CivilAirPortal.com no more???

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? What's going on with CivilAirPortal.com?

 Hmm.... that's peculiar.

Hmm.... that's peculiar.

That's an understatement!

Why it is no more is only specuation to me at this point...

...but to be brutally honest, most CAP disucssion forums suffer from the constant bickering over Uniform items, ID Cards, Agendistic specuations, unfounded inuendo and people venting about personnal issues instead of the bigger picture of improving CAP. 

There are, interwide, countless posts that were attracting negative publicity to CAP.  Vitriolic rants, incredulous cadets lecturing CAP Officers, e-hazing, dogpiling on uniform violations in photos instead of addressing them positively, nitpicking about uniform items and plenty of ammunition for the enemies of CAP.

What adds to the mix is the number of High Level CAP and USAF officials that read these rants et al and forumlate theories and guage TOTAL CAP based on that mess.

Only Civilian Airman can truely address and answer these questions.  But I will say one thing...we must police ourselves better as e-CAPers.

I am saddened...I will miss Civil Air Portal  

And so will all of us...

Why it is no more is only specuation to me at this point...

...but to be brutally honest, most CAP disucssion forums suffer from the constant bickering over Uniform items, ID Cards, Agendistic specuations, unfounded inuendo and people venting about personnal issues instead of the bigger picture of improving CAP. 

There are, interwide, countless posts that were attracting negative publicity to CAP.  Vitriolic rants, incredulous cadets lecturing CAP Officers, e-hazing, dogpiling on uniform violations in photos instead of addressing them positively, nitpicking about uniform items and plenty of ammunition for the enemies of CAP.

What adds to the mix is the number of High Level CAP and USAF officials that read these rants et al and forumlate theories and guage TOTAL CAP based on that mess.

Only Civilian Airman can truely address and answer these questions.  But I will say one thing...we must police ourselves better as e-CAPers.

I am saddened...I will miss Civil Air Portal  

And so will all of us...

Your right on that Maj. Carrales, regarding these types of discussions.  But I think you'll find that in an organization such as this. Personally, these discussions do serve a purpose of keeping ideas flowing and getting a feel, a litmus for what's going on. BUT, and it's a big one, these discussions should be kept from the general public so our so-called 'enemies' will not have fuel for their negative comments. How we can accomplish this, would be an interesting feat, but a worthy one at that.

Let's hope we can keep this from happening here.

MajC, I wouldn't venture to speak for CA. He's got his reasons and at some point will make them public in his own way.

The issues you mentioned are equally true of real military members online discussing the Army uniform & all the same sorts of things we talk about. CAP has an identity crisis, we all know that, and much of the discussion is us as members trying to work thru that. The only thing AF should read from that is that we don't have our crap together yet - that's just reality reflected. On the other hand, CAP leadership should take it as a kick in the pants to get the job done. All of this is plenty reason to disagree & discuss issues, we become better for working thru those problems than we do by ignoring them.

I don't know about enemies, if you're talking about NOTF, that guy is a joke to everyone & has no credibility, so screw him. Otherwise I'm not sure who you're referring to.

I hope this move by CA is temporary. I hope he realizes the value & synergy that comes from such a forum for open discussion of issues. I hope he sees people connecting across distances & recharging in CAP rather than feeling frustrated by local problems & politics. There's a certain truth to the "knowledge will set you free" saying, and the portal helped serve that purpose very well. So, I hope he'll come back or pass the reigns for a while, but not let it die.

I was sadden to see that CA had closed the portal. He and it will be missed.

CA if you are out there....Thanks for all your time and energy you put into the portal.

Wow...  I've always liked CA's work.  It is always top notch, very well done, and professional in every respect.  It's sad to see Civil Air Portal leave the compliment of online CAP websites, as I thought it was doing extremely well.    The Portal had a great interface and setup, and was doing better in terms of traffic than CAPTalk.

Whatever the reasons, Civil Air Portal will be sorely missed.  Sorry to see your site go, CA!

Hmmm....Definitely bad news there.

I'm sure CA will let us know in his own time/way, but I'd be willing to bet that the portal's sudden departure might have something to do with NotF's recent trend of cutting/pasting info from the portal, and citing it as a source several times lately.

I really hope this isn't the case, but I plan on letting my subscription do the talking if it is...

I for one will miss the unique stylings of CivilAirPortal. I wonder just what put him "over the edge" Could it be all the political foolry being created at NHQ by a select few that take themselves a bit too serious? Food for thought...

I too am sorry to see Civil Air Portal cease operations, it was informative, and a class act!

I am going to miss Civil Air Portal.

Yup, CA Portal was a great resource, it will be sorely missed.

Well, from my seat in the bleachers, I'd say that it's broke, not dead. Parts of the content remain; just the forums aren't working right now.

YMMV.

Let's hope this is some kind of Halloween horror.  The portal and portal master will both be sorely missed.  Thanks CA for all you do.

I had a conversation with CA about this last night (before I fell asleep face-down on my keyboard..Ouch..). Yep, the portal is dark. Reason?  Well, there are a few, not the least of which is that CA is ramping up his USCG Aux duties alongside his CAP duties.

But part of it (and I don't want to speak out of turn for him, really, but I don't think he'll mind) is that he's not thrilled with the tenor and tone that many of the so-called "member participation" CAP sites have taken on.  Instead of being burgeoning pots of gold-plated information nuggets for new & old members alike, they've become festering sores of dissent, acrimony and scuttlebutt.    And CA just doesn't want to contribute to the rumor and innuendo mills.

And I don't blame him.

I had a conversation with CA about this last night (before I fell asleep face-down on my keyboard..Ouch..). Yep, the portal is dark. Reason?  Well, there are a few, not the least of which is that CA is ramping up his USCG Aux duties alongside his CAP duties.

Good on 'im re: his new Aux duties.

Not so good on the constructive portal participants though.

But part of it (and I don't want to speak out of turn for him, really, but I don't think he'll mind) is that he's not thrilled with the tenor and tone that many of the so-called "member participation" CAP sites have taken on.  Instead of being burgeoning pots of gold-plated information nuggets for new & old members alike, they've become festering sores of dissent, acrimony and scuttlebutt.    And CA just doesn't want to contribute to the rumor and innuendo mills.

And I don't blame him.

 I don't blame him, but I don't necessarily agree with his choice of actions either. In my opinion, it was a bloody waste and a shame to pull the plug while the signal-to-noise ration was still half-decent and while constructive discussions were in progress. If pulling the plug was the only answer, a deadline would have been far more appropriate in order to transition threads elsewhere or else terminate said threads in an orderly manner. Yeah, it's his playground but some consideration for the constructive, functional users would have been nice.

 A set of attentive and clueful forum moderators that serve mostly as facilitators and a little bit like traffic cops from time to time would be just what Civil Air Portal needs to 'clean house' a bit and remain viable. I've seen this approach work elsewhere and in venues where much greater acrimony and volatility are common.

 There was no reason for Civil Air Portal to become one of 'those other sites', and for Civil Airman to assume this as a foregone conclusion is a bit of a disservice to those who made an effort to pass on useful information and participate in constructive discussions. Thanks for bunching us in with the likes of Blansett and Munger, really.

 

Citizen Airman,

Thank you for your hard work and you will be missed.  Semper Gumby!!

Cadet Program Guy

MajC, I wouldn't venture to speak for CA. He's got his reasons and at some point will make them public in his own way.

The issues you mentioned are equally true of real military members online discussing the Army uniform & all the same sorts of things we talk about. CAP has an identity crisis, we all know that, and much of the discussion is us as members trying to work thru that. The only thing AF should read from that is that we don't have our crap together yet - that's just reality reflected. On the other hand, CAP leadership should take it as a kick in the pants to get the job done. All of this is plenty reason to disagree & discuss issues, we become better for working thru those problems than we do by ignoring them.

I don't know about enemies, if you're talking about NOTF, that guy is a joke to everyone & has no credibility, so screw him. Otherwise I'm not sure who you're referring to.

I hope this move by CA is temporary. I hope he realizes the value & synergy that comes from such a forum for open discussion of issues. I hope he sees people connecting across distances & recharging in CAP rather than feeling frustrated by local problems & politics. There's a certain truth to the "knowledge will set you free" saying, and the portal helped serve that purpose very well. So, I hope he'll come back or pass the reigns for a while, but not let it die.

I'm a former lurker over at civil air portal and decided to join the new board. I also read NOTF and while I will agree that many folks who write him seem to have an axe to grind with CAP much of the information he posts is spot on. It's also a 50/50 mix good and bad about CAP and one of the better sources for media information regarding missions.

CAP holds a lot of dedicated people who volunteer a lot of time money and effort to the cause. Sometimes when their efforts aren't understood or appreciated they need a place to ventilate. That's where these boards come into play. One can express their frustrations to their peers who will either understand, set them straight or tell them to grow up. That's what these boards do.

These boards are a support group and should be looked on as such.

I have to chime in here also... I do think this is all a little rash. It would have been better to step up the mods & oull the thing down for 24hrs w/ a story posted & notice emailed to explain his frustrations & ask for a new direction. People would have respected that.

As to the tone, it was FAR FAR away from the mil.com at each other's throat BS. There were heated moments, but they came considering serious issues from complex angles. That process caused people to think long deep & hard about some pretty hefty items, and to do some self-examination along the way. IT bought together real experts from most any civilian, military, or CAP field you could think of, where most of us don't even have some of our critical staff positions filled w/ even new SMs, & certainly not an old hand to run an idea up the flag pole with or even a group of experts from across the country. When could you ever have such a resource at yout fingertips?

On NOTF, they are a joke!!! They do tend to have SOME details right, but lose all credibility when tey mix fiction w/ fat & no one can tell the difference. Even if he was 100% accurate, you wouldn't put that information out. There's some legal & risk mgmt aspects out org needs to take more seriously. One of those is when you have a legal situation, you talk to CAP's lawyers, not the world, and you keep your mouth shut outside the family. This guy has been exploiting CAP's openness for years to try & take the organization down. Now more recently  he's been grabbing bits of information that are perfectly legit by law & reg, and he's been exploiting any little differnce in opinion to drive wedges & destroy what we have. So screw him. Anybody reading anything he has to say & giving it more credit than "Nun has alien baby after vaction to Mars" is badly misinformed.

Anyway, I hope CA will take a break & reconsider. Officers needa place to interact w/ other officers to become better officers, and we don't get that at our Sqs. That same saying I've used before, "leadership is not taught, it's caught." That means you need to have conversations w/ good officers about anything & just talking to them, being around them, watching them talk to others is how you learn to be a leader. There is a lot of good in the portal, and it went well beyond a silly announcement or resource site, and I hope we haven't seen the last of it.

ummm.....what's NOTF? :-/

News of the Force

an on-line/email newsletter with news about military forces

published daily

Anyway, I hope CA will take a break & reconsider. Officers needa place to interact w/ other officers to become better officers, and we don't get that at our Sqs. That same saying I've used before, "leadership is not taught, it's caught." That means you need to have conversations w/ good officers about anything & just talking to them, being around them, watching them talk to others is how you learn to be a leader. There is a lot of good in the portal, and it went well beyond a silly announcement or resource site, and I hope we haven't seen the last of it.

I heartily concur.  In spite of all the heated comments that were sometimes posted, there was alot of good information exchanged on the portal.  I was actively following several of the discussions just as a way of staying informed about what is going on in CAP across the country.

How else would we have known about the big changes in Iowa, for example?

Information is the most useful resource we have, and I'm sad to see one of the sources go away.  I also hope it will return.

Life is stressful.  I hope CA isn't too stressed out.

Hang in there.  We're all in this together.   

ummm.....what's NOTF? :-/

A waste of bandwidth?

But part of it (and I don't want to speak out of turn for him, really, but I don't think he'll mind) is that he's not thrilled with the tenor and tone that many of the so-called "member participation" CAP sites have taken on.  Instead of being burgeoning pots of gold-plated information nuggets for new & old members alike, they've become festering sores of dissent, acrimony and scuttlebutt.    And CA just doesn't want to contribute to the rumor and innuendo mills.

And I don't blame him.

I have to say, I agree to an extent.  I guess that's one reason my posting dropped off.  I'm guessing its the same of a host of others that started of posting and then "disappeared".  I think there was too much time spent grumbling about policy and what some wish CAP was.  I think we missed an opportunity to truly make the organization better.  Instead we got ourselves stuck in the weeds and stayed there.

For those that think you've lost the greatest thing since bicycles for Christmas, A) I can't believe you're complaining about the loss of a CAP forum on a CAP forum (says a lot about what you think of this forum!), B) you're welcome to start your own CAP-related forum.  In fact, from what I saw on CivilAirPortal, some of you should have.  Maybe "whatiwishcapwas.com".

First of all, thank you all for your membership.

My decision to remove Civil Air Portal from the online CAP community was not without much consideration, which I might add, went on for several weeks.

Although I did not discuss it with NIN last night, it is a fact that I will be taking on increased responsibilities as a Coast Guard Auxiliarist.  In particular, I will be assisting an active duty Coast Guard Sector with revamping and maintaining it's website. Although I will enjoy serving the Coast Guard a lot, this has not been a factor in the closing of CAPortal.  What has been, however, is my CAP duties at the squadron and even more so at the wing level.  Like so many CAP officers, I wear several hats.  To my credit, or misfortune, (depending how you look at it) some of these hats feel like the ten-gallon kind and I only have so much CAP time in a week to devote to them.   

For those who admonish me for closing the site, I say how dare you!  It is more than likely that you have been the problem rather than the answer. The mods I selected did a fine job policing the site without overstepping their boundaries. A real problem, however, is that a great many officers have refused to police themselves.  Being a part of all the CAPolitical punditry has grown very tiresome, and has been surpassed only by witnessing the same in others. 

Civil Air Portal has gone over it's allotted bandwidth for many months and costs me considerably. To those who have contributed much of their time there and are left feeling troubled, I share your feelings. I assure you I take no joy from closing CAPortal and I encourage you to use this site, as well as CAPblog to share your ideas and develop yourselves as officers. 

Edit: As an aside, please consider saving your portalpeople to another space on the Web, because the files on CAPortal will go *poof* in a week.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity CA, your efforts will be missed.

Thanks Tedda for all your work.

I'm sorry to see your site go.

Don't let the jackals get you down.

P.S.  Thanks for the faceless icons.   You do good work!

For those who admonish me for closing the site, I say how dare you!  It is more than likely that you have been the problem rather than the answer. The mods I selected did a fine job policing the site without overstepping their boundaries. A real problem, however, is that a great many officers have refused to police themselves.  Being a part of all the CAPolitical punditry has grown very tiresome, and has been surpassed only by witnessing the same in others. 

QFT!

Edit: As an aside, please consider saving your portalpeople to another space on the Web, because the files on CAPortal will go *poof* in a week.

Thanks to you I have a nice little collection.   

*Cheers* Tedda

Well, thank you again for your hard work & dedication! I don't think I've seen anyone admonish you for taking it down, perhaps the suddenness, but not your right to do it, more a lamenting that it's gone as a place to make us better.

Personally, I believe we grow thru a little conflict, and come together working to solve the problems we define - that's Monroe's Doctrine of Cognitive dissonance if you're interested. What I liked about the portal was the synergy that came from a group that drove you to develop good ideas & work them to conclusion. It doesn't matter if you actually accomplish any of those ideas, it'd be nice, but you test & increase your ability by the process itself.

I hate the politics of CAP as much as anyone, but I don't believe you can stay low & do he job in front of you. We all influence actions & policy, even if it's just locally, and that in turn to a degree moves CAP incrementally in one direction or another. I don't think you can escape it & you might as well embrace it. Actually I think it's the duty of every member to drive that process within the context of their job(s). Defining where CAP should be out in the future is not a bad thing. Core values & vision statements lead to strategic planning, which with a little leadership lead to a team concept working toward big picture goals. It's a basic need of any organization to do these things & sell their people on board. The AF does it, but CAP is at very least deficient at communicating those things to the force much less selling them, so people respond with a natural human response to fill the void. That may not be the best way, but it's good that our people are displaying that kind of responsibility & willing to be accountable. I thought the portal created a great place for a lot of that process to function in a natural way you'd get inside a normal military unit but you can't get easily in most of CAP.

Again, I'm sorry to see the thing go, I'm sorry if it stressed anyone too much along the way, and I especially want to that you CA, and the others involved for what it was while it lasted. I hope CAP can take advantage of such communications tools in the future to bring us things virtually that are not a logistic possibility in wide-spread small CAP units w/o a lot of background training.

Tedda,

Thanks so much for all your work with CivilAirPortal.

You'll always have a place to post if the mood strikes, over at CAPblog.

Good luck with the Alterna-Auxie gig with the USCG.

Semper Vi,

Midway Six

Thanks to Tedda for all his work.

I always made it a point to thanks him via PM every so many weeks.

Major Carrales

Tedda,

Thanks so much for all your work with CivilAirPortal.

You'll always have a place to post if the mood strikes, over at CAPblog.

Good luck with the Alterna-Auxie gig with the USCG.

Semper Vi,

Midway Six

Nice to see you over here Midway and Major Carrales 

Thanks, Tedda. Sorry to see the Portal go away. It will be missed, even from up here in the bleachers.

Tedda provided a source of information that I have never found on any other boards. For example where else would the new Iowa Plan be found. And member uploads such as the Project Boot I uploaded and was downloaded by 35 board members to help recruiting. I never got a PortalPerson, since none ever applied to me.
The first place I logged into every day was Civil AirPortal. It was a unique board that was of great value to the members. Oh sure there was some bickering, but last I heard most of us (including cadets) were mature enough to accept it. The Portal offered valid arguements pro and con, on a variety of subjects that apply to most CAP Squadrons and members. I will sorely miss it. Thanks Tedda for all your efforts, needless to say it WAS appreciated.

Tedda,

Thanks so much for all your work with CivilAirPortal.

You'll always have a place to post if the mood strikes, over at CAPblog.

Good luck with the Alterna-Auxie gig with the USCG.

Semper Vi,

Midway Six

Nice to see you over here Midway and Major Carrales 

Thanks,

I'm gonna have to get my e-CAP fix here.  Like others, Civil Air Portal was a place I logged into even before checking my e-mail.

I am heartbroken....I don't get my own portalperson........

CA, you are welcome to Iowa Any day, any time. 

I am heartbroken....I don't get my own portalperson........

You guys are certainly welcome to put your Portalpeople in your sigs here.   

You need to have one to put one on here.

I am heartbroken....I don't get my own portalperson........

You guys are certainly welcome to put your Portalpeople in your sigs here.  

 "How dare us" for voicing our opinion regarding the abrupt closing of the Portal. Perish the thought that someone might actually think that the matter could have been handled more gracefully... it's quite obviously a moot point, however.

 I didn't see anyone bashing the Portal moderators in this thread [or any other, for that matter]; I, on the other hand, made an apparently-unsuccessful attempt at pointing out how any number of forums are almost exclusively moderator-run with not a great deal of 'hands-on' from the 'owner'. A couple of fire/rescue/EMS boards that I visit fit into this category, for example. There's also the concept in law enforcement called 'community policing', which emphasis on 'community'.

 Insofar as 'punditry' goes, it's not necessarily an evil thing in and of itself... in moderation. The vast majority of us aren't among the Blansetts of the world. Besides, with all due respect to Tedda, taking shots at pundits on his part veers in the direction of 'pot kettle black'.

 All that being said, thanks to the team who helped run the Portal while it lasted.

Tedda,

Thanks for all your hard work......I truly believe it will be missed.  The hardest part was the lack of notice.....I was a "Portal Junkie" and do you realize how hard it is for a junkie to go cold turkey?

I understand about the cost....maybe you could have set up a PayPal account where we could have contributed to it.  I know I would have.

Any chance of someone taking it over???  I would but I'm not computer savvy enough to run that. Heck I have trouble at times with.....oh geez I forgot.

Also any chance of leaving up for a while the forums, but locking them?  I'd like to retrieve some information that I guess I always figured would be there.

That said.....I want my portal, I want my portal, I want my portal. 

Thanks for the memories.

Smokey