The HF has been a big help to me in coming off the ground. I found HF about 6 months ago and have enjoyed the wealth of information and the respect for all members regardless of their experience.
Thanks for bring this great resource to the masses.
The HF has been a big help to me in coming off the ground. I found HF about 6 months ago and have enjoyed the wealth of information and the respect for all members regardless of their experience.
Thanks for bring this great resource to the masses.
There wasn't many of us back in the day but look at HF now. Over 17,000 member world wide. Ya gotta like that. It's great to see trip reports from all over the world. I really think we are a unique community in that respect.
Everyone ought to believe in something....I believe I'll go set up the hammock!
Thanks Titanium Hiker, that spreadsheet was pretty interesting.
"No whining in the woods"
You got the basic answers already. Ed "Not to Worry" Speer had the Yahoo group for years. It was a great community, and lots of fun...Ed organized the original hammock hangs, usually in Hot Springs, NC, and Dave "Youngblood" Womble was one of the key drivers for hammock technology (SPE, PeaPod, SnugFut, etc). The only drawback was the text-only-email format that made some kinds of communication a little more difficult, we couldn't embed pics/videos in the messages, etc.
At the same time, Whiteblaze had the Hammock Camping subforum. (That's where JRB introduced their first underquilt.) There was a lot of traffic on it, and a lot of ground dwellers getting irritated at all the hammock posts. So attroll and I setup HF in Oct 2006...not with the intent to reduce the traffic on either of those sites, but to give hammockers a place to talk without making WB's ground dwellers mad, and without having to put up with their comments about how hammocks don't work, in a more user-friendly format than email, etc.
So we went live in Oct 2006 and grew from there. Our original membership came mostly from whiteblaze, but we continued growing. In the beginning, the DIY influence on HF was huge and we were definitely drivers of hammock camping technology. That attracted more members from all over the internet, and we started adding moderators: Slowhike, angrysparrow, headchange4u, NCPatrick, Cannibal, and now JohnSawyer. It's great that folks are willing to do so much work for free...purely volunteer.
We've had some growing pains along the way, but a great community has sprung up on HF. We're willing to meet perfect strangers in the woods for hangs b/c we feel like we know them. We're willing to send folks PIF gear b/c we value what it means for our community. We're willing to send free gear to members who lost theirs by fire, theft, etc. All based on how this little corner of the internet has become a family.
Frankly, although we try hard to keep commercial influences out of our community, HF's role in driving technology is limited compared to what it used to be...largely because some of the key minds in developing new ideas got frustrated with new "vendors" appropriating their ideas in the name of the free market, so they stopped posting. Thankfully, though, the community as a whole still posts about how integrity in business practices is still important.
We still get some bumps now and then with moderating the site, mainly when there's tension between the community's norms here and how other sites are run "more freely" and "less draconian." It's usually a new member trying to figure out if they're willing to follow our rules or if they'd like to go somewhere else. Sometimes it's more established members, though...sometimes even in person (more or less). Such is life, and such are the changes in the community...can't please everybody. We don't force anyone to read HF.
Overall, HF is still one of the most respectful, content-rich and noise-free forums on the internet. And largely still focused on our original topic of hammocks. We consider that a success.
“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story
- My site: http://www.tothewoods.net/
- Designer, Jeff's Gear Hammock / Pack Cover by JRB
IMPOSSIBLE JUST TAKES LONGER
Bumps or not, it's been a great ride. Glad to have the resource, the ideas and information, and the courteous community.
So Happy Anniversary HF and many more.
Texas Fall Group Hang 2019
Looking back to last year to reminisce and forward to post Covid-19 hangs in 2021
Texas Hammock Hangers Facebook Group
Now that the "history mystery" has been brought to light, anyone care to remember their "favorite moments in history" on HF?
I think mine was the patent contest. When members made versions of the hammock stuff as was found on google patents. Some awesome results; the photos/videos were great!
Contest thread: http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...patent+contest
entries: http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...patent+contest
So what were your favorite HF moments in history?
Last edited by DuctTape; 10-30-2012 at 09:02. Reason: found link to old thread
The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering. - St. Augustine
Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.
- Bob Marley
"He who makes a beast of himself, gets rid of the pain of being a man." Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Please check out the link below to show your love for hammocks!www.zazzle.com/hammocklife
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...jQk0ydEE#gid=0
Please feel free to update.
I started the spreadsheet earlier this year as I was looking into when different hammock products where introduced. A few vendors/forum members have added information and a couple of vendors provided me with some product intro dates wich I then added.
There is still a lot of hammock history that could be added (first known group hang, coldest hang, gear introductions ext)
Interesteing to see when different products were introduced
I am still 18 but with 52 years of experience !
Got a "document does not exist" with that link, gunner.
The first group hang was probably in 1300 or so. For our purposes, it would probably be in the late 90s or early 2000s at Hot Springs, with "our purposes" defined as when the internet hammock community planned online (Yahoo group) and met up somewhere.
“Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall when the wise are banished from the public councils because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded because they flatter the people, in order to betray them.” ~Judge Joseph Story
- My site: http://www.tothewoods.net/
- Designer, Jeff's Gear Hammock / Pack Cover by JRB
IMPOSSIBLE JUST TAKES LONGER
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