Welcome...And Goodbye...From IHMSA Networks

Fellow IHMSA Shooters:

About 8 years ago I was introduced to Metallic Silhouette shooting. At that time the only web sites dedicated entirely to IHMSA were the official site (which had not been updated in a couple years) and a discussion forum hosted on the AIMOO site. There were (and still are) a couple excellent sites built by individual clubs, such as the LASC site. Both of the dedicated sites had been generously built and paid for by a gentleman named Carl who no longer had the time to maintain them. IHMSA as a sport and as an organization were quickly fading away as more action oriented pistol based sports grew in popularity. Something had to be done to get the word out – and the Web seemed the best option.

I picked up the gauntlet with fairly grandiose ideas. I originally built an almost all custom site – which turned out to be a full time job to maintain. After being hacked a couple times it came down. I then rebuilt a less aggressive site from all commercial software and paid to have it hosted on a secure ISP. There were discussion forums, user created BLOGS, a trading post with classified and auction style sales, image galleries, a ShoutBox, chat rooms and more. While the costs were significantly higher, the maintenance was reasonable. Unfortunately two unexpected and time consuming issues arose. The first was a barrage of daily registrations from hackers and spammers in Russia, China and other nations, making it a real challenge to determine when a “real” IMHSA shooter or potential member registered. The second was the simple fact that I could not please everyone. Security measures like the CAPTCHA image verification resulted in a far more secure web site – and a long list of complaint emails. Then they just went into the realm of ridiculous. A notable recent example was some hate email because the web site sent a member a completely private “Happy Birthday” email. Enough was enough. This was paid for and built to support a sport I really enjoyed. By this point it had transformed into some that maybe my cringe whenever I heard “IHMSA”.

During the period of time I actively shot IHMSA matches I met a lot of great people – always more than willing to share information or anything else you needed. It is truly a family type atmosphere that I would recommend to anyone. IHMSA is a bunch great people from all walks of life coming together to do what they enjoy. Through the web site I was able to meet even more great friends over the years and heard many interesting stories and learned more about silhouette shooting than I ever imagined.

To all of those people – both across the firing lines and across the digital lines – THANK YOU.

I recently because aware of the fact that IHMSA (the OFFICIAL organization) has rebuilt their web site and included a discussion forum and other features. I am extremely happy to see this. It is long overdue and far more appropriate for the organization to represent itself in this manner. I am not sure which member(s) are responsible for this but I strongly suggest everyone thank them as frequently as possible. With the advent of this new, official site there is no longer a reason for my site to continue to exist.

It is my intent to remove this site from the servers on May 1, 2012.

You may CLICK HERE to enter the site until then.

Thank You,
Douglas
Aka BurmKiller