# Our company has questions for preppers about prepping! Is this an appropriate place?



## uparo (Mar 17, 2013)

"Our company is developing an exciting new web-based tool for individuals, families, and groups that are looking for easier ways to become prepared for natural disaster or emergency and manage their preparedness plan and resources. We were started by a group of individuals from all walks of life including: software engineers, former military personnel, stay-at-home moms, corporate managers, and private security contractors who wanted to be find an easier way to become prepared quickly and maintain their level of preparedness. Our goal is to deliver an online tool that will make preparing for natural disaster or emergencies simple, easy, and measurable.

If this is not an appropriate part of the forum to post this to we apologize in advance and are happy to post elsewhere if asked!

In order to deliver the best tool, WE COULD REALLY USE YOUR FEEDBACK! We believe that our best ideas do not matter if they aren't solving a real need that preppers and non-preppers alike face when working to prepare.

We have six short questions about prepping that we'd really like your opinion on and have a Google Survey Form link below if you are willing to help us out.

Your answers are COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL and do not require an email address or any personal information about you to complete the survey. ONLY IF you'd like to be contacted again to help us further refine our product, or are interested in being one of our first alpha users, leave your email address (not required to submit the below survey - you can complete it anonymously) in the OPTIONAL section last of the form.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1uEyH8uGaByCiCTbUduEAc7P8o3clcZGKbhAUrwbtlZ4/viewform

This is NOT SPAM, we WILL NOT use any information to market to you. Right now we are taking the time to get feedback from the prepping community so we can make the best tool possible.

Thank you for taking your time to answer just a few short questions in order to help us deliver the best online tool for individuals, families, and groups who are looking for an easy way to become prepared for any disaster or emergency! We sincerely appreciate your honest and candid feedback. Also, if our questions don't touch on or address a problem you think exists for you, please tell us so we can hone in on additional problems too!"


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

Call me paranoid but there's not a chance in hell I'd list my preps in detail ANYWHERE online.


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## Cabowabo (Nov 6, 2012)

tsrwivey said:


> Call me paranoid but there's not a chance in hell I'd list my preps in detail ANYWHERE online.


Hell I wouldn't even store my prep inventory in a computer that is connected to the internet.


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## bahramthered (Mar 10, 2012)

tsrwivey said:


> Call me paranoid but there's not a chance in hell I'd list my preps in detail ANYWHERE online.


It doesn't ask that in anything but the most vague way.


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## mojo4 (Feb 19, 2012)

If your company is really curious about what to prepare and store in advance just review all the forums here. Lots of great info and advise from the members. But I doubt anyone will take surveys and list stuff. We tend to be a cautious bunch!


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I answered the questions - rather I asked more questions than were on the survey. I think it would be nice to have an easy to use tool for new preppers. Of course, the competition is going to be pretty stiff because there are already some tools available.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

Well, duh... I just saw the poll at the top of the thread. I think if you're in this forum you'll chose "Nope" or "Maybe"..... more likely "Nope". That being said, this tool should be more for the newbie who needs specific direction on where to start and how to start. IMHO.


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## uparo (Mar 17, 2013)

Thanks for all the great feedback.

Thanks all for comments - we really appreciate them. Also understand the concerns being voiced. We definitely don't want anyone to share anything with us that they aren't comfortable sharing - we're trying to drill into the hardest and easiest parts of prepping that "could" be made easier through an online tool.

The reality is - we're preppers and those trying to prep who were frustrated that it didn't seem like there was an easy way to begin prepping simply and manage and track our progress - especially when we were first starting.

Yes, there are a TON of FANTASTIC forums (just like this one!) but we also want to take basic knowledge and make it easy for ANYONE to prepare. We believe a world full of people who are prepared is better than a world with just a few and want to make preparedness accessible to almost anyone.

A lot of the comments are making us strongly consider if this type of web-based tool would be much better suited towards the novice/noob user. We suspected this but it's always so much better to have it confirmed. Better to ask people if your idea is stupid than to build it and have them tell you afterward! 

lol

But, before we finalize our product, we wanted to ask real preppers what was most important to them and figured that these same forums and users we've learned through for a long time to build and develop our own plans would be the best to ask about aspects of the tool and solution we're trying to build.

So, thank you to those that are able/willing to answer, and to those that aren't - we completely respect your opinion and you are giving us some really good feedback which says - OPSEC is important in whatever we deliver as a tool and anything that stores anything personal or identifiable is an immediate non-starter.

- The Uparo Team -


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## cqp33 (Apr 2, 2012)

A forum such as this one is the best forum, from people are like minded and have worked through issues that we are having! Also take note that this site is free for most and supported by those that choose to upgrade their membership to help support it! This was done knowing that a lot of people prep "on a budget" such as myself!

No as for your survey, the link is to a document on google, how secure is google? Do you control googles server? How can you maintain the information securely if you don't even control the server? That is right, you CAN'T!

I agree that what you are trying to create will only those that are just starting out and once they find a forum such as this they would no longer use your site! Good luck but look for another venue for a business opportunity, I don't think that model would work for long!

Just my $.02


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

If someone wants ot build an algorythm more power to them.

I always felt there was need for one so people dont go crazy and spend 7000 dollars on 10 guns gun but only 600 dollars on ammo and such.

I think it could be a valuable tool especially for beginners and if the underlying data and assumptions are good approximations.

The evaluations that the history channel and others have done often seem arbitrary to me.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

To be honest there are sooooo many free sites that do this same thing. As the more informed members here share these free sites with new members the pay-to-play sites will die off.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

Come on fellas. lets play nice.
yes most of the volume posters on here wont need it but there are so many newbies out these why not?

If we give free advice to random guys , lets give honest and good faith input to these guys who are trying to make a better tool.

Whether its for pay or not doenst matter.
For pay stuff is usually better.

I remember some of the ludicrous "test sites" that wee linked here before, that had no granularity and no proportional judgement.

Kudos to anyone who wants to get it right.


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## cqp33 (Apr 2, 2012)

OK I will agree with that, most people prepping are on a budget though and that is why they would most likely shy away from a "pay" site. For newbies it may be a good thing for a start but I am just looking at how many people have "pay" sites up right now and after some people pay for the info they realize they could have gotten it here for free!

Take for example I remember a site that wanted you to pay for the "34 essential items" and I don't remember if it was items in a bug out bag, items for an emergency or whatever. It was talked about on here for a long, long time and the opinion was that it all depended on your situation, current living conditions, geographic location, type of emergency, etc... So it is my belief that there is no "one size fits all" approach, all of these factors would have to be taken into consideration before one could start preparing a list of items to be prepared and then how to prioritize that list is another ball of wax all together and would most likely depend on the factors listed above and budget as well!

My first post probably came off as rude, that was not my intent! Privacy would be my biggest concern, someone could hack the site and find out what everyone has especially if it was a "pay" site because the billing info would be right there! If the site contained a list of what everyone had it would be a shopping list for would be bad people! I could see it now, "Well so and so 2 blocks over has this and no firearms yet so we can go there and steal from them"! A secure server and privacy should be your first concern to tackle because as was mentioned before we are a real touchy group to deal with when it comes to OPSEC, it is primary for us!


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## Magus (Dec 1, 2008)

Meh, I took it.seems legit.


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

cqp33 said:


> OK I will agree with that, most people prepping are on a budget though and that is why they would most likely shy away from a "pay" site.


Agreed. You will always find a few payers, but they are not the majority.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I voted no, because it just does not feel right to me to put that information out there all over the place. Sure, I use these forums, but there's no detailed list here with my name on it.

I wish the OP the best but it's not something I care to participate in.


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## Tribal Warlord Thug (Jan 27, 2009)

Jason said:


> I voted no, because it just does not feel right to me to put that information out there all over the place. Sure, I use these forums, but there's no detailed list here with my name on it.
> 
> I wish the OP the best but it's not something I care to participate in.


yer here so they (.Gov) already know ya.....

online opsec...no such thing


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## ContinualHarvest (Feb 19, 2012)

uparo said:


> "Our company is developing an exciting new web-based tool for individuals, families, and groups that are looking for easier ways to become prepared for natural disaster or emergency and manage their preparedness plan and resources. We were started by a group of individuals from all walks of life including: software engineers, former military personnel, stay-at-home moms, corporate managers, and private security contractors who wanted to be find an easier way to become prepared quickly and maintain their level of preparedness. Our goal is to deliver an online tool that will make preparing for natural disaster or emergencies simple, easy, and measurable.
> 
> If this is not an appropriate part of the forum to post this to we apologize in advance and are happy to post elsewhere if asked!
> 
> ...


I voted that it depends on what the app does. No online. Many (smart) people hold OPSEC near and dear. Maybe a stand alone application that doesn't dial home. It would need to be java or similarly based so it could run cross platform. Something that might back up to a personal dropbox or cloud server might be ok. But most importantly, can be printed out in a hard format and put in a binder. I have a feeling in a post SHTF world, net access will be very limited to nonexistent.


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## CulexPipiens (Nov 17, 2010)

Make it a stand alone app that DOES NOT REQUIRE internet and you might have something. Other than info, anything that tracks, categories, organizes, etc. and is on the internet will see a large part of your market simply not be willing to use it. Might be privacy concerns, or marketing concerns or what happens if the gov. subpoenas your data or what if the internet is down or...

In general, given the wide variety of budgets, situations and approaches, I have a hard time imagining an app that does more than simple tracking... and I have written many, many apps and web sites over the past three decades. A list is useless if you don't have the skills to use the items on the list and recommendations would be quite hard to make as everyone's situation is quite different. 

I'm not trying to disuade you, just thinking from my point of view of what would be feasible and what wouldn't.


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## Aliaysonfire (Dec 18, 2012)

I really don't think I could use an app like this. Just too risky. There's no such thing as Internet privacy.


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## FrankW (Mar 10, 2012)

If its an qpp on your device it doesnt have to be connected.
I think if its done right and well it can be a useful tool for many folks.
Maybe nto for allt he advanced members here but many many beginners are out there.


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