California CCW - concealed carry forum

I am embarrassed to say that I am (was) the California admin for Packing.Org. The site is currently down (a frequent problem), but when I was able to update things, I always did. When questions were posed to me I always responded. When help was asked for, I did my best to provide it. I kept things as current as I was able to. There are several posters here on CaliforniaCCW who know me from PDO, and they can vouch for my commitment to the cause. The site owner, Mark Solomon, decided to take the site another direction by eliminating the ability to moderate it. When he did that, he also took away respective state admin’s ability to easily modify it.

There were around 35 committed people acting as state admins at PDO (some maintaining more than one state). After Mr. Solomon made his changes to the format, and as well as his changes in attitude about the site itself, the site went to hell in a hand basket.

If there are any members here who can remember what PDO was prior to August of 2005, you will remember what a stellar site it was. It was the best CCW site on the Internet, hands down. Content was on topic and chat was limited to relevant topics. Now it is a name calling, cop bashing, assault weapon chat room, filled with vulgarities. And that's only when the server is up.

Calls to Mr. Solomon (both by phone and by email) go without response. The majority of my fellow state admins have abandoned the site because they don't want to be associated with it any longer. I can now be counted in that group.

I have since submitted an unanswered email to Mr. Solomon requesting that my name be removed from the California page.

I want to warn everyone here NOT to rely on anything on PDO!

If you want to know anything about another state's policies, and you want it form a reliable source, be sure to visit http://handgunlaw.us

That site is maintained by, among others, a guy whom I admire greatly for his honesty and integrity, Gary Slider. Gary, I'm glad to say, has joined this site. Although he is not a California resident, he has a wealth of knowledge that I know he would be willing to share.

Stay safe, please

No I know why they didn't want to correct the penal code errors. Thanks for that information

Jon

Thanks for providing that info. I hope that anything disparaging that is said about the site is not taken personally by you. Even today, although the info is outdated, you can tell the site was a fantastic place for info at one time.

Thanks for your committement, and thanks especially for not getting discouraged and giving up on sharing your info about CCW.

jonm wrote:

I am embarrassed to say that I am (was) the California admin for Packing.Org. The site is currently down (a frequent problem), but when I was able to update things, I always did. When questions were posed to me I always responded. When help was asked for, I did my best to provide it. I kept things as current as I was able to. There are several posters here on CaliforniaCCW who know me from PDO, and they can vouch for my commitment to the cause. The site owner, Mark Solomon, decided to take the site another direction by eliminating the ability to moderate it. When he did that, he also took away respective state admin’s ability to easily modify it.

There were around 35 committed people acting as state admins at PDO (some maintaining more than one state). After Mr. Solomon made his changes to the format, and as well as his changes in attitude about the site itself, the site went to hell in a hand basket.

If there are any members here who can remember what PDO was prior to August of 2005, you will remember what a stellar site it was. It was the best CCW site on the Internet, hands down. Content was on topic and chat was limited to relevant topics. Now it is a name calling, cop bashing, assault weapon chat room, filled with vulgarities. And that's only when the server is up.

Calls to Mr. Solomon (both by phone and by email) go without response. The majority of my fellow state admins have abandoned the site because they don't want to be associated with it any longer. I can now be counted in that group.

I have since submitted an unanswered email to Mr. Solomon requesting that my name be removed from the California page.

I want to warn everyone here NOT to rely on anything on PDO!

If you want to know anything about another state's policies, and you want it form a reliable source, be sure to visit http://handgunlaw.us

That site is maintained by, among others, a guy whom I admire greatly for his honesty and integrity, Gary Slider. Gary, I'm glad to say, has joined this site. Although he is not a California resident, he has a wealth of knowledge that I know he would be willing to share.

Stay safe, please

What had me laughing when I got the latest ediiton of G&A, they have this announcement that they've just discovered this wonderful new site - packing.org - full of useful information.

Admin, have you brought CaliforniaCCW to G&A's attention? maybe other related magazines too?

YOU have nothing to be embarrassed about, Jon. I discovered PDO last fall when I first started looking into CCW. I gained some valuable info there, and it's very sad to see it slide the way it has. That's one of the reasons I was so happy to see THIS site show up. Kudos to Admin and the rest of you who are making CaliforniaCCW.org such an OUTSTANDING resource.

Glock22Fan wrote:

What had me laughing when I got the latest ediiton of G&A, they have this announcement that they've just discovered this wonderful new site - packing.org - full of useful information.

Admin, have you brought CaliforniaCCW to G&A's attention? maybe other related magazines too?

I haven't yet. It's a good idea. I would encourage anyone here to contact media outlets like that and refer them to this site. I don't have time or contacts for that.

Dan M wrote:

Kudos to Admin and the rest of you who are making CaliforniaCCW.org such an OUTSTANDING resource.

Thanks Dan! Of course it is our amazing members who deserve the thanks. When I started this thing I had no idea that such well-informed and excellent members would show up.

One thing I am fixing is I'm getting email to work, so admin@californiaccw.org will work. It already does work, except not on Yahoo for some reason. I need to fix that. I'm also going to set up a chat system. As you can see I'm on almost all the time, so if I had chat I would be able to help users immediately, etc. I know quite a few people are having signup difficulty. Finally, I'm waiting for the new version of this forum software to come out. The current version is not bad, but the new version will have a build system so I can make changes to it and compile it myself if I want to.

I can remember PDO before it went downhill fast. Too bad such a great resource has turned into such a joke. The Handgun Laws website is very well done. I've been checking it from time to time over the last couple months since it's much more reliable than PDO is these days.

Jonm, your patience with PDO is to be respected and it is a shame Mark has let the site go to the trolls. I can't say I blame you for disassociating from it.

I started with PDO about 4 years ago and learned extensively about CCW and obtained a total of 5 permits by the time it started to slide downhill. Yourself and the other admins. from PDO deserve credit for maintaining an excellent site until the 'New PDO' occured.

We now have Ca.CCW as an in state source of information as well as handgunlaw for our out of state needs.

Your input is a valueable resource here at Ca.CCW. Thanks Jonm.

spc

I was a faithful reader and sometimes poster on Packing.org when I first discovered it. Once the format changed I started losing interest. Not because of the format change, that just seemed to be coincidental. This however is a great site and hope to see it continue to thrive and to grow!

That's a shame, because at one time there was a lot of good info on that site. Maybe it can bounce back, but I'm glad that this site is here as the short time I've been a member, I've picked up few pointers.

Jon,

Your efforts at PDO were appreciated (along with those of the other admins).

I started posting on PDO five years ago, and it was a great site back then. Some people complained that some of the admins were heavy handed in deleting "off-topic" posts, but I thought it helped keep the focus of the site, and it certainly helped to keep the level of discourse civil. It really is a shame what has happened to it. I finally got disgusted earlier this year with the state of affairs at PDO, and this site came along just at the right time. I'm glad this site is here. There is much more positive action regarding CCW reform in CA through this site than was ever the case at PDO.

At this point, since Mark seems to have lost all interest in PDO, I wish he would shut it down for good. With all of the foul language and personal attacks going on there in the posts, I think the site actually harms our cause, and the harm it does far outweighs any benefit from the information it provides.

One of the things I appreciate most about this site is that, by and large, the people who post here are able and willing to moderate themselves. They behave and post in a polite, professional manner, and it is possible to have a calm, reasoned discussion on topics, even when we disagree.

Kudos to the Admin!

The Gimper wrote:

Kudos to the Admin!

Thank you, but really it's kudos to the members. I have only ever deleted about four posts and locked about four threads (other than some which I locked because they were in the wrong place). I've never banned a user from this forum. So it is the members who get the credit! Not only for the civility, but also for the amazing quality of information they provide. I worry sometimes that I'm going to get a huge bill!

It was a good site.

If I see one more post on another site asking if PDO is down...I'm going to shoot myself.

choochboost wrote:

If I see one more post on another site asking if PDO is down...I'm going to shoot myself.

So, I'd better say "Goodbye" now. It's been good knowing you.

choochboost wrote:

If I see one more post on another site asking if PDO is down...I'm going to shoot myself.

may you rest in peace.....

...It was the best CCW site on the Internet, hands down. Content was on topic and chat was limited to relevant topics. Now it is a name calling, cop bashing, assault weapon chat room, filled with vulgarities...

Sounds like all sites have their problems...

AverageJoe wrote:

...It was the best CCW site on the Internet, hands down. Content was on topic and chat was limited to relevant topics. Now it is a name calling, cop bashing, assault weapon chat room, filled with vulgarities...

Sounds like all sites have their problems...

This is just more evidence that in the absence of effective & consistent moderation, ANY forum can self destruct. When the cat is away, the mice will play.

We noticed this thread. We have just brought up Carryconcealed.net. We are trying to help the CCW community and can use all of the help that we can get.

Please let us know what we can do to help with the CCW community. We are very open for changes and we have police officers and military folks as out testers.

Again - please let us know how we can help. If we can change anything that you all need we will.

Thanks -
Clark - Carryconcealed.net