Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Welcome to EX All Outdoors Coffee shop users

This is a wonderful site I'm sure you will all come to enjoy. Too bad AO has shut down but you will have a great stay here with these folks. Be sure to post a note telling us your here. Don't just come here to read the posts. On this site we all have an opinion to share!jj<P>------------------<BR>The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have.

Hi JJ,<P>I have seen you here often. I left AO quite a few months ago. If I remember correctly, you and Rimrock were still there in the state by state section as hosts. <P> I expressed myself to AO on several occasions that if they didn't stop messing with the format they would lose me and many others. They apparently didn't listen and only have themselves to blame.<P>I still e-mail many of the old AO folks. Rimrock and I have met in Bozeman the last two summers. I intend to see him again on the 7th of July. I hunt with Walt Ordog. I have a very active dialogs with Jumptrap. <P> This site is a good one. Sure liked reading about Big Sky's adventure with Big Stick hunting black bears in AK.<P>Take care, see you around.....Ross

Hi JJ - Another Ex AO has joined the site.

Yep, I got Lotts of opinions (Pun intended) along with JJ. Sad about all Outdoors, but I left them in the dust many months ago. I sent several emails to Linda with suggestions on how to improve the site and atract folks, but it just got more complicated to view and post, so, On the Road for me. I really believe a successful site has to be run by a person that understands guns, hunting, fishing, the outdoors, etc., to be successful. Hats off to Rick Bin for this site!

I bailed on them many moons ago. The constant format change was a real bugger, but when they required you to re-register, I elected not to.

Well it took an extreme effort on Rick's part, but happily I have made the transition. JJ won't much care for that though!

Why is that slamfire? <P>------------------<BR>The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have.

Welcome over gang!...what ya say we drag a log and tell a story or two? <BR>DS

JJHACK Followed your link and here I am. I'll have to look this place over and see what I think. I left the coffee shop years ago for the same reasons. I do remember tho that the coffee shop was the place to be three to five years ago. Met a lot of good old boys that I have great respect for, there. Too many fence sitters out there these days for me. Is this place any thing like what the cf was years ago?????? Gene

Between this spot and the campfire there's alot of us AO'ers checking out the site. Sometimes the favorite old hunting spot dries up and you just gotta find a new one. This one looks good so far. DC

Gents,<P>I am confused about the demise of the "coffe shop"? I was just at the site and it appears to be working fine. What am I missing here? Thanks in advance.

HeadHunter: We were told they will be shutting down in the near future. All of us were let go early this week and there is only a couple people organising the end from what we have been told. I guess the new software and the huge advertising sunk them. The "forum" was only a part of the whole business and it will be missed. <P>I worked for them for quite a while and had a good time. I wish it could have been different but they seem to have had one to many software changes and one to many employee's leave who knew how to run it. <P>The final straw was the 100's of internet sites for hunters now. When AO came on line there were probably 2-3 sites for us to do this. That site would have a post on each thread every minute or two and fill the screen with new threads every day. Near the end they might have had 15 posts a day on the "big Game" forum I would guess Less then 1/10th what they had 3-4 years ago.<P>They may linger, and they may keep the forum section only? We were all let go this week and not given a date for final closure?jj<P>------------------<BR>The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything they have.

Present. The dog ate my homework, though ;-).<BR>A few more thoughts on AO; Yeah, there are a lot more forums now, but the Coffee Shop would have stayed popular if they hadn't made it so user-unfriendly there for a time. Also, as far as myself and I'm sure lots of others were concerned, the Coffee Shop WAS AllOutdoors. I almost never looked at any of the other stuff, and darn sure never bought anything from the Store. I expressed to 'em more than once that I thought they were losing sight of what brought people to the place. I know they had to make money, but I think they neglected their core audience and overreached in other areas. Not too unique amongst dot-coms, unfortunately. For a time, though, several years ago, there was kind of a magical "meeting of the minds" there, and I'm sure we'll all remember that fondly. But, that was then, this is now, and now we're here :-).<P>------------------<BR>Bill O'Connell<BR>Cowboy Heaven Consulting<BR>http://www.cowboyhvn.com

Encee from AO checking in. Been here for a while, but haven't posted very much.<P>Neil

JJHACK,<P>Thank you for the information, I will be sorry to see it go. I hop around to the different hunting forums myself. When one doesn't have something interesting to read, another usually does. I am not as loyal to one forum as some seem to be. At least this joint seems to be doing okay.

My first visit to AO sent me to the about AO section. I read along and thought to myself this guy is biting off more than he can chew!Its a big order to jump in to the mailorder hunting/fishing supply business in the shadow of Bass Pro and Cabelas.<P>The coffe shop was super when it worked( which was rarely). I met lots of friends there, been on many hunting trips all over the country with folks I met there, and hosted a dozen or more people from AO at my lodge.Unfortunately as someone pointed out earlier, I never bought a thing from AO. They simply didnt have the inventory , prices, and smooth online and mailorder catalogs that their competitors have and have had for years.<P>I did apprieciate the chance AO gave me to work for them and host their SC forum and as a result of my involvement with the forum we had a SC hunting online hog hunting trip with 15 members this year.We also got together for a deer hunt and a turkey hunt.The coffe shop served its true purpose in my opinion and I am gratefull for the friends I made at AO.<P>Came over here about six months back and havent been around much but it seems my online hunting time will be spent right here.<P>John Coit

This does look like a nice site with knowledgeable people aboard. I could see myself visiting here often. Right now though I&#8217;d like to clear up a couple of misconceptions. Alloutdoors&#8217; failures had nothing to do with the Coffee Shop. The forum went through some changes and one software package didn&#8217;t work well. It was quickly replaced by what is the best and most advanced software of any outdoor site. Members had options other sites only dream about. For example, how many sites are there where you can post photos directly from your files without having to go through a photo service? The Coffee Shop lost some members during the software changeover, all sites do. But membership has been soaring since and just passed 11,000. The problem was simply that Alloutdoors spent more money than they were taking in. The Internet is still young and a lot of people are trying to figure out how to make money on it. Most fail. But let&#8217;s be clear, the Coffee Shop didn&#8217;t fail. The Alloutdoors store failed. The Coffee Shop was just a victim of that failure. Anyway, didn&#8217;t mean to get on a soapbox and I&#8217;ll be dropping by in the future for more pleasant discussions.<P>Dan Johnson

It is great to see some old names here that I haven't seen for a long time on the old Coffee Shop. I first went on that site in '96 and loved it. I was not a frequent poster ,but when I did post it was under the name Bobcat. I had to rejoin under a different name when they made a software change. When the new administrators/owners started messing with the format and software they really blew it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. BTW, JJ, I have purchased 6 goat kids and am raising them to train for pack goats. They are Alpine, Alpine/LaMancha, and Saanen/LaMancha crosses. Will let you know how it goes as they get older.

jj,dan and others, glad to see you here! Never know when you may need an expert to help out from time to time.

It's sad to see The CoffeeShop close down..<P>It was my first hangout when I first got internet access in '97 and I still have some good friends that I met there...<P> I remember many of you from those days... Rick Bin, Ross Leggett, JJHack, Gene Sutton, Dan Johnson and many others including the irascible Jump Trap......<P> This is a good place to hang out. There are lots of friendly and knowledgeable folks here and I now spend most of my internet time bewteen this Board and HuntAmerica.....