Suggestion: Range Sticky

[jdlv4_0]

Could we get a sticky with PA range listings in the Ranges section?

PA State Game Land Public Range information

Ranges listed by the NRA located in PA (Private and Public).

[IV_Warrior]

Why?

1. There's a whole forum section already devoted to ranges.
2. Nobody reads sticky threads, anyway.

[headcase]

I think that's not a bad idea. Open a thread asking for location, public or private, membership fees/hourly rate, indoor/outdoor, and contact info. Sticky the list in the range section. Hell, I'll start it, and keep it up to date, all the admins or mods will have to do is sticky it. It is a pain in the ass to search ranges on the web, most sites aren't updated or are way vague...

[jdlv4_0]

Why?

1. There's a whole forum section already devoted to ranges.
2. Nobody reads sticky threads, anyway.

Because there are 283 threads in the Range section, the NRA website lists 267 ranges, I doubt they are all covered here.

That list does not include the State Game Land Ranges, the link for the State Game Lands is just a good reference to have, when people ask for directions on how to get there, etc. etc. If you know about and read the stickies (I do) you can always use it as a reference without hunting down the SGL site, unless you all ready have it book marked.

[Montanya]

I like the idea, I think it makes it much faster to find info on local ranges for peeps that might be outta state or new to PA.

[tl_3237]

Having a range list is a great idea. When I moved from PRNJ last year it took me forever to find the local ranges, points of contact, etc. Although I joined one local club I've been trying to locate another and, unless the range has a website, it difficult to determine their facilities, costs, etc. The NRA database is not always up to date particularly with regards to point of contact.

If we had a common place to post info of the various ranges that PAFOA members can provide their first hand info that would be great.

We even has a database volunteer (thanks Headcase). If there was a common questionairre that was filled out for each range that would facilitate the list. It could include such info as location (county & nearest town) range description (distance, # firing points, firearm type, indoor/outdoor, target types, restrictions), amenities (clubhouse, lavatories, picnic area, etc), cost of membership, point of contact for membership, membership requirements (attend meetings, workparties, etc), guest restrictions, hours of operations, general comments. I'm sure there are other categories but these are the types of questions I would ask when seeking a new club/range.

[jdlv4_0]

Staff, Thanks for the "Sticky" : http://www.pafoa.org/forum/ranges-18...es-county.html

And a direct thanks to Headcase for making it happen! Kudos!

[headcase]

Happy to help ........Just so everyone is aware, with Pa. Patriot's help, I started a new thread and the old one was locked. The reason is a character limit in each post. A few days ago, I reached that limit and as a result, began stripping away the non essential information from each listing, while scrambling around trying to come up with a solution. I have broken up the list into three consecutive posts A-I, J-R, and S-Z. I also put up a county map at the top - per suggestion in the thread(and then I stole it from one of Frenchy's posts ) I may start adding more info per listing again, but I think that if the place has a website, I will just post the basics and let you guys do the looking

Also, if you notice a dead link or some other thing wrong, please PM me and let me know so I can fix it. Thanks.

[Vortex]

I may start adding more info per listing again, . . . .

A modest proposal, if you will.

I think this would take buy in from Dan and the Mods, but I'm hoping that the advantage of the following suggestion is self evident on it's face. The issue of finding a range to shoot at has two primary components (in my experience), that I shall refer to as the mechanics and the reputation.

The mechanics of a range include the stuff you are already working on such as the name of the range, location, type of facility, web site, contact info and so on. The reputation is the collective opinion of the facility based on opinions offered by members of this forum.

The problem is that the search functionality of PAFOA is difficult to use under the best of circumstances due to unrelated results returned, different spellings used for the range name, different abbreviations and all the other reasons that make any search engine difficult to use for any subject matter available on the broader web.

The suggestion is to include in your "Ranges by County Sticky" a PAFOA Forum "Ranges" link for each range that points to a thread that is primarily used to discuss the reputation/collective opinion/experiences that people have had at that range. The suggested methodology for using the "Sticky" would be for people to first go to the "Ranges by County Sticky" to find the correct thread and then post their opinion/experience under that thread.

Although that may create a slight inconvenience for some posters, it would keep all the relevant information in one easy to find place. The buy in from Dan would be whether he thinks this is a good idea and consistent with his philosophy regarding the implementation of the PAFOA web site. The buy in from the Mods would be the increased work load of having to move/merge threads started by people not following the guidelines.

I do understand how difficult it is to maintain cross-referenced links over time, so I'm just throwing this out as an idea for consideration.

Unrelated to the above, a small suggestion for ranges that don't have a fixed street address. Taking SGL #43 as an example. Knowing that the Latitude and Longitude of this range is (40.174758,-75.797500) would probably be more useful than saying it is located at or near French Creek State Park because it really isn't within the boundaries of the park anyway.

Saying that is at the end of Laurel Road also leaves a lot to the imagination unless you know that Laurel Road is part of Elverson, PA even though on a map it looks like the nearest town is Warwick. All of this presumes that you already know that the "French Creek Shooting Range" is not really in French Creek State Park to begin with.

[headcase]

Not that the suggestions you make are bad, but the implementation and maintenance would be problematic, IMHO. The SGL ranges are already compiled at the PGC website and if you are looking for one, that is your best reference. The range forum is already full of threads about individual ranges and if a person is even slightly motivated, they can scroll through the pages looking for the one they need. The less motivated can always start a thread asking about a specific range, getting either the location of the correct thread or the answer to their question as a response. I tend the sticky thread because I thought it was a great idea to have and wanted to contribute to the forum while reducing the load on the mods in this area. Sort of putting my time where my mouth is, so to speak What you propose would add more work to the already overwhelmed moderators and is more work than I can spare the time for......

I will say this, if you want to take the time to compile the information and PM me chunks of 5 or so at a time, I will add the links to each ranges' listing which may cut down on the duplicate threading, how's that?