I've started and deleted this post more times than I'd like to admit, because there's no easy way to say it. So I'm going to be straight with you, the way I'd want someone to be straight with me.

I've been running this community for 16 years. It started as BeerLeg back in the summer of 2010, became SurveyorConnect a couple of months later when corporate firewalls didn't care for the word "beer," and today it carries the RPLS.com name, continuing the legacy Mark Deal started back in 1996. Through every name change, software rebuild, and server move, one thing never changed: this has been a labor of love. I was a surveyor myself from 1986 to 2009, and building a place where our profession could talk shop, swap war stories, argue boundary law, and lean on one another has been one of the great honors of my working life.

But I owe you the truth about where things stand. For most of those 16 years, I've run this just to break even, and plenty of years I didn't even manage that. We had some wonderful advertisers for a while, but Covid wiped them out and they never came back. I dropped ad rates to almost nothing to bring in the smaller shops, and it has barely moved the needle. The membership plans help, and I'm grateful beyond words to everyone on them, but the honest fact is it isn't nearly enough to justify the hours this takes. I've reached the point where I can't keep pouring myself into something that isn't sustainable. Something has to change.

So here's what I've decided — and I wanted to give you a real heads-up well before anything actually changes. I'm going to find out, once and for all, whether this community can stand on its own two feet. This August, I'm planning to move the forums to a membership model. Here's the gist of how it would work:

• The active, recent discussions would be for members.
• Visitors who aren't logged in, and members who haven't subscribed, would see topic titles and a short preview of each discussion.
• Our older archive would stay open to everyone, so the years of discussions you've come to rely on — and the threads people find through Google — won't disappear behind a wall.

The idea is simple: if this place has real value to the people who use it, then it's worth a small amount to keep it alive. And if it turns out folks aren't willing to support it, then I'll have my answer, and I can make my peace with that.

A few things I want to be clear about up front, because I know they'll be on your mind:

• If you already support RPLS.com — whether you're on a monthly plan or you've sent the occasional donation over the years — you'll be grandfathered in, automatically. You won't have to do a thing or pay a penny more. You've already had my back, and I'm not about to ask you to do it twice.
• It will be affordable. I'm not doing this to price working surveyors out. It'll be a modest annual amount — a rounding error next to what we all spend on equipment and software, and easily worth it if this place saves you a single headache a year. I'll share the exact pricing when the system goes live.
• Early members will be rewarded. The folks who step up first will get a special founding rate, locked in for good. More on that when we launch.

Nothing changes today. The membership system goes live in early August, and I'll post all the details — pricing, the founding offer, and how to join — the moment it's ready.

Let me also be straight about the bigger picture, because you've earned it. There are really only three possible ways this goes from here:

1. If enough of you join that the community sustains itself, then RPLS.com keeps going strong for years to come. That's what I'm hoping for with everything I've got.
2. If it doesn't bring in enough to be viable, then I look to hand it off to someone respectable in our industry with the resources to do right by it.
3. If neither of those pans out, I have to shut it down for good.

But here's why I'm posting this now, weeks ahead of any change: I genuinely want your honest take before I build this. If you think a membership model is the right move, tell me. If you think I'm making a mistake, tell me that too. If there's something about how I'm planning to do it that worries you, I'd rather hear it now than after I've flipped the switch. This community was built by surveyors, for surveyors, and I'd be a fool not to ask its members what they think before I act.

Whatever happens next — thank you. Truly. Getting to know so many of you over this time has meant more to me than this ever made in dollars.

— Wendell

Has anyone figured out a work around on this?

Was up near the park today. Bear grass is blooming. It’s Mrs File favorite wildflower.  Later I stopped at another job. Yeah it’s probably fine…..

It's a tripod stabilizer (?) but not the rigid type. I once saw some exhibitors use one made of flexible hard plastic instead of the chain or a fixed metal bracket. 

So while preparing a plat today there comes an exception. As long as there is a note on the plat saying that code doesn't apply, then the code goes away, you have to be specific, but the code is negated by the note. My poor younger partner told me about it this afternoon and I went off. We are in the middle of fighting over this very thing on two subdivisions, and now they tell us all we needed to do is put a few words on the plat and it goes away. How is that even fair. Of course, every plat will get that language now. For F!!$k sakes. 

I just joined the forum. Happy I found it. I am an old semi-retired LS with equipment I love but it is also old. I run a Geodimeter 600 pro robot with a 48GX SMI data collector. Same system for 26 years. I now have the dreaded replace the backup battery flash when I fire up the gun. The shop I used to use will no longer support this gun. Looking on ebay I have found a Trimble 5603 Dr200 Robot at a reasonable price. I would probably just be exchanging one fragile system for another but I am willing to take a chance to get another year or 2 before I hang it up.  My question is, does anyone know if this gun would work with the SMI Data Collector. It appears the guns use radios on different radio frequencies (red dot vs blue dot) Is this a problem? The system comes with a Trimble TSC2, but I have no idea how to run it or if that would be a data collection system equal to the SMI. Thanks to anyone that can help 

Say this guy only does the pre construction certificate for the city, will FEMA find and harass him about the post construction certificate? Or is there a chance he can just ignore the post construction certificate and get away with it?

The reason I ask is I've already gone out and set a benchmark for him and topo'd the property and the whole thing is 5 feet above the BFE so any certificates are a total waste of his money.

Plus, it's being held September Tuesday the 15th - Thursday the 17th and, by lucky coincidence, on Saturday the 19th at 12 p.m., Munich’s Lord Mayor performs the ceremonial tapping of the first keg for Oktoberfest. 

Just made my reservations. There are a few companies where I want to talk with the developers in person rather than having to go through distributors. 

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