Other military suport sites...

[font=Verdana]Hey everyone it's Seaman Recruit Sorensen here. I just wanted to say thanks to everyone on this site for all the help and support that is here. I've been a member of many other military support sites and they all suck. The people there are so mean to eachother. Someone will ask a question and the whole group will just gang up on that person and cut them down. This site has been so helpful with resources and support and most of all RESPECT. I just wanted to say thanks to you all for keeping it real and helping eachother out. That's what these sites are all about anyway! Anyway, thanks everyone! :o[/font]

Yes, I agree it seems as though we have a good group of people growing here. We obviously cant tell people how to act on the site so we are very thankful that our users are being helpful and respectful.

Glad to hear the conduct here at MyArmedForces is they way you describe it.

Like Mike said, the other sites are crap. There are 2 key reasons why this site is far better than the crap that's out there today.

1. As Mike said, it was built from the ground up.
2. Dennis was in the Air Force, so he has a very good idea of what us military folk want and what makes sense.

No other so-called military community sites out there have that.

Well as for this site, I have not been here long, but so far it seems okay and a nice place to visit and talk some.

However, I would have to disagree that there are no other good sites out there. I happen to belong to one that is very large and yes it can get out of hand and sometimes folks do some of the things that you mention.

I happen to be a Moderator on such a site and I have to say that for the size of place it is, we do our best to keep things calm. When you have over 3 million folks that are registered and over 300 or more online at any given time, you are not going to find everyone playing nice, which is the reason for MOD's.

The site I belong to is very large, but there is a lot of good folks there that help each other out. I have made some very good friends there and have lost some very good friends that have served there country to the highest calling. I would not say they belong to a garbage site.

I hope this site stays nice and that you dont experience problems that do happen on very large sites, but if this site grows to be as big, you will have them. Its how you deal with those folks and how much effort you put into it to make it a nice place that makes a good site.

You will never be able to garantee that everyone that comes here will be nice. That is the reason for Moderator's on bigger sites, with the abiltity to monitor and if need be, suspend someones right to be here or there.

I wish you much luck on this site, but calling all other sites out there garbage is a good way to lose folks too. I will admit after reading these comments, I am not sure I would recommend this place right now. I have many Vets that are older and they wouldnt want someone calling there work on another site garbage.

Some of the work there is to help Vets and Active Duty with problems. We have support groups, we call to check on folks that may be having trouble, and I and several others have even met with and went to check on members.

We do have our TROLLS, POSERS, and DISRUPTERS, but that is what I and other MODS are for, to stop those folks from disrupting our forums and discussion rooms.

I have been there for many years, I have over 8500 posts there and I dont think the site is garbage at all. If not for some of the folks there and there help, I would have had a very rough time with some things, they are there for me when I need them, as I am there for them.

I see nothing wrong with wanting to promote your site, but to say all others are bad is just wrong and very uninformed of what goes on there. Just because you had a bad experience there doesnt mean that is the norm for that place. When I see someone doing that, they will be in trouble. We are all human, and as such, some are nice, and some are not.

I hope you take this in a positive way, it is not meant to slam you or the good folks here. I work very hard at helping out on that site and I do it for free, as Mods, we are not payed for our time, we do it to help out.

I look at it like this, would you want a member from here going to another site and calling your place garbage?

Thank you.

Mike,

Actually you CAN tell people how to behave. It's called moderating.

Like Thankuvets, I also am a moderator at the other site, which is huge. (Ray, we have over 8 million members now). That site was also built from the ground up and has members from all over the world.

Ray, several of our friends and I came here to help show our support to the troops, families and supporters. We are strong believers in our troops.

You and Dennis are doing a great job in building up this site. Keep up the good work, but don't bash other sites. They aren't all bad...

8 million? Really?

I havent really checked in awhile. Wow, I knew I was pretty busy lately. :D

I have to agree, bashing other sites is not cool. You could gain alot of new folks from other sites, but some will not come here if they feel like your bashing them on other sites.

That is how I took it, I dont think the work I do there is bad, its hectic, its fast, and yes I may make mistakes, but we do our best to insure a good site.

I believe Mike was referring to other military networking sites. Not ALL sites. And we didn't name any names :)

I see several times the words all other sites are garbage, maybe I am blind, but that is pretty obvious to me.

Network or other its still bashing, and the site I come from started as nothing, and has grown very large.

You may not have named names, but when you generalize, you group them all together then I take it you mean all.

Just my take on it.

I belong to a couple of other military sites and I don't see it as "bashing". What I see is when people come on asking for help, and they're given answers they don't like and/or aren't prepared to hear, they get defensive. Sometimes the original poster (OP) doesn't give all the information necessary to form the necessary answer. Really, one can only answer based on what was asked. AND if you're going to post on a forum, you HAVE to take the good with the bad.

The one main forum I'm on - personal attacks are not permitted. The moderators see to that and they will edit and/or delete your post if they see the need for it. Cussing, to a point, is not permitted - if you can't say it on the radio, you can't say it on the forum. People can have civilize conversations with one another without all the name-calling.

I don't necessarily agree with everything that I read, and there's a lot of BS out there, no doubt. I try and help new parents coming on the board who have kids off to Basic and their frantic because their "baby" has left home. I know what that feeling is like. I offer other advice too - and that's all it is - advice.

There's a network of friends as well. I have some forums that I call my second family. I would like to add this site to my other sites, but if I continue to see bashing and put-downs, I'll call the BS on this one and just delete it from my files. It won't be worth my time.

When I was with my ex boyfriend i joined a girlfriend support site and well there's a reason I'm not there anymore.

After my ex deployed I was in pretty rough shape. Not living near post I knew no one that could understand the emotions and I recieved zero support. after 3 months I joined a site for family, spouses, significant others and friends. From day 1 I was treated as less than because my soldier didn't marry me before he deployed. They continually made reference to the fact that I wouldn't understand because I was just an Army girlfriend. So the one place I thought I could turn ended up making me feel more alone.

This site is the only place where I can talk about how I feel, and have people understand me. I hate it when friends ask how I'm doing while he's at his base 4,000 miles away from me, or how I feel about his being redeployed. All I really want to do it scream "HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL YOU EFFiN MORON?!" This has been an amazing place for me to just come and vent and get advice and comfort (unbelievably) from strangers who know how I'm feeling and actually care about my situation. I'm not being asked so that you can be nice to me, I feel as though I'm being asked cause you kinda care. I did kinda have one bummer on here. Some guy on here who is STATIONED AT THE SAME BASE AS MY BOYFRIEND was trying to get me to come see him in Alaska and hang out with him and sleep with him from 4,000 miles away. That pissed me off a bit, but I just as easily deleted him as I got his message. Men really do sometimes only think with their SOUTHERN heads, don't they?? Anyway, the site is amazing, and I keep telling my military friends and family of military friends about it and they seem to love it. I appreciate all that this site brings, and the AMAZiNG people on here.

From the City of Brotherly Love:

RaeLynn - xo0x