For the old timers, have the questions/discussions on RallyPoint improved, maintained, or decreased in quality over the years?

LTC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:20:43 -0500

Through the years RallyPoint has continued to grow and add sponsors, etc. as any budding business. Has this improved, maintained, or decreased the quality of questions/discussions over the years?

Response by CPT Jacob Swartout made Feb 22 at 2017 12:23 AM

CPT Jacob Swartout — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:23:36 -0500

LTC Private RallyPoint Member I think they have improved and been more informative.

Response by SFC George Smith made Feb 22 at 2017 12:26 AM

SFC George Smith — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:26:07 -0500

I can tell toy in the last 4 Months the majority are Political and they are going down Hill Fast...

Response by MAJ Bryan Zeski made Feb 22 at 2017 12:44 AM

MAJ Bryan Zeski — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:44:27 -0500

I'm going with decreased and I think it's because of the great divide we're had over the election. I feel like there used to be about a 50/50 split between military-specific topics and other topics (politics, technology, etc) - but now it's more of a 80/20 split - 80% politics/party-bashing and 20% stuff.

I think the quality of the conversations are probably about the same on average, but I think it's really hit or miss - sometimes we can have great reasonable and respectful - even when heated - conversations. Other times, the "topics" are thinly veiled troll- or circle jerk- bait.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 12:49 AM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 00:49:46 -0500

LTC Private RallyPoint Member I hold out hope that the political posts will decrease. I am seeing more active duty service men and women submitting posts which is very good news. I am also seeing more responses from civilians which is also good. We have civilian supporters who provide good feedback and are here to help us. We also have potential recruits, who we may be able to guide to a successful military career.

Response by SFC Joseph Weber made Feb 22 at 2017 1:44 AM

SFC Joseph Weber — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 01:44:12 -0500

Doing a study based on a small sample I think it's about the same. My data set was you. So I would maintain that the rating is still somewhere between slightly odd and semi hilarious.

Response by SN Greg Wright made Feb 22 at 2017 1:50 AM

SN Greg Wright — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 01:50:07 -0500

Well I remember when you were a mere wet-eared Captain! :) Does that make me an old timer?? Anyway. I think the election kind of wrecked RP for a while. It's all about politics, now, salted with the occasional 'not politics' posts. I try to contribute to that side of things. I really, really think that the 'new' question/link/update thing is a step down. For example, I have a lot of things that I think are unique to me, and unknown to most of the RP crowd...that I want to share, but RP made it nearly impossible with the new system. Anyway.

Response by LCDR Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 4:27 AM

LCDR Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 04:27:50 -0500

Without question, decreased. That, and the site went from being a veterans' forum to being a right-wing message board.

Response by TSgt Joe C. made Feb 22 at 2017 5:46 AM

TSgt Joe C. — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 05:46:31 -0500

Minus the political BS, I think it's a good place!

Response by Stephanie Jones made Feb 22 at 2017 6:36 AM

Stephanie Jones — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 06:36:03 -0500

I'm more of a newbie (last spring?) So, around a year. Honestly, I can not give an opinion since In not an "oldie". Sure, I feel the boldness creeping on me every day, but not the answer you're looking for lol

Response by Stephanie Jones made Feb 22 at 2017 6:37 AM

Stephanie Jones — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 06:37:14 -0500

*oldness see, I told you! JK, my phone and I don't always get along.

Response by PO1 John Johnson made Feb 22 at 2017 6:41 AM

PO1 John Johnson — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 06:41:38 -0500

I'll let you know after a few years!

Response by Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen made Feb 22 at 2017 7:32 AM

Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 07:32:01 -0500

Gotten way to political IMO.

Response by MSgt Neil Greenfield made Feb 22 at 2017 7:58 AM

MSgt Neil Greenfield — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 07:58:55 -0500

As Sgt Gregory Lawritson noted, there are a lot of unverified servicemembers here that tend to throw a lot of Molotov cocktails here. Just like in Linkedln where there are fake profiles used for "social engineering", the same could be said for RallyPoint. It's just like the stolen valor issue. Unless your verified, how does anyone know that someone who's unverified is not a veteran.
I would feel better about an anonymous veteran who's verified posting something than one who is not.
At the very least, an unverified veteran should have their posting ability curtailed to, let's say 5 per month?

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 8:20 AM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:20:27 -0500

When I first started skulking around 2-3 years ago there were a lot more advice seeking and friendly, humorous banter. Now when I log in I see more arguments focused on politics and current events. I do kind of miss the old format of being able to choose from a list of topics to browse instead of just choosing from New, trending, recently updated, etc.

By the way, did we ever figure out if a 2LT should salute a 1LT?

Response by SGT Ben Keen made Feb 22 at 2017 8:29 AM

SGT Ben Keen — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 08:29:19 -0500

As one of the first members of RallyPoint, I feel I should weigh in here on this interesting topic.

It is no secret that RallyPoint has exploded since it's launch 5 years ago. We went from a small group of users to having over 1,000,000 members with thousands of active logins per day. It is also no secret that because of this volume of traffic, things have changed. When RallyPoint first launched, we only had the forum, there was no "share a link" or "share an update" option. But when these features were added we saw a jump in posts. Now, don't get me wrong, I think these features are great. Sometimes you just want to share an interesting link or thought with just your connections here on RallyPoint but I think some members have lost sight of RallyPoint is all about.

When the election mess first started, the RallyPoint User Admins got to talking. We knew it was going to get crazy here. People have been more opinionated over this election than any other; at least that is how I felt. And things only continued to get worse within the political space. With the flood of hashtags, Facebook pages, twitter accounts and everything else, people were voicing their thoughts about everything surrounding the election. And that behavior continued onto RallyPoint. Now, I will say as one of the first 30,000 members to join RallyPoint, the thing I like about this site is that I can come here and voice my thoughts so I was okay with this. What I wasn't okay with was the increasing numbers of personal attacks sent between people here. That's like fighting with your family. The great thing about RallyPoint is the huge number of different thoughts and ideas so why personally attack someone just because he/she doesn't see something exactly like you do? As I said before, how boring would this world be if we all thought the same?

Following the transition of power from Obama to Trump, I was holding onto hope that things would return to normal. Heck, I was even hoping for a "Should a 2LT Salute a 1LT" type discussion but instead these behaviors have continued. And as a senior User Admin, I been spending a good part of my time working with other admins like SSG Carlos Madden, SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4", SGM Erik Marquez, SrA Edward Vong and LTC Kevin B. to help maintain damage control around here.

Now, I know I've rambled on log enough and I'm sure 90% of the people have stopped reading this but I have to end with this. The only way we can see a return is to be the change. Over the last few years, I've slowly moved away from posting discussions until I have a good idea. People have been chasing points in a game where the points don't matter. If you don't want to see the political craziness then start coming up with some ideas of discussions that will help and will push us forward. Just like in the military, we will not just lay down and take it. Be that change.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 9:08 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 09:08:32 -0500

I started on this site a few years ago to answer questions for people and give mentorship a few times. I enjoyed that the debates were civilized, usually educated, and points were well thought out.
I abandoned this site for months because of all the shit-posting, bickering between far-left and far-right vets, and lots of disrespectful name calling all around. Then there's all the fake news that keep getting posted over and over again.

Response by SSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 11:32 AM

SSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:32:25 -0500

I'm not an RP old timer, though I have been on for about 2 1/2 years. I would like to see the discussion section get moved to a vbulletin style forum. That allows users to control what they interact with. Put a politics forum in, and delete any political threads that get started outside the politics forum. I know that RP has responded to this suggestion in the past by saying they weren't going to consider it. So at minimum I would like to be able to have some control over my feed. Allow me to add tags that I DON'T want to see. I have also added tags that allow me to follow certain subjects, but if people don't tag their discussions the same way I would, I don't get to see them.

I do understand that one of the issues I have with RP is that I'm using it as a discussion forum, which isn't directly in line with RPs goals.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Feb 22 at 2017 11:48 AM

CAPT Kevin B. — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 11:48:01 -0500

The questions fall into four groups.
1. Too lazy to Google it themselves.
2. Whining or Wannabe.
3. Political crap.
4. Interesting and worthwhile.
In that order. Army "Patchmania" usually falls in the first two. VA whatever is 80/20 between 1/2 and 4. The Wannabe stuff is typically "I got kicked out because I was a lazy Dumb A but now want to go Ranger. How do I get back in?"
So I look at RP as worthwhile if you have good scanning and filtering ability. Some of the best questions come from newbies who want to get off to a good start. I always ignore anything that is the same poster belching forth 5 questions in 5 minutes. So the RP content can shift around a bit, but I expect it to continue to be a reflection of the user membership at any given point in time.
Results vary as our clocks are wound differently.

Response by CPT Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 2:38 PM

CPT Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 14:38:42 -0500

I just logged in for the first time in...not sure how long...and I am pretty disappointed at what I see. It's not just "political posts," it's that people with "Anonymous" accounts are putting up dozens of posts linking to known fake news sites. This happened in the past (how many "Obama is Coming for Your Guns" articles kept popping up?), but now I'd say fake articles out number actual articles 5 to 1. A "What would happen if..." thread can stimulate interesting comments, but posting something that is untrue and then getting people spun up to take the bait isn't anything I'm interested in engaging with...I feel like it has turned into a blog version of Jerry Springer.

The next thing I noticed were lots and lots of posts from non-V/SMs. Recruiters, marketers of all kinds, all trying to take my money. I always wanted RP to be successful and I know that V/SMs are not really in the position to fund the whole project, so keep the ads, but put them off to the side and make it clear that it's an add. Don't let these people start pointless threads that they are just using to generate a marketing list. If other people are happy, that's good, but I feel like my community is basically gone.

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made Feb 22 at 2017 5:12 PM

Cpl Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 22 Feb 2017 17:12:49 -0500

I noted that the proselytizing got out of hand for a while, which was a major reason I stepped away from RallyPoint for quite some time.

It would seem that Politics has become the dominant type of conversation now.

Though this is a "Military" social network it is a social network non-the-less, which means that the threads will follow the current socio-political climate.

My parents told me the quickest way to lose friends is to discuss religion and politics. It would seem that a great many people on RallyPoint believe they have too many friends which need to be culled.