Drama Has To Stop !!

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by jimmythegreek

Gerry what we need on this site is a private area, and before I go any further I understand that the open platform of this site is what makes the sponsors and the system work as a whole. If we had 1 area even for the whole board, that had a minimum required post count like 100 or more, where things could be protected like spots and public talk. I, for one, dont like the amount of lurkers that are on this site, if you google ANY body of water NJF threads show up in the return, and ppl are being very quiet of their fishing and their pics. I used to be open of all my catches and lots of pics, but I rly cant anymore. I share everything to those I know and many on here, but not to guys I never met and contribute zero to this site. Many of us are tight on this site, and fish and talk off the board, take a poll and see how many of us are recognized in bait shops and on the water by zero post guys, and we see them on our spots......my 2 cents

Thanks for the suggestion Jimmy. As near as I can tell, I have the option of setting up another sub forum and can make it a semi private forum. This would allow people who are registered to view it but non registered members can not. There is no option for me to set up it so that only members with X amount of posts can view it. It's only registered vs non registered users.

I guess we could call it The NJFishing.com Insiders Forum

To be honest, I have mixed emotions about this for various reasons.

On the negative side
- If all of a sudden everyone starts posting there and non registered members can't see it then it detracts from the content available on the site... Right now at any given time we have 5 times as many unregistered guests than registered members viewing the site. This could be detrimental to site traffic and the people who want to visit but not contribute.
- What do we allow or not allow to be posted in this catch all private section.... Is it a free for all or only fishing related entries?
- It's another board to have to monitor and manage
- If people know that posts on this board can only be viewed by members does that mean they are more apt to misbehave?
- If we do this and people want access to the private sub forum all they would need to do is register to gain access.... I guess that is better than nothing but it's not going to help with your initial issue of only giving access to to people who contribute.

On the plus side
- It does encourage people to register and if they do register I think they would be more apt to contribute.
- I think most of our members might like this feature but what about our sponsors? As you know, I have to maintain a balance between everyone's interests... No sponsors no website, no or fewer members and visitors visitors, what sponsors will want to advertise here?

Need to give this some careful consideration but what ever I decide it's sure to piss someone off