I’m convinced that sometimes stuff just happens. It really wasn’t part of the original design for The First Shot, for example, to include a user bulletin board. Therefore, when we added the bulletin board back in May, we didn’t have high expectations. A few months later, the bulletin board has doubled traffic to the odcmp.org site, which now takes 800 to 1,000 hits a day.

Some observations in the brief history of a backyard communication paradigm shift:

• Readers tend to set up their own rules: I may be the editor, but I really haven’t done any editing. There hasn’t been a need. Certainly, we had concerns early on that people would misuse the site—using foul language, writing page long rants against selected politicians, selling firearms, etc. Interestingly, the people who regularly use the bulletin board, though, seem to have set their own protocols.

• Question and answer: Shooters have apparently fostered the habit of helping each other, and the content of the bulletin board reflects this. For example, one reader asked “What is a good solvent to remove cosmoline from metal and/or wood?” This one question received 23 replies, a range of solutions (including mineral spirits, Easy Off oven cleaner, and Scrubbing Bubbles), a World War II story (“It was winter in France and I was detailed to help clean the cosmoline from some replacement .50 caliber machine guns. We opened the box and inside was a solid block of cosmoline so hard that you could cut shavings off of it with a knife.”), and a host of comments. Editor’s Note: we don’t recommend putting your rifle in the dishwasher “while the wife is shopping.”

• A well-informed readership: The Internet has clearly created a means for gun collectors and shooting enthusiasts to swap information without having to wait for the next clinic or shooting match. What’s really interesting is the level of intelligence traveling across phone lines. As Junior Royster at the CMP Store mentioned to us while doing research for last month’s issue, the CMP doesn’t have to advertise when a new shipment of M1 rifles becomes available at the CMP Store—a coast-to-coast alert goes out across the Internet.

Thus far, the bulletin board has offered only two categories (Ideas and Opinions, and Feedback). It’s time to add to the list:

• Story Line: We can’t print everything, but we do like stories and features from readers.

• Competitions and Events: Someday, on-line bulletin boards may become the most effective way to promote activities. It already is the least expensive.

Mike Wallace is President of Spectrum Research & Consulting, and holds a PhD in Mass Communications from Florida State University. Dr. Wallace serves as editor of The First Shot. He can be reached at spectrumresearch@earthlink.net.