Student journalist looking to speak to some of you

[MBJ]

I think you might get more responses if you set your sights lower adamc; I don't know many people who are willing to meet a random stranger and discuss what for many preppers is a private hobby/way of life.

You might be better served by asking specific questions for quantitative data and more open ended ones for qualitative data.

For example, a good question to ask might be why did you get involved in prepping? What are you major concerns etc?

As Yorkshire Andy said, the reasons why people prep are extremely broad and a lot of people prep without even realising it, nor will all people who prep call themselves preppers too.

[Yorkshire Andy]

Think of it like this Adam you live near one of these incidents or are in the middle of it, what would you do at 3am with a fireman banging on your door telling you to evacuate NOW! and you find yourself been sheltered in the local sports hall..... What did you grab on the way out?

You return and your house is 6ft deep in water who's your insurer and what's your policy number.. .

Take been evacuated:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-me ... e-39400587


Or having a baby and getting home with a hungry little one finding this:

http://m.stokesentinel.co.uk/power-cut- ... story.html


Or you get stranded

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21209619

Or you find you have no water

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/sou ... 290681.stm


Its the day to day hitches most of us prepare for which in turn makes you far more resilient to larger issues which might arise


Sadly the media often ridicules preppers to the point of only wanting to focus on knives/ guns making it out that most are nutters (look at the anti knife stories in the media due to stabbings etc... But knives are tools. From cutting string in the garden to cutting up yiur dinner or peeling your spuds....


But when most peppers see the media articles it makes most not want to be associated with prepping in the media for been seen as nuts


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-34637377

After all a jerry can of water , 5kg sack of rice and 3 bags of pasta and a camping stove doesn't grab the headlines but that's the family "fed" for a week ...

[Plymtom]

Imagine a scenario which would make life difficult for you it doesn't have to be asteroids or nukes, for most of us it isn't anyway ( though we join in the debates anyway) prepping can be as simple as keeping a raincoat in your car in case you have to walk if you've broken down, for some of us it all began after forgetting to buy enough toilet paper

Then before you know it your boot resembles a RAC van

Yeah it sort of outlines the prepping mindset in the UK it's the good old scouts "be prepared" " keep calm and carry on" " just in case there's a power cut" as is apposed to the end is nigh folks, Elmer Fudd on crack Doomsday Prepping Nat Geo portrays

Andy also is spot on by saying

This "stuff" covers a very very wide field .
.

Ranging from those of us who keep a little extra food in the cupboard and a couple of torches handy

To the avid gardener for cheap food

To those who wild camp and like bush craft

To those who live In remote areas who get snowed in during winter

Or someone who lives in a flood risk area


Right up to those who feel the need to have a nuclear bunker and plan to sit out world war three living on nothing but baked beans sat on top of half a dozen silly zombie knives "just in case" which the media seem obsessed with

and of course backing it up with very good practical examples from the BBC, well done Andy!

You'll find many of us have cupboards and safes full of "toys" for Archery and Shooting or tools for those of us who hunt/pest control, just by reading you may also feel relieved that no one wants to go mad and hurt anybody, in fact I've said it before if someone does want a crossbow, air rifle, or anything else, their motives often are for fun truth be known, concealed by "they could come in handy" to convince other halves to let them get one after watching the walking dead

In fact I have to say the apocalypse in all it's forms is talked about and presented by our media particularly the tabloids in a far more " Doomsday Preppers" manner than the folks here feel, those extreme scenarios goodness knows there's tons of film and documentary programs which present the when, not if argument out there, but we still have the god sense ( especially as many of us are fairly long in the tooth) that they are long odds to happen to any of us in our lifetimes, let alone all of us at once, doesn't mean we don't prepare for any of it, it means we're far more sensible.

Even if you look at the youtube gang and I'm sure you have, you'll not that a few of them who were at the heart of the UK Preppers on TV have become the core of what is a highly social crowd of people, families who come together much like the bushcraft folk do to , and there's a crossover, hell if it were th 70s they would have been sid James and the gang making "Carry on Prepping" It's all very British and rest assured there's loads of tea bags, dried milk, and sugar in my cupboards, toilet paper by the hundreds, but only one Klingon arse scratcher ( Silly Zombie knife) but it's handle is a dragon and it looks sort of awesome, useless as anything other than an ornament of course.

[sethorly]

If someone's been careless with their own contribution, they're likely to be careless with your contribution.

[Brambles]

If someone's been careless with their own contribution, they're likely to be careless with your contribution.

Not everyone can be bothered to post a perfectly penned narrative. We've managed to do without Grammar Nazis thus far.

[itsybitsy]

If someone's been careless with their own contribution, they're likely to be careless with your contribution.

Not everyone can be bothered to post a perfectly penned narrative. We've managed to do without Grammar Nazis thus far.

Thanks Brambles -that was 'perfectly penned'.

[Brambles]

If someone's been careless with their own contribution, they're likely to be careless with your contribution.

Not everyone can be bothered to post a perfectly penned narrative. We've managed to do without Grammar Nazis thus far.

Thanks Brambles -that was 'perfectly penned'.

[sethorly]

I think you'd have a point if this was just an ordinary poster; I too dislike grammar nazis. But it isn't an ordinary poster. It's someone approaching us to conduct business. Let him learn a valuable lesson since he's a student - that sloppiness on an online forum or other form of communication is fine unless you're going about a professional task.

However, I appreciate you might want a blanket be-nice policy on a forum - I understand that - so I'll be nice

[itsybitsy]

I think you'd have a point if this was just an ordinary poster; I too dislike grammar nazis. But it isn't an ordinary poster. It's someone approaching us to conduct business. Let him learn a valuable lesson since he's a student - that sloppiness on an online forum or other form of communication is fine unless you're going about a professional task.

However, I appreciate you might want a blanket be-nice policy on a forum - I understand that - so I'll be nice

OK, this conversation's over for you sotherly, take a ban.

[Plymtom]

If someone's been careless with their own contribution, they're likely to be careless with your contribution.

Not everyone can be bothered to post a perfectly penned narrative. We've managed to do without Grammar Nazis thus far.

Yes I agree with Itsy, I often do a long winded grammatically correct post can go over the head of many of us especially if time is short and reading is slow, I make the effort with our American friend because they are often so well thought out and an education of sorts in themselves, I have a dislike of text speak which I have to reign in these days because we all do it in some way, and acronyms- infuriating if you don't know them, I have found the grammar nazis amusing of late which they are when in a comedic manner, but it take it to a hostile bristly first meeting isn't a good thing, you don't see me on welcome threads very often firstly because it makes my activity seem too much "hello and welcome" to every newbie up to ten times a week would make me look far too important for my own liking secondly we do get the occasional plonker of varying types so I interact on input rather than introductions for the most part, as a long standing non mod who wants to preserve the spirit of the place I enjoy the wriggle room I hope I've earned over the years to go someway toward speaking my mind without crossing the lines completely, so it is with political and religious matters, so it must be with our individual levels of communicative skills, if the mods are giving some rope then follow suit, for the mods will jump in quick enough if needs be

However, I appreciate you might want a blanket be-nice policy on a forum - I understand that - so I'll be nice

Well not entirely, the mods sometimes come down from a great height apparently without mercy on a complete plonker, Deep's spidey senses told him to go with the flow and give a little rope, and I for one am cool with that, where we fall down here is if we have put someone off us, does that serve us any better than the stereotype we get labelled with?

OK, this conversation's over for you sotherly, take a ban.

I've been trying to reply since about 7 AM getting distracted with life, I've seen Itsybitsy sitting on her hands enough times to know if a mod is warning someone about a bad attitude, one last snipe may indeed prove to be just that.