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Fishing Reports Section changes

1M views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  leonidus 
#1 ·
Hey everyone after reading everyone's comments I have been doing some thinking on ways to address the concerns you all have voiced your opinions on, which I am very thankfull for your feedback and I will try to address as many as I can. Today I have added a new feature that will allow members to add a "thanks" to a thread or post, like you see here.

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Now here is my thinking for the reports sections. There has been allot of people talking about wanting to report but wont because of the negative flaming that some members like to do. (it helps with their lack of self confidence) So here is my thought; I would like to have the fishing reports sections only open to posting new threads, no replies and if people want to show their support and say thanks, they would just push the "thanks button" and under the thread it will show that members name and all other who have all said thanks, no more negative bullshit. That would also eliminate post padding and will force those to send a PM if they want to ask questions. what do you think?
 

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#5 ·
I think It is a good idea. And if someone has questions about the post then you can just pm them. Not this will just be for the reports section right. Cause if we are posting in the fish showoff thread then you want to be able to comment right?
Yes, it would only be for the reports sections only!
 
#8 ·
Another idea that has been considered is tightening up a bit with the moderation of reports and cracking down on flaming instead...More work, less desireable...we have loosened up quite a bit on how the site is moderated and I think most would agree for the better.

Leaving the reports open to comment, and tightening up the moderation of them is a hard sell, but it does leave the door open for those reports that lead to truly interesting, informative and productive discussions that you just couldn't deliberately start on your own...some of those really generate some fantastic stuff, both funny and helpful too...there are pros and cons either way.

The hard part is that the reason for this is to encourage people to participate...but that is the key here, and in many cases people don't because there is that flaming of their pic, or the spot they revealed or their fish handling etc...we don't want that. Furthermore, constructive criticism and learning gets diluted a bit without comments as well, so it is a tough decision...
But what confounds it is a lot of the time the criticism has been through pm too, and we can't really control that unless people notify us, so in some ways it is very hard to get a handle on the negative crap.

Definitely want the members input on this guys, the straight goods, lay it down for us and help us sort this out...
 
#10 ·
I actually like the comments but obviously no-one likes the flaming apart from the flamers. My thought is that it would make for a lot more PMing. I do like the thanks button though. Maybe we could have a 'who cares' button for the flamers.....:p
I have to agree with arrgh!

I do like the thanks button but I think it would be better if posters of reports were more weary of what they are posting.. If you you throw out a hot spotter river report you are going to piss people off.. Not to mention the ten guys standing there when you show up to "your" spot the next time... The power of the internet.

I like doing reports... and the commentary afterwards. Your idea (Rick) will lead to a bunch of PM's (which I would rather ignore on the board ;))

I am all for trying it...


Every time a member clicks the "thanks" on your thread, you would receive 5 rep points.
Now you are starting to sound like Harper ;):p
 
#11 ·
I found it interesting this weekend when a particular spot on the river had alot of fish caught on it.
The word got out pretty fast as i see most guys talking on their phones more than fishing some times.
Technology makes for a small world sometimes.
Its just a good thing cell phones don't work that good the farther you go up river on the vedder.

I like the idea of no replys but the basisc problem of crowding out a good spot remains unless all you want to do is share the experience rather than where and when.

Maybe a few rules to limit that and just deal more with the fish,the fight, the day on the river.
 
#12 ·
How about this for a report.

Had an interesting day on the river last week as the conditions were to say the least challenging.
Stepped in the river and couldn't see my boots in about a foot of water.
This called for some different ammo out of the old vest.
Pulling a big ugly bright pink spin n glo with mylar wings out with some added wool for scent.
Casted out a few drifts and actually got a good strike and a few head shakes before loosing it.
Tried again and after about fifteen minutes had a fight on my hands.
No jumps just some good runs and one run that was going up river not down.
Landed in the water,quick photo, and off she goes.
Later when I saw the photo all I could think of was OUCH.

See what i mean
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#13 ·
How about this for a report.

Had an interesting day on the river last week as the conditions were to say the least challenging.
Stepped in the river and couldn't see my boots in about a foot of water.
This called for some different ammo out of the old vest.
Pulling a big ugly bright pink spin n glo with mylar wings out with some added wool for scent.
Casted out a few drifts and actually got a good strike and a few head shakes before loosing it.
Tried again and after about fifteen minutes had a fight on my hands.
No jumps just some good runs and one run that was going up river not down.
Landed in the water,quick photo, and off she goes.
Later when I saw the photo all I could think of was OUCH.

See what i mean
View attachment 6846

That's a report...

A couple words to explain your day.... A pic of the beauty slab gets bonus points..

You never said where you were (from that pic the water looks good) It doesn't really matter what you were using.


Exactly Xray..:thumbup:
 
#16 ·
Its a tough one because if it is a fishing report then it should include location otherwise what good is it.
It seems more guys are willing to post just pictures of their steelhead in the discussion section instead of reports.

So whats a good compromise?
If your any good most guys will know roughly where you are.
Timing is important because a hot run one day is a skunk hole the next.

Its funny because i buy fishing mags to see pictures of the fish as well as technique and gear used.

Anyway i don't know the final answer but thats why its a discussion forum.

I noticed alot of guys getting more creative with their photography of the fish.

A good old contest is always fun and best picture or fish of the day or something like that brings more interest to the whole thing. Of course if your not catching anything then it kind of sucks.
So if you do post you could get your pic in the main page.
Its all about ego anyway.

Just throwing out ideas.
 
#17 · (Edited)
There is a lot of talk that the websites are the reason the rivers are busy...hogwash. There's a huge number of anglers out there...they all talk, cellphones, facebook, pm, etc...it's not a fishing website that necessarily brings the crowds, it's people's desire to boast about their day to their buddies and then the word gets out that does it.

Just look at the xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx right now...it is packed every day almost, weekends you can't even fish because there are guys at every spot and then more in between spots doing walk in wades...(I hear this from a buddy that lives on the river and used to fish it a lot)...he says it is a gong show now, ridiculous and looking like the new vedder river.

Yet there isn't even one mention of the it here at BCFR or on the other sites the last few years, let alone a report. Now those paltry 2-300 fish that river gets are getting pounded day in and day out and what was once a nice quiet little local fishery has now been ruined for those that live there and have fished it since they were kids.

I like the format of the report you posted xray, i've never felt giving up the location or river name was ever necessary either, but the fact remains nothing has ever stopped people from making such reports, and they've had similar examples to work with in the past, so I don't really see that they are going to suddenly start posting them now.

It isn't reports on websites that are creating crowds on the rivers, but it very well might be the stigma or perception that websites are the reason for the crowds that keeps people from posting reports...ironic really.

We have a lot of really good anglers on this site...they all catch lots of fish, guides, former guides, old timers, a great core of guys that have fished for a long time too, there's no shortage of material to be posted...

Now, I would like to see more reports, but in another sense BCFR isn't really like the other sites in some ways...if you look at some of them, there's a lot of guys talking about how good they are posting fish as often as they can, definitely a braggarts show, every fish is an achievement to be heralded for all to see, a little too eager for anglers who have supposedly been doing it for a long time and are seasoned vets...it's kinda like taking a hero shot of a colored up, spawning fish, nothing exceptional about it so why brag about it...low quality stuff...that's where the ego's go, and letting your ego lead you is for teenagers and guys that never grew up. The slagging, jumping on people for hook position, or glove use, or posting about the stave or what have you, so much there that isn't really all that desireable when you think about it. You could liken it to reading the province vs the globe and mail or the New York Times...I've always felt BCFR falls into the latter categories, we have always tried to reduce that garbage, limit it and put quality first. I've always felt some pride in that.

Here it seems to be more about sharing a good day or posting something with a little more quality, thus less people posting 15 different shots of 4 fish they pound over in the same spot on the same little creek each week trying to seem like some hot shot top rod, and more posting a really cool pic that turned out sweet, or of a real hog not some cookie cutter 10 lber, or their first on the fly, or that super fresh mint glowing chromer, etc...

That's quality over quantity...huge quality over what you see elsewhere, there have been some qwesome reports of late, and I think those are the kind of reports that need to be encouraged...while at the same time discouraging the negative comments, the slagging, jabs and the elitist, "I'm the best angler around, you're all a bunch of beaks" type crap.

How do we achive that...is it by changing the formula? not allowing posting in response to reports? adjusting how we moderate..?

Personally I think the most immediately effective way to encourage is make sure that core group of guys here know what we want to encourage and respect, and make sure everyone is on the same page about what we want to discourage. The thanks button works well with that idea, but I think responding to reports is also key, because it gives an opportunity to focus on the good things and weed out the bad...

Combine that with a reminder to the board of what's appropriate in responding to reports, a refresher on the posting rules so to speak, and then a little closer moderation should make those who would otherwise not post, feel a little safer to do so.

(would need to handle the pm bashing that happens too though, make it clear to the members that we will take care of that stuff if the let us know about it.)
 
#18 ·
You make very good points. Are we trying to build commitment to a shared purpose or build compliance through a set of rules? I lean towards commitment but social media is changing so rapidly it's tough to get a handle on it. Still thinking.....
 
#19 ·
Oh heck I'll chime in.

I see where you're going with this Rick and I know that a lot of this stuff runs amuck in the Fresh forum. I rarely if ever go in there but if I see a thread when I click on "what's new" that has a ton of views and replies I will check in on it and it's almost always a gong show as opposed to a report with great comments.

I realize you can't do it in some sections of the forums and not in others wherein lies the problem.

If I post up a long, picture loaded "report" from a trip to WCVI I would prefer to just reply where I had to or was asked a question in the thread as opposed to getting 10 pm's asking "What number was that Tomic plug in picture #8?".

I am maybe speaking more to the salt forums as we tend to only get tighter lipped about crab/prawn spots but sharing where you were fishing, what you were using turns a lot of those report threads into some educational threads for newbies and oldies alike.

So many guys pick up lots of gear tips, boat tips, organizing your gear/boat tips etc etc from the conversations that develop in those threads. "Yes" they could be used to start a new thread but I for one would rather an answer question once in a thread than possibly multiple times in PM's.

I have always thought that a "like" tab similar to on Facebook would always be good on these forums but I don't know if needs to replace the ability to discuss a report.

I know for you mods some of the threads can be a real pain to moderate and I completely understand where you are coming from; you guys do a thankless job but I would certainly say "thanks" with the little button to any sh*tty, flaming post you delete!! :p ;) :cheers: Hahaha.
 
#20 ·
Damn freshwater sections have to change things for the rest of us and the well behaved populace of the salt sections. :p :p :peace:
Scott you hit it bang on....:cheers:

I post little about catches in fresh water (use to but actually did see a big increase in people there next weekend, beilieve it or not!), I do think the mentallity is so different from the salts! I got tired of pm's telling me I am giving away hot spots.....::)

Being a member on several different forums it floors me how open the "saltys" are to helping others, right down to GPS co-ordinates!!! Maybe it is because the main rivers in the LML are not really that big or accessable to all so the "main" places get packed deep and I for one will not fish that way!

It sounds like a solid plan you have Rick, will be interesting to see how it plays out!

I did very little fishing last year due to personal reasons and posted even less (due to personal reasons again!). This year is different (I hope...). I plan on fishing lots....:thumbup:

Mike
 
#24 ·
Well I can't view the reports section yet to see what it looks like but as a new member I am very encouraged by your effort to reduce or eliminate the flaming of fishing reports.

As an outsider my thought is strict moderation and people who post rude responses to a fishing report and/or pictures should be warned once or twice and then banned from the reports section of the forum. Maybe a tempory ban the 1st time and a perminent ban the 2nd time. I know that takes time and effort but often times a good fishing report will generate some good banter as well. The banter I like it's the rude unecessary comments that drive me crazy.
 
#25 ·
I just want some decent and accurate fishing reports that are little more timely and possibly less overly optimistic than some of the pro reports. Also with a much bigger area covered. I mean it good to know that twenty miles away they are hitting. Or somewhere closer than the coast of the island.
 
#27 ·
I don't follow the freshwater section so I don't know what's been going on there but from May-Sept I do follow the saltwater section. I really like the comments. I have found pieces of information (way points, gear tips, technique) that were offered up by a member in response to another members original post. I know it's more work for the moderators but I totally support a "my forum, my rules approach" if someone can't play nice your gone.
 
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