Separate Sub Forum for Charter and Party Boat Reports?

[Gerry Zagorski]

This has come up in the past so just want to throw it our there again. If you are a sponsor on this site, do you think it would be better to have a separate sub forum for charter and party boat reports?

This would mean your reports would go there and not in the general Saltwater Fishing section.

Sponsors only please, vote below.

[JBird]

I would vote absolutely yes. If you end up doing this then I would lobby to get my boss to put the boat back on this site. You've needed this for years now. I would also make it 100% closed to comments. It would make it SO much nicer to just have reports and that's it. Period. End of story. No complaints, no compliments, no stupid flame wars over whatever. Anybody who wants to any of that can post their own report in the regular report section.
Giving the people who pay for this site their own forum is long overdue.

[bowhunter]

I think things are fine the way they are.

[1captainron]

I would vote absolutely yes. If you end up doing this then I would lobby to get my boss to put the boat back on this site. You've needed this for years now. I would also make it 100% closed to comments. It would make it SO much nicer to just have reports and that's it. Period. End of story. No complaints, no compliments, no stupid flame wars over whatever. Anybody who wants to any of that can post their own report in the regular report section.
Giving the people who pay for this site their own forum is long overdue.

Agreed.....

[Capt Joe]

Agreed.....

For sure.

[Joey Dah Fish]

I think that's a great idea it should also be limited to one post per trip

[Down Deep Sportfishing]

I would vote absolutely yes. You've needed this for years now. I would also make it 100% closed to comments. It would make it SO much nicer to just have reports and that's it. Period. End of story. No complaints, no compliments, no stupid flame wars over whatever. Anybody who wants to any of that can post their own report in the regular report section.
Giving the people who pay for this site their own forum is long overdue.

Agreed.

I think that's a great idea it should also be limited to one post per trip

Agreed.

[Taxman]

Just curios, how many of the 14 votes are sponsors and how many are people who cant follow instructions? :D:p

[tombanjo]

Another click? As a consumer I'm for one stop shopping. As to the former sponsor who doesn't want comments, well, the overwhelming majority are of the attaboy variety but the few negative ones are quite frankly entertaining and sometimes informative for the reader. I understand the desire to censor as sponsors are paying to advertise but the site should continue to do the nice job it does now of walking the fine line between serving the needs of both readers and sponsors.

[Capt Sal]

I would vote absolutely yes. If you end up doing this then I would lobby to get my boss to put the boat back on this site. You've needed this for years now. I would also make it 100% closed to comments

Now that is a good idea!

[Pennsy Guy]

Excellent idea...pros & cons would be posted on this forum as well as other reports on a specific trip as it has been done in the past....

[TAGGED FISH]

So our posts will be in 2 forums.

[Gerry Zagorski]

So our posts will be in 2 forums.

Your fishing reports would go in the Charter and Party Boat report section Chad, not in the Salt Water fishing section. Open boat page would remain as is.

[TAGGED FISH]

Separate forum sounds great to me . Thank you for the effort

[Andreas Toy]

Leave it as is.

[Capt. Debbie]

GREAT POINT! They should not vote

The site is here for fishermen info. And sponsors give info to fisherman- not the other way around.

Like the North- South fisherman areas we USED to have. It's just more clicking to find what you need and serve no purpose.

"locked" reports by the Sponsor also cut out members who were on that boat and have something to share. And yes it's sometimes bad and badly mishandled by the grieving fisherman. That eventually comes out too.

Guess which way I voted?

This site exists for the consuming fishermen. If that's what FISHERMEN want then its fine. Personally extra levels of clicking are a nuisance, not a desired feature.



Just curios, how many of the 14 votes are sponsors and how many are people who cant follow instructions? :D:p

[Capt. Debbie]

As a former Sponsor... the sponsors are here because of the readers. Not the other way around.

Sponsors will get more user traffic being on the main page ( everyone views that first) of fishing occurences. Separation is flattering but not necessarily getting people to read it every day.


Another click? As a consumer I'm for one stop shopping. As to the former sponsor who doesn't want comments, well, the overwhelming majority are of the attaboy variety but the few negative ones are quite frankly entertaining and sometimes informative for the reader. I understand the desire to censor as sponsors are paying to advertise but the site should continue to do the nice job it does now of walking the fine line between serving the needs of both readers and sponsors.

[Gerry Zagorski]

So, as far as sponsors who voted are concerned, we have 7 that would like a separate forum and 4 that do not....

As far as everyone who voted, including sponsors, we have 17 who would like a separate forum and 12 that do not....

Looks like we are leaning to add another forum and see how that goes since both sponsors and readers prefer that.

Truth be told, I'm not in favor of a separate forum since I contend that the sponsors on this site are better served with their reports in the main Saltwater Forum which is hit a lot. If we put their reports in a separate forum, it will be one more place people interested in salt water fishing have to click to see their reports.

More to follow here and I've been wrong before, so we shall see how it goes.

[Tenacious Sportfishing]

I fail to see any benefits and the con is a loss of some eyeballs.
Keep the status Quo!

[Kevin Bogan]

When I joined this site, tackle guys like myself could post on the main page. After awhile they created a tackle page. I'm sure Gerry thought it was a good idea, and told me he thought it would eventually take hold.
If you look at the # of people on saltwater, the main section, you will see that it has about 90% more activity than Bait/tackle. The classified section actually has more viewers throughout the day.
If you look at the tackle section, I have most of the posts on the page, and they are actually spread out over may days/weeks. This means that the page barely turns over. One good day of fishing and the main page has every line available filled in a matter of hours. In my opinion, the separate forum for what I do, is not as good. Always wondered why the eyes on first ave [sunglasses/accessories] posts on that section, but I cant?]:confused:
My point, if there is a separate section, charter and party boats will be looked at as a second thought. The fact is, the main page is the whole website. I think as a paid sponsor I should be able to post on it. You can have a few more forums, but like it or not, the main section is what they come here for.
Keep adding sections/forums, it will water down the site.

[Gerry Zagorski]

When I joined this site, tackle guys like myself could post on the main page. After awhile they created a tackle page. I'm sure Gerry thought it was a good idea, and told me he thought it would eventually take hold.
If you look at the # of people on saltwater, the main section, you will see that it has about 90% more activity than Bait/tackle. The classified section actually has more viewers throughout the day.
If you look at the tackle section, I have most of the posts on the page, and they are actually spread out over may days/weeks. This means that the page barely turns over. One good day of fishing and the main page has every line available filled in a matter of hours. In my opinion, the separate forum for what I do, is not as good. Always wondered why the eyes on first ave [sunglasses/accessories] posts on that section, but I cant?]:confused:
My point, if there is a separate section, charter and party boats will be looked at as a second thought. The fact is, the main page is the whole website. I think as a paid sponsor I should be able to post on it. You can have a few more forums, but like it or not, the main section is what they come here for.
Keep adding sections/forums, it will water down the site.

Kevin - the reason you can't post on the main forum is we have a forum for bait and tackle talk. The reason I allow Eyes on First to post on the main forum is because we don't have an eyeglass or accessories forum and they are the only sponsor that sells this sort of stuff.... Also, we have several bait and tackle sponsors here and if they all posted in the main forum, it would get over run with their solicitation stuff... They are however allowed to post fishing reports in the main forum if they'd like.

[captainrich]

I believe that it should stay the way it is - many more "eyeballs" look at the general forum

[bulletbob]

Here's my take.. The guys that want to see party/charter reports would be happy to simply click over and check out the reports.. i would do it daily, although I only go out maybe 4 times a year on head boats..

You must remember.. A very sizable percentage of membership here fishes from the shore, or from their own boats, and would like to post, read, and contribute to topics about general salt water fishing that is more in line with how they fish..

Personally I have been publicly chastised on these pages for posting general fishing threads on the "reports" page which it NEVER was. Reports were just a part of the Salt Water section.
This is a fine forum, make NO mistake in what I am writing here, I am NOT complaining.. However at times, the "general fishing" forum becomes a "reports only" section, and guys get pissed if you write general interest salt water fishing content.

A party/charter section would be great, and would be VERY well used here, with as much or more traffic as any other section, and it would allow those of us that enjoy "general interest" salt water fishing topics to post as we like without intruding or intrusion... bob