EMTbravo

Members- As you may know, this forum requires a lot of work, and sometimes we reach out to the members for assitance. Although we do verify each and every Verified Member at the time they are made a VM, sometimes members change their profiles after they are verified, or inadvertently leave out information. We regularly audit Verified Members, but now with over 500 members in this program, we need your help to make sure everyone is following the terms. Please, if you notice a questionable profile, one that is missing information, or one that does not comply with the Verified Member terms, please let me know via EMAIL EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com A Verified Member is REQUIRED to display the following in their forum profile: -Age Range -Location (County is acceptable AT THIS TIME) -Affiliation -Rank Any member that is found to have a profile intentionally containing false or inaccurate information will be permanetly removed from the program and therefore not allowed to post. Thanks! -EMTBravo

Members- Overnight, we encountered two problems which led to the downtime of the site from approx. 11PM to 7AM this morning. First, we again exceeded our bandwith limit, and had to purchase additional bandwith. The cause of this was the number of visitors to the site and activity was beyond our expectations and estimated bandwith (which is a good thing). Second, the web host had to do an emergency move of the site onto a new server. Although this move caused some downtime, ultimately the performance and speed of the site should be improved. We've noticed the site running slowly with a few spontaneous errors over the past few days, and hope this move will resolve things. We apologize for any inconvience, and we are continuing to monitor the site. -EMTBravo EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com

THIS IS NOW A REQUIRED PART OF THE VERIFIED MEMBER PROGRAM. IF YOU DO NOT SELECT YOUR AGE RANGE, YOU WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE VERIFIED MEMBER PROGRAM. Members- One of the biggest complaints we recieve about this forum is about the "youth" of the forum, and you sometimes don't know the age of the person you're dealing with. As you know, we recently instituted a mandatory Verified Member program to be able to post on the EMTBravo Network. Part of this program is that a members location, affilitation type, and rank is required in their forum profile so that you have an idea of the level the person you are talking to is at. After some discussion with some active members of this site, we are now requiring you to select an age range in your profile. We debated between requiring "Years Of Experience" or Age, but felt that "Years Of Experience" can easily be fudged, and that the profile, along with an age, that experience would speak for itself. To edit your profile, go to "My Controls" via the link on the top of the page, or click below. http://emtbravo.net/index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=01 THIS IS NOW A REQUIRED PART OF THE VERIFIED MEMBER PROGRAM. IF YOU DO NOT SELECT YOUR AGE RANGE, YOU WILL BE REMOVED FROM THE VERIFIED MEMBER PROGRAM. To be clear, your Verified Member profile now REQUIRES your location, affiliation type, rank, AND age range. Thanks for your cooperation in continuing to make the Verified Member program a success. -EMTBravo EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com Joining the Verified Membership program is completly optional and is done at the individual discretion of the member. P.S. Verified Members profiles are regularly audited. If you are missing any portion of the required public forum profile, you will be removed from the Verified Member program. Additionally, if any portion of the profile in intentionally incorrect or false, you will be suspended from the Verified Member program.

Members- At 00:01 hrs on January 1st, 2007, EMTBravo.com (the original and main page) will turn 4 years old. EMTBravo.com started on January 1st, 2003 as a small personal site for me to share my photos and information that I previously used to email out via my email address...which was EMTBravo@.......com. That's how the site got it's name. From that point, the site- thanks to an awesome and incredible membership, and the support of many- this site has grown to where it is today. I like to describe it as a "snowball effect". 2006, EMTBravo.com's third and biggest year to date, was a year of growth and many changes for EMTBravo.com (look for another thread detailing EMTBravo.com 2006). I'd like to thank everybody for all their support with their site, and although it does give me a great deal of grief and stress, I really do enjoy providing it for you guys, and can't believe it's been 4 years already. I hope we can make 2007 an even better. -Seth EMTBravo EMTBravo.com *Note: This forum was launched on November 14th, 2003

In 2006, this forum did the following: 1,754 Member Registrations 6, 812 New Topics 32, 860 Posts 5,710 Private Messages Sent 2,357,250 Topic Views 521 Members Verified For a dynamic statistics listing, click here: http://emtbravo.net/index.php?act=statistics

First feature photo was Boston Ladder 14 operating at an EMS call on Commonwealth Ave in Allston-Brighton December 2002. I'll see if I can dig up some stuff from the start for you.

2005: http://www.emtbravo.com/TopIA2005/ 2004: http://emtbravo.com/TopTenIncidentsOf2004.html

The "Top 10 Incidents Of 2006" for Westchester will be released soon....with 28 hours still left in the year- the list can still change. Stay tuned to http://www.emtbravo.com for it's release. This will be the third year for this highly anticipated list. Truck4 did another awesome job compiling the incidents this year, and I can't wait to unveil the list to the membership. Thanks again to Truck4 for putting this together!

(This applies to ALL members who share the above notion as said above!) I've read through this entire thread, and how is anyone bashing you? Because they...obviously expectedly...disagree with your opinion? This is called a DISCUSSION. Members here come from a wide variety of backgrounds, experience levels, and other differences. Not everyone is going to agree on everything, and some topics will get a bit heated. If someone disagrees with an opinion YOU POSTED on this thread, then they have a right to respond to you on this thread, as long as it's done respectfully. Again, that's part of a discussion. Opinions are going to get picked apart, as is everything in the fire service. I feel that a healthy discussion is good, and I learn from reading other's opinions and comments myself. If you are going to say something, then you should be able to stand behind it without getting defensive. Do people actually expect to come on here and willingfully post, state your opinion, and nobody else can say anything? Therefore, I don't feel having a DISCUSSION is a "big problem" with this site. If you really want to see what flaming (member to member bashing) is, feel free to visit one of the many other sites where it occurs. Although we can't babysit this forum 24/7, we do work hard to control it on here, and feel this specific accusation to us is unfair, and untrue. (This applies to ALL members!)

Many members here complain about some issues on this forum being "being beaten to death", or over-discussed. I, too, agree that some of the issues pop up over and over again, and it can be annoying. BUT It's obviously bothering someone, and/or still a big issue, especially if a number of members are viewing or participating in a thread. Many of these topics are serious issues, that are still plaguing the Fire, EMS, and Police services. Yet, some have the attitude of "It will never be resolved" or "Enoughs Enough of this talk". Many people don't want to discuss the issues, and therefore a true resolution is never reach. People complain of the "same old rhetoric" on here, but what does that tell us? Do the discussions on this forum reflect the dynamic of our Fire/EMS/PD community? I believe it does. If we use this forum as a tool for communication and more importantly, the readers of this forum maybe, even if it's just one person, "sees the light" and effects change in their department, then this forum has served its purpose. Also, I'd like to add, it's one thing to come on here and complain....and a whole 'nother thing to propose a resolution and/or do something about it. My question to you is, when and WHY do you feel an issue has been "beaten to death"? As administrator of this forum, I feel a topic is dead when a true solution has been reached. P.S. : Please don't insult another members thoughs or opinions by adding an "Oh Please Enough Of This" type comment to ANY thread. If you have an issue with the thread or a post, please contact me via email at EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com to discuss.

We've decorated the forum for the Christmas Holiday to add a little Christmas spirit to the forum. I'm not much into the holiday spirit this year, it usually kicks in to me on Christmas Eve, hence this skin. But if you don't like this temporary theme/skin, you can scroll down to the bottom of the forum and select your own skin, including the normal EMTBravo Network skin, from the drop down menu. This theme will last until Christmas night. And by the way, since the weather really doesn't contribute much to the Holiday spirit, it's at least snowing on EMTBravo.com's main page. ( http://www.emtbravo.com) Hope you enjoy and Merry Christmas! -EMTBravo Team EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com

Thanks for the suggestion! An RSS feed for the forums is in the many things we are planning to add in 2007 to EMTBravo. Until then, don't forget that there are plenty of ways to montior the new and active topics on the forums, as well as many options to have new and existing topics and replies emailed to you, either instantly or via a daily digest. The easiest way to find new posts since your last login is: Get New Topics Since Yor Last Visit And the easiest way to see the active topics for the day: Get Active Topics Both links are available at the top of the main page (registered members only) Also, you can subscribe to any forum: Also, you can subscribe to a specific topic, using the same options as above.

24 and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all members!

Just a note to all members awaiting verification. Verification is a manual process. It may take anywheres from 1-3 days for me to review the information you submit in your email, verify it, and adjust your account. Once that is completled, provided you have completed your public forum profile on here, you will be able to post. You will not recieve an email back confirming you are verified, so just check your profile to indicate when you are. Also, I will not verify any member who does not list in their FORUM PROFILE here their location, affilitation type, and rank. Please repost in the "Applied To Be Verified" thread once you have completed your profile if you are still waiting to be verified. Thanks to all for their participation in this program.

You're absoluetly right. I was wrong to lock the sticker thread. You have to understand where I am coming from though. No matter what I do, I can't win. I have people crying to me that the thread is out of hand, and needs to be locked. I review it, lock the thread, and people complain that I lock it. And a lot of the times, we delete posts, and we do deal with the problems on a individual basis. I want everyone to come on and use this forum. I'm afraid of offending people since I want to attract as many people as possible to post. But I'm learning that some people just don't play well with others, and they can't spoil it for the rest of us who can use this forum constructively. I get accused of being pro-career, pro-volunteer, anti-volunteer, anti-paid, called thin skinned, called a dicatator, facist, crybaby, and all kinds of other accusations and false stories and rumors made up about myself and the moderation of this forum. People have threatend to "get this website shut down". I've even been threatened with physical violence towards me, and with the somebody threatening to "sick the ACLU on you". Many of you know that I get a lot of hate mail for the operation of this forum, and that's just a small glimpse. People are fanatical about this site. I do get a lot of positive feedback too, and to see the results of this site and the good it has done, as well as getting kind emails from members from time to time, is what keeps me going. All I am trying to do is maintain this forum as a constructive place to learn from and exchange information. I'm hoping some of these more conterversial threads will spark at least some thought or give each other a better understanding of the issues. It disheartens me greatly to hear people say this forum is all bullshit, that they are tired of the "rhetoric", that it is propaganda, that all people do is bash each other, etc etc and whatever other biased and unfounded stuff they make up as an excuse. Many of these people don't even post....hmmmm? However, by letting these discussions go on....people AUTOMATICALLY get defensive, completly disregard the people have opinions that may differ from theirs, and then think this board is going to crap or it's improper to let these discussions go on. I think, no I believe that these discussions, if discussed maturely and constructively, will benefit us all, whether or not we can see it now. I find it good that the two "sides' can at least talk, though it's a shame some want to just be defensive and not contribute to the discussion at hand. So I will tolerate the discssions of the more "sensitive issues", as long as no one bashes any specific department or person, or gets into a war with another member. This is also not the forum to rant or air your grievances, rather a place to discuss, understand, and learn...whether you agree or not. And we will still moderate this forum as we see fit. Please also note there's a lot you don't see with the moderation of this forum, and myself and Truck4 take a great deal of heat for this forum, but as mentioned in Truck4's thread, there's a reason why we do what we do. We provide this forum for you guys and girls to use for free and try to keep the format open and civil. As for me personally, I actually hate running this site, I wish I could just be a member sometimes. As a reminder, posting on this forum is a privledge, not a right. And the views expressed on here are those of the individual member and in no way represent the views of the moderation of this forum.

If anybody who's reading this now could just pop in and help me to see if it is still working properly? Thanks!

It's still there and operating (must have JavaScript enabled- works best with Firefox and MSIE) The link is at the top right of the page, enititled "Live Chat" You can also see who's in the chat room in the "Whos Online" section at the bottom of the page, as well as get into the chat room from there. I will be in and out of the chat room this evening. Anyone think a regularly scheduled chat would be a good idea?

A spell checker will be included in a future update or upgrade of the forum For the time being, there's a number of ways to check your spelling, as suggested above.

This serves as a reminder to Verified Members that the following fields in your forum profile must be filled out and visible: LOCATION AFFILIATION TYPE RANK To edit your profile, click here: http://emtbravo.net/index.php?act=UserCP&CODE=01 Since listing these items in your profile is a requirment of the Verification program, any member found missing such will be removed from the Verified Member program. LOCATIONS must be a municpality, not county where you either work OR live. Putting "Northeast" or "Here or There" in your profile is not acceptable Moderators are also required to list this information in their profiles, but please note the Deputy Administrator (Truck4) and I, as the administrators of this forum, do not list our information in our profiles at this time for reasons I don't have time to go into right now. Also, please let me know if you have any suggestions for something to be added to the profiles, such as an addition to the Rank or Affiliation type list. We are always open to suggestions, comments, complaints, or concerns. Please email us at EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com to express such. Thanks! -Seth, EMTBravo EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com

This is to serve as a reminder: Any Verified Member that does has an incomplete profile will be removed from the Verified Member program.

Since I didn't want to be accused of editing your post- removing your commentsso I could address your concern via PM and not get this topic off course, I guess I will respond here. Yes, res6cue can be a little blunt at times, but that's just his nature...just like some other members, and he shouldn't be called out like that because of it. Moderators (now for the time being called Lead Members) may pariticpate in discussions, and interact just like a regular member....in fact, they are just called Lead Members now. There purpose is to encourage discussion, watch out for the negativity/bashing/ranting, monitor Verified Members Profiles, and help forum members use the different features of this forum. MODERATORS, or Lead Members, are NORMAL members of this forum, with added responsbilities) Sometimes, it's hard to tell a persons tone over the keyboard. A person may just be normally blunt, or have a diffferent sense of humor then yours, but theres no reason why we can't discuss something respectfully, even if it gets a bit heated. There's no reason to flame one another, and it disgusts me when people do. If you have an isssue with a moderator, the appropriate way to handle it is to contact me. Not to make a snide, ignorant comment. My email is EMTBravo@EMTBravo.com, and I'd be happy to hear your concerns. LET ME REPEAT IT AGAIN- SINCE SOME PEOPLE ARE STILL NOT GETTING THIS MESSAGE- IF YOU HAVE AN ISSUE WITH A MODERATOR OR MODERATION OF THIS FORUM.....CONTACT ME, USING EMAIL OR PM, AND I WOULD BE HAPPY TO ADDRESS YOUR CONCERNS AND GIVE YOU THE CORRECT INFORMATION. Until then, I would appreciate people ceasing making up lies and propeling myths about the moderation of this forum, especially when they don't know whats going on. Thanks! We do not, nor have we ever, removed or editied postings based on personal opinions, no matter what some want to believe. Now let's end another attack on this forum (this time I'm suprised at it's origination) and get back to discusssing hydrant markings please....

Thanks Mike, very well said, I hope all members will read- and understand. And thanks again for all your numerous hours a week of hard work on these forums- both obvious and behind the scenes, and for your support in making this forum possible for our awesome members.

Here's the deal. This thread is to discuss how to improve working relationships, and not to bash or rant about another agency and specific situations. Please keep this thread on topic, positive, and constructive so it can remain open. Thanks.

We can discuss conterversial topics when done so constructively. In fact, there have been numerous topics on this board that are conterversial and have been discussed constructively. When people start making posts calling the officer a "pig", "he should get hit by a car" etc, then that thread is done. Especially coupled with the fact people were commenting on the incident, and completly skipped over the fact this wasn't about the blocking of the roadway, this was about the argument and behavior that ensued. We felt it best to lock the thread, and begin a new discussion about the traffic safety aspect of the issue, not the specific, isolated incident of two people who had issues with each other. The thread was left open for people to read, along with additional resources to read about the incident. It served no purpose to continue to speculate about this incident.

In regards to this thread http://emtbravo.net/index.php?showtopic=14953 and the hate mail I got: C'mon, where are all the people that gave us heat for locking the topic bashing the NH State Trooper for arresting the fire chief????? If this was such an important issue, aren't you guys going to add your views and insight into this constructive thread? Or was thread locking just an excuse more EMTBravo-hater ammo, and an excuse to make up more unfounded rumors and falsehoods about the operations of this site???/? Let's see some constructive discussion on how we can better our working relationshops with police on the highways.