goes. There are ancient ruins in parts of the Middle East with megaliths weighing many tons with carvings on them going back much longer than we previously thought civilization existed – literally pre-dating the Egyptian empire by several millennia.

Check out this vidoc on ancient pre-ice age civilizations that disappeared. At 11:46 in, they describe a site in Turkey called Gobëkli Tepe, which is 11,000 years old. It contains T shaped vertical megaliths covered in relief carvings, weighing 15-20 TONS- and they were created 7000 years BEFORE the great pyramids.



There’s also a REALLY interesting documentary on cave paintings that were recently found called “Cave of Forgotten Dreams”. The artwork that was found in that cave is actually incredibly beautiful by today’s standards, and shows overlapping forms that would have acted like looked like real motion when seen by only torchlight. IIRC, It’s estimated to be 15,000 years old. Unfortunately, I could not find a free version of it on YouTube, it did air on NetflixFor Free a few years back, but now it’s pay per view on YouTube and Amazon prime. It’s really worth a watch- if you dig around, you might find it free on YT.

I just derailed my own thread-

DrGunner

[Rob M]

ill watch it in the morning with coffee... I like theorizing how they did construction and made certain tools.

[Tater]

Which brings up another question. On other forums that I belong to, Clicking on any user profile often brings up navigational choices like:

“Show all posts by DrGunner”,

And more to the subject of my question-

“Show all threads started by DrGunner”.

Is there a way to Look at a list of all the threads you have posted yourself on this site? Or look at a list of threads posted by another member?

DrGunner

If you click on the small Chevron symbol in the upper right of the forum, it should expand and show those choices.

[DrGunner]

Which brings up another question. On other forums that I belong to, Clicking on any user profile often brings up navigational choices like:

“Show all posts by DrGunner”,

And more to the subject of my question-

“Show all threads started by DrGunner”.

Is there a way to Look at a list of all the threads you have posted yourself on this site? Or look at a list of threads posted by another member?

DrGunner

If you click on the small Chevron symbol in the upper right of the forum, it should expand and show those choices.

The chevron doesn’t work for me. 100% of my web browsing and forum activity is on iOS devices- iPhone 11 Pro Max plus, and an iPad Pro. I’m thinking mayhaps the chevron requires a double click from a mouse?

I tried the mobile version, but it’s no easier to navigate, there are fewer options, and the chevron does not even appear there.

Ah, well- I will start a file in my “Notes” app, and post a link to each thread that I start there. That way I can revisit them at will in the future.

Thanks for the input, brother!

DrG

[JungleShooter]

Suggestions for making our GTA forum even GreaTA:

🔶(1) +1 on having the optics gate more prominent.


🔶(2) There are two gates that frequently overlap:
🔸Airgun Gate:  Optics, Range Estimation, and Related Subjects
🔸Review Gates:  Scopes and Optics Gate
→Put them together?


🔶(3) There are too many gates and sub-gates ("child boards"). It's hard to find stuff....


🔶(4) The term child boards I have taken to mean these are the boards were children (minors) are posting, separate from the adults. For the longest time...! 🤣

→ I'm sure a better term could be found there..., sub-gate maybe?

→ Calling some sections "gates" and others "boards" adds to the confusion....



🔶 Thanks to GTA for being there for us! This is truly a great place!

Matthias 😊

[Lt. Dan]

gracious. I run the desktop site on my phone.

I do likewise,  mobile site was too confusing.  Too hard for me to find what I was looking for.

[lizzie]

Too many Gates as is .. no one knows where to post anything or even find Gates already in existence as demonstrated here...we need to vote on 10 gates to erase to be honest. Not trying to be rude just telling it how it is. nothing to do with Drgunner, even the veterans here have no idea where anything is supposed to be

Yessir....agreed.
We get a good many reported posts suggesting moving threads to different gates....these reports are almost always by someone besides the original poster.
I tend to assume that the OP placed it where he thought the subject would get a good discussion going, so if there is a way I can justify it, I leave the thread alone.
Now there ARE times when a thread gets put in the wrong gate and it was obviously a mistake that the OP did not intend, but my thoughts are- if someone wants to know what scope everyone thinks is best on a German magnum air rifle, he is probably going to want to ask in the German gate, where frequent readers are more likely to own that particular gun. To me, that is perfectly reasonable.

[ezman604]

We could keep on until the drop down menu of gates would be two pages long.

[Back_Roads]

 The sport has changed by leaps and bounds, I remember when the darkside was sparsely populated, and we had a hard time convincing people that they needed a better scope than the 4x 20 that they got for a dollar at a yard sale.
 We also had a similar situation with the Boolet casting gate/ board/page.
I'm not complaining, as my desk is just as cluttered by the and of a year 

[DrGunner]

We could keep on until the drop down menu of gates would be two pages long.

That’s actually what has happened to the site I moderate .

I was not suggesting adding any gates, at all. Perhaps just a title change – as it stands right now,

Optics/Scopes is hidden behind,

 “Air Guns and Related Accessories Review Gates”

This gives the reader the impression that the entire gate is dedicated to REVIEWS of Airguns and accessories.

If it read:

 “Air Guns, Related Accessories, Optics, and Review Gates”

I’d have found the scope section much quicker.

Simply moving the word “and”, adding a comma and the word “Optics” In the main title would make a lot more sense to me as it would give me the impression that I am going to find optics and reviews behind the gate.

I just wanted to point out an area I found rather confusing. Admittedly, it may be because I’m new that I had difficulty finding the gate.

 In the end, it’s your site and it’s a GREAT one-You obviously do not need my help in running it as the community and abundance of helpful people and information here speaks for itself.

Respectfully,

 DrGunner