What do you want in a site?

[JohnR]

Ahh, yes, the super secret member forum. So secret I get asked about it all the time - really, I do.

We created a forum a couple years ago so we could discuss site issues amung a group of people that had been on the site for a few years and people that I and the moderators thought could give us the straight poop and help us steer this site through the crap - which was getting REAL miserable at the time with people PUI (posting under the influence), the teenagers SSX/SSN, and a half dozen other people making the site miserable at the time. . About six eiught months into it, I decided it was not doing as well as what I wanted it too so I capped the members, removed a few that were were really not helping out in there, and have not added anyone since. We have about every "group" of the site in there, the hardcore surf guy, the boat guys, Clammer, guys from MSBA, RI clubs, NJ clubs, NY clubs, we have people from CT, RI, Ma, The Cape (really a seperate entity), NY, NJ, plug people, regular fishers, business owners, and all. We have a few people of just about every "click" on this board. That also allows us to fix problems before they get out of whack too...

And it is not that secret, funny you should ask but a bunch of people, including some voicing about no secret forums, have asked to get access. And it has not been a problem when some people have asked to have their own forum.

That forum has been debated back and forth on whether or not it should even stay open and for us to close it. But it still has some uses. Recently it was used to discuss a problem that if had been made public initially instead of researched, some wrong conclusions could have been made. Not often enough did it do what I wanted it to do - a so called steering commitee for the site, but it has been used that way successfully a lot too. That forum, like some of the other aspects of this site are under review as well.

Spots don't get bragged about and no super secret spot X fishing done there. Again, the intention was to help steer the site.

Bill - that forum started long after you left, and when you came back, nobody else has been put in. It's not supposed to be a social club. There are a lot of people I would put in there, you included, if I felt that the forum was being used as good as it should be. A lot of people have asked to have access in there over time, Canalman, F18, Eben, Swimmer, Ahours, and others, people that could, in my opinion, assist in a "steering" with the site and there are other I would ask. But the forum does not always work as intended so it has not been expanded in well over 18 months and it has been deliberated on a few occasions whether or not to shut it down alltogether.

One of the greatest things about that forum? I - AND THE OTHER MODERATORS, can vent and blow off steam in private, or look into stuff too before opening our big fat traps on the main board...

And don't think this is the only site that has a forum for a few people. Almost all do. As will all larger entities, you have (or certainly should) some people that help manage things and a place to do it - THAT was what it was for. Even though it occasionally gets carried away. Oh, and we do let people swear in there

Oh - one more thing, it really is not a super secret - a lot of people have asked me about it and I have never denied it, whether or exists or what goes on there (and certainly its intention).


Now I would like this to get back on topic to make this place better. That is what I want us to do.... If you have any issues with this, or about that forum, address them to me or to the moderators...


Thanks,


John