Is RallyPoint as good as it once was?

SGT William Howell, I understand your frustration. Let's consider some of the posts as "growing pains" and I'll bet RP gets back on track. Like you, I find posts of cats uninspiring; however, I do appreciate the periodic updates that are very relevant to my life as a veteran. I always recommend making suggestions to the RP team in order to improve upon an already good product they have provided.

"As an E-5 Vet there is not much I can tell a O-5 about and there is not much I need from a O-5 in my professional life." -- neither statement is true, you have a lot to contribute to others' lives, and they have a lot to contribute (and want to) to your life. You should use more of the "Hide this Post" capability and also adjust what you see in your settings.

I like it okay. The only thing I don't care for is someone downing your post or comment without an explanation, if we were face to face would you do that? I think not.

SGT William Howell These are great questions. I understand how you're feeling. I've asked if the number of contributors is down and was told no the number is up. It may be in how we were used to viewing posts compared to the options that are now available to view them. What I mean is are you looking at the posts that are made under the "Home" option or looking under the drop down from the "Answers" option. Under the "Answers" option you will find "My Discussions" which are more personalized for you. RP is trying to get the relevant content in front of the right people. They've been tweeking the systems asking for and accepting suggestions for making RP a better place.
When people post, the more people that engage in the post the higher it will be in the feed and the more people that will see it. If you want specific people to engage in a post with you, you may try tagging them in because they may not be seeing that specific post due to the personalization.
When people engage in what you post then more people see it.
Don't forget about the Post an Update link allows the user to post to just his or her contacts and the messaging option allows for private messages to be sent and received.
SSG Howell I hope that you stay on RP, I've always enjoyed your contributions and occasionally having discussions with you.
Others may be able to give you a better answer LTC Yinon Weiss SSG Carlos Madden SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4"

SGT William Howell I agree to some extent, I like the quasi-networking aspect of it. Essentially, it was a "club", sort of a facebook, but with similar mindsets.
For me it is about staying in touch with, and seeing/hearing/discussing viewpoints related to contemporary military issues, because they potentially are applicable to myself and my unit.

I do not care for the new format. It may be better, but I like the old better.

There are discussions that interest me and those that don't. There are people who share my point of view and those who don't. There are discussions where I can merely lurk and learn. Others are boring. Why should I complain that some people annoy me when it is so easy to ignore them? Why should I complain that some people don't share my point of view or interests when there are others who do? Why should I whine that the world isn't perfectly suited to my every whim when so much of it intrigues me? No, RP isn't perfect, but then what is? Who is? Certainly not me. Certainly not you.

I really enjoyed RP way back when there was unlimited thumbs up. Missed those days. Those were the days when we had fun hijacking topics, I know many of my topics were hijacked by those close to me, were talking about one topic then in the middle of it all the topic changed to something else that was more fun, because we were able to interact laugh at each other willingly. What I see now is a new look to RP, still have everyone I requested for and those whom requested for me, I can still email them when ever I want, but I guess one of the reasons why I don't post much, its not because I lost interest, but because every question I really wanted to know about todays (Army) compare to my time were all asked and answered. Posting some questions in my time was fun, like "Who is your favorite RP Member?", it got personal but in a good way. Its really all up to you as a member on how creative you can get to have others interact with you and if they feel very comfortable then get ready to have the topic get high jacked for the fun of it :), I guess once you have that, its a good feeling to know that years ago when RP didn't exists, here you sit with a group of people you never meet but have many things in common with, enjoying each other in a respectful way. Life for me wouldn't be the same if it existed without both SM and Veterans together in this kind of environment. Sometimes leaving RP may not be a good thing, but taking some time off to regroup ones mind and thoughts is. Some how many who one day decide to leave actually come back not knowing why and choose to stay. We all one thing in common here, we all served in the military so we all know what it was like.

It has become a haven of Memes and some worthless information. It was designed to help Soldiers, Sailor, Marines and Airmen with networking and issues. This part is till there, but a majority of my feeds are nothing but facebook/twitter garbage,

SGT William Howell I do not like the new format,the format that was in place when i joined seemed more suited to the purpose .

For me, it feels a lot like any other discussion group grounded in professional subject matter. We get to break away from the "usual" responses, which I feel helps RP members of all ages/experiences learn something useful. I sometimes see "angles" I'd never have seen otherwise, and continue to learn from those with more experience than myself. I take most "up" votes as validation my thought patterns and skill sets are on par..."down" votes as areas I may know less than I thought :)