Arfcom is down 12% according to them.

also not a surprise,  based on the number of users who aren't renewing, banned,  post sliding etc.  It's pretty easy to see.

oh don't get me wrong,  I'm not saying the hide is dead,  not a bit.  And I get website stats fluctuate.  Hide won't go anywhere,  we both know that. And that's a good thing.  

I'm just saying that it will impact the quality of the site, and will *probably* negatively impact his revenue over time.  

Most websites exist on three revenue streams,  Ad Rev, Subscriptions and Content/Gear sales.  There's some websites that pull revenue from referral clicks but those tend to be aggregators like bonginoreport.com or Google front pages. Informational/Content sites like the Hide get most of their revenue from those three.

But ad rev, subscription and sales all depend on new users. there's a pretty static conversion number where most of the users who will become paying members have,  most of them who've bought training/Tshirts/dope cards have, and revenue will get static.

If the number of new users you draw in drops, and continues to decline, it's just less users to convert to subs or sell gear to. It's even less users to click on ads and sell impressions to ad firms.

You need pretty solid streams of unique and new visitors to keep those numbers growing, and if his numbers decline, his revenue will decline. He'll see a short term bump and the ones who wouldn't support will to offload stuff, but I suspect that will be short lived.  What'll happen is people will migrate sales to other sites. (just a hunch)

The Hide's not going anywhere, it's definitely not going out of business,  and it shouldn't, it's a fantastic resource with a LOT of great content, contributors and thinkers.  It'll always exist in some format. I mean hell, people are still playing Team Fortress 2 and Starcraft.

I just think this change will slow down the content, I think you'll see some user leakage. It'll get more boring and less new content as the ones who do stay, post what they have and it gets stale over time.

we'll see. I hope it doesn't. That'd be good. I just suspect you'll see it slow down over time due to that.

Some people.

To look at another old gun site from my past browsing history that did next to nothing for revenue and the board owner apparently lost interest,...FAL files.  

pre ETA, i had to take a quick look as I haven’t been able to see more than a hold my place page in about a year......,
It seems that someone rebuilt the site but the traffic appears near dead.  


Threads I remember from 7 years ago on front pages.

I’m definitely bummed about the EE on the hide.  Stuff is still getting posted for sale but not nearly what was there before.   Is what it is.  I do think a yearly membership would have been better. That’s something I’d do vs a monthly subscription

What's even worse is how many accounts are getting hacked. Scam ads popping up like crazy. They're pretty convincing sometimes to.

Stopped going to snipershide when they transitioned to the new website, didn't realize it was still a thing until this thread.

This sounds more like a pit thread or gd thread…

The scout thing when we had to re-register.  I was extremely active on the old site.

Why hasn’t this been moved to GD? The purse swinging in here is juvenile.

How many accounts get hacked here and post scam ads? I'm sure it happens but I haven't seen it like on the hide. Seems most everyday someone's account is hacked, if not multiple. Maybe offer some insurance with the pay to play EE? At least it's mostly low dollar stuff.

Why have you let this thread hang around here in tech? Lol

If I ever plan to sell any high-dollar PRS stuff it's where I'd go.

I've paid far more in GunBroker fees selling shit there, $20 a month is reasonable to help a good resource running.

It’s been several months since this thread was made. What’s the current opinion?

I'm sure its made no difference, but I haven't been through the classifieds there in months....and I used to check it at least every couple days.

Lol no. It's sooo slow now. I used to buy like 90% of my stuff from there. It's so slow and so little turnover there.

It's fine, it'll continue, but it's a shell of what it used to be

What’s the point? The user base there is nearly all also here.

It already is.

Most members aren’t going to pay the fee to sell a few bags of brass, or a couple of boxes of bullets and that makes sense.

For big ticket items, then $20 isn’t that hard to swallow.

Chris

It's pretty simple, they are going to lose those people because there will be less advertised on the EE since 80+% aren't going to pay $20/mo to list. It won't be worth browsing if there isn't much for sale.

$20/mo is laughable and ridiculous. And yes, it is what it is, but the site traffic will prove out that it was a dumb move, as many have expressed.

Ahhh ol’ Frank Galli, the never-was-been that walks around as if he is Carlos Hathcock. Instead of “snipers hide” he should have named it “Navy Boat”, he has more real world experience in those.

it's slowed down bad.  Worse than even a few months ago. I'm sure they aren't losing member numbers, but their traffic stats have to be way down.

have heard people mention it at matches several times. I've gone from daily or 2x daily visits to about weekly, maybe every other week. And the primary stuff I was buying doesn't change much.   if I filter on left hand,  maybe 20 percent of the given items will turn over in a week.   Months ago the first page would turn over multiple times a day.

It might be making them happy, maybe it's less heartache, or less stress, but it's made the site a whole lot less worth visiting often to chase deals.

I would love to see them go to a 20/year, or 25/year to post. It would kick up the numbers posted again. There hasn't risen yet a great alternative, but I see an uptick in long range stuff here at arfcom, accurateshooter and a few other more niche websites, where before most of it was concentrated at the Hide.

Hopefully it goes back to that eventually

When I was looking to buy a scope or optic, I always checked there right after here. Especially for specific or less popular but quality scopes.

If it even pops over at all anymore the threads are ancient. That EE has slowed down real BAD and finding what you’re looking for is more miss than hit anymore.

I'm honestly surprised that pics aren't a rule here. Like at least prove you have what your selling, and show the condition it's in.

Edit: I don't use that site so I guess it doesn't matter to me.

No, not totally, but the px is a big driver of visits, at least for me.

Still visit, still great knowledge, I just wind up there a lot less because I go to other places to find stuff.

It'll work itself out. I think it's actually picking back up a little recently.
Hopefully they eventually go to like a 20/yr model, or even 50/yr would be better.

But either way, market will solve it. People just post other places if they don't want to pay the fee. I would just rather see that traffic and growth at the hide, vs other places. I prefer it over the alternatives generally