Re: “There was a time not so long ago when a post asking material recommendations for any piece of gear would have been immediately be answered with a swarm of opinions. Now, nothing but silence.”
This is the MYOG forum; that is, Make Your Own Gear.
Naturally, you won’t get opinions on purchased gear – that is for the GEAR forum.
Materials, yes – And I never cease to find excellent recommendations for materials on MYOG, in addition to designs and construction techniques.
Also, have had no problems using Mozilla Firefox as a browser (lots of problems with IE).
And I’ve gotten better help with problems since the new site was started. Very pleasant people to deal with.
So not sure what you are getting at here. PM replies don’t work for me, so I ask folks to provide an email address if they PM me. A number of people have had this problem, even Richard Nisley posted about it. Not a deal breaker for me – don’t mind sticking an email address on an original post if there is not better option. If that is abused, well, spamming and blocking filters have progressed greatly.
Have posted a number of DIY gear items over the years, and greatly appreciate those who do likewise. That is of course the essence of this forum. Right now, Trekking season has begun, so there may be less posts because more folks are out there. And for those of us who aren’t, there is a reluctance to post big projects when less people will see them. Several have commented that my posts were missed in the trekking season. So I’ll post some mod projects for now, and leave the big projects, like a pack and a tent, for the late fall and winter and more readers. That way, the gear will also get better tested before posting.
As for the post about MYOGers not being as concerned about weight – I’ve always had lighter MYOG gear than commercially made. But big start-from-scratch gear projects usually take a lot of time, and it is nice to also have a life. So what this forum needs is for more folks to build and post. It does seem like there was more of this a number of years ago. But this is the only site I’ve been able to find where one can post a long article on a gear project, complete with photos. I’m not discouraged about the forum, and bet we will see more very innovative projects come to life here.
And for those who just want to chat, don’t mind it a bit. Happy Trails!
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