I was doing what you described good sir, when I found a site called henryfirearms.org. I had just purchased a Henry Goldenboy in regular .22 caliber and wanted to learn more about the brand. Henry firearms .org was a privately owned forum owned by a fellow who liked the brand. I joined and liked the site and all the information that was shared there. It was also a great group of guys. I had time at that point in my life to spend some time on the internet. I had raised my two children by myself and had found the Goldenboy on a trip to visit my son at college. The .org site got spammed and the owner was the only adminsitrator. About 12 months after it went away, the owner sent out an email that explained what had happened and asked people to come back. Only a hand full came back. Sir Henry (Gene) and I PMed each other and vowed to keep breathing life into that forum. He and I were able to track down the owner a couple of times. He would not sell the site Gene told me. He made us admins but we could not control the whole site.ESquared wrote:Me, too. If you look at my profile, I've been a member here since December of 2016, which was not long after a lifelong friend of mine who had just bought a BBS .357 told me how great it was.
I Google searched the brand, somehow stumbled on this sight, joined up and lurked until I recently became a bona-fide owner, at which point I jumped in with both feet.
The only reason I bring all this up is that it's been SO helpful to me as a new owner to have this as a resource and how great it would be to grow membership and share this great group with more folks; and it strikes me as such as win/win that HRA would have a vested interest in becoming more active in helping grow membership here.
There may be a lot that I'm unaware of and there have probably been lots of conversations along these lines in private, so I'm not trying to over-step, just asking...
I was retired at the time and working part time. About two and half years ago, I went back to work full time, kept a part time job, took care of my aging parents and their farm, took care of camp, moved in with my fiance, prepared my house for sale and in my spare time, I started this forum when the .org site went away for the last time. I can only guess that the owner lost interest. Gene and I vowed to do what we could to make this work. I modeled it after the .org site. Dan at Henry was a member of the .org site and joined here. I asked him to donate some prizes for contests we ran and I gave him the winners name and address and Henry sent out the prizes. Gene and I own this site. Henry donates prizes when I ask. I asked Skinner sites to be a sponsor of the site because I had no idea how much it would end up costing me. Andy at Skinner sites agreed and told me how to bill him. I still list him as our sponsor, but I have yet to bill him. Gene has agreed to pay whatever part of his percentage of ownership costs. I still have yet to bill him too. It's not that expensive and I have been fortunate. I don't have a computer background and I don't have a lot of time to devote to the back room areas of the forum. I have reached out to some outstanding fellows that help moderate and administer this site. I asked Henry to give them all a gift after our first anniversary.
Dan at Henry reached out to me during my first year of this forum. I was interviewed for one of the Henry infomercials with the hosts and Mr. Imperato. I was described as a Henry Ambassador. A homegrown, grass roots Henry supporter that has no ties to the company. That interview didn't make the cut. A famous celebrity didn't make the cut either, so I'm not that worried about it. I've sent Mr. Imperato some emails and I was in the audience when they taped a double episode of Gun Guru's at NRA headquarters in VA in 2014. I was an admin on the .org site then. I had hoped to meet Mr. Imperato after the taping, but he had to leave.
Our last contest had prizes provided by Big Al. I haven't had contact with Dan at Henry in a while.
I hope Henry sells a lot of their products and stays a successful company. I appreciate that they are family owned and made in America. I support those companies. You will see a Buck knife section on the forum. I really like that company and it's products too. I have no connection to Buck knives. I'd like to think that CJ Buck might like what he sees here. I'd get a kick out of it if he and Mr. Imperato would be members here. I'm not too worried about it though.
Gene and I wanted to recreate the content of the .org site. That is done. We wanted to create the atmosphere of this forum more. It's a friendly oasis on the internet. There is never much for our moderators to do. We all get along here and have common interests. When I get around to it, we will start seeing more about Smith and Wesson handguns here. Why, because they are my favorite handgun and I have collected a lot of them. When I get a chance to get out shooting again, I want to get back into them.
This site is something I'm proud of. I am not the whole show, more just a watchman. The whole staff helps guide the place and keeps track of potential problems. Each member is approved by an admin because the spammers are all over, just wanting to come in and ruin any site. I have great people in place. We have great members who join and post here. A nice place to come and talk about almost anything.
So, long story short, Henry could take a more active role here, they could start their own site, they could remain right where they are, who knows. I think this works for them. I hope it does, but I'm not that worried about it. I'll continue to be an ambassador for Henry at no charge to them. Buck knives too.
I just realized that this site mirrors my favorite type of company........ Family owned and made in America.
I hope this explanation helps you and anyone else wondering about this site. Those are the reasons why. There are no advertisements, sometimes your pictures come out sideways, sometimes when you are logged on twice things happen. But you are here and so am I. I'm glad everyone is here. I'm not making anything off the site, just hoping it helps people. (After thinking about this post, I realized I do make something from this site. Friends.)