Like many who have responded as family, I can't agree more. When I first joined and looking for help as a new fly fisher and tyer, many members helped with advice and encouragement with things I had trouble with. This is site PRICELESS. If a monetary stipend is ever needed to maintain this site, count me in.
OKAY!!! I am putting this out as a chalenge to all our members. Go to the sponsers page and then to the media kit. Print that out and take it to your local fishing shops, even if they are more than fly fishing. The media kit has most all the info about the sight and sponsership. They can call or go online and e-mail the admin. for amounts. Even if they don't want to become sponserss right away, they may after seeing this great websight.
I was headed to Pindale to deliver info to two shops today but will have to wait until next weekend as a new granddaughter has decided to make her appearence before the doc,s eviction notice date of Monday.
Docotor's words "eviction notice" not mine, and yes my gut is still sore from that one.
Anyway, let's get out there and get some sponsers!!!!
Last edited by Byron Zuehlsdorff; 02-06-2010 at 04:31 PM.
Wyo-Blizzard
Noticed Buddy's post and it very succinctly nailed how I feel.
I didn't see very many posts in scanning that listed a dollar value. Truth is it is worth so much more than I pay. But I have a limited income and only have so much discretionay money each month. I have to save up for months just to get a brake job. Don't know if I will ever get to new glasses. After medical bills. I cannot afford to be as magnanamious (?) as I would like to be. Heck, I cannot even affored to go to a fish in. Hey...there's a raffle idea. A free trip to an outing? Oh, well...nice dream.
Well, darn it, here I am rambling again. My bottom line I meant to be on this post is I could not afford to pay for what this website is "worth" to me. But I will continue to send in my $25 per year subscription, as I have been doing for years. Even though I don't have to, it's free. But I feel like it's only fair. Just can't send more than that.
Jim
As Betty said way up towards the top of this thread, OUR FAOL. There's the value for me. The fact that we are all contributors as well as consumers of the information on the site. That give and take forms bonds, allows debates, and generates new thoughts and ideas like no other resource can. Be it the articles, the board, the chat room, whatever, Faol provides a place where the old pro, the guy who just bought his first rod yesterday, and the gal who might just give this thing a try after all if she only knew a little more about it can meet and interact on an equal footing with the understanding that we all are here for the love of the sport, and because we know that no matter how much we know, someone out there has something yet to teach us. This is in fact a priceless resource. Yet there is a price to be paid for it in one currency or another. Try to give back as much as you get from this site (for most of us that will never be possible, but the attempt should be made) in friendship, shared knowledge, and sponsor support (without any of these there is no FAOL). The learning never ends, neither should the sharing. Thank you to the Travis's, Ron (may your nightcrawlers never drown), and all the admin's, hosts and other folks that make this all work each and every week.
If it swims and eats, it'll eat a fly.
I agree with Wes.Originally Posted by Wes
As far as putting a dollar sign on it or charging for admission I don't know about that. I feel your membership or quality there of would drop. Still a lot of faithful followers don't get me wrong. Paying a fee would be benefical for new people which this site see's a lot of...but for those that have been around awhile and are not seeking advice but giving it this would push a lot of folks away.
Again you have those that seek knowledge and might be willing to pay of it and those that have it, and give it that would not. I feel you would lose some of your key membership and people would just go to another site to find what they want.
I have been around here for a while (not as much lately) but I do remember Al Campbell (and contributed to his memorial bench), I remember Steve M. "Parenelli" making free CDROM's of the fly of the week, and lot's of great advice (keep your back cast upeth!). I have received some great things here and feel great that I can now contribute something back to others...personally would not pay a fee so I can willfuly and freely pass along some "gained" knowledge. Just my two cents.
Respectfully,
John G.
I know that it isn't the real reason for this whole post but perhaps it will jog some of us lazy free loaders into coughing up a little actual cash for operating expenses. I have read every one of these posts and one thing I noticed is there are many more people like me on here. According to my own bio I joined in Febuary of 2005 and in that time have logged the astounding number of 114 posts. I do however log on 5 or 6 days per week and obviously read much better than I write. The information on here really is PRICELESS and in real time rather waiting months for another magazine article, and an awful lot of us who post very little have responded to this request.
I just went down the sponsor list and was surprised to find how many of them I have actually used and you are free to point that out to them. Even with the shortened list I have used an even dozen of them, from buying a Sage Launch rod to ordering Mustad and Daiichi hooks from Hook & Hackle and Zip Cast to put on Cortland and Rio fly lines, and reading a couple of the magazines. I don't know how many members there are on here but I would bet that almost all of them have done the same thing with sponsors and have purchased because of information gathered from other FAOL members and their experiences with the products. Keep up the GREAT WORK and don't be shy about pointing out how many members actually use their products because of this site.Thanks!!
Priceless is the only word I can think of.
I haven't been around as long as a lot of the members here but I enjoyed my time spent perusing these pages. I started fly fishing late in life about age 47 after my wife gave me a fly rod as a present. Since I had never fly fished before, I set about to get some information about the sport. Somehow, after a year or so, I saw your website mentioned in a local online trout site. I ventured over and was hooked! I have spent the last 7 years gleaning as much information as I could from the volumes of hard facts that are found here. I even learned to tie flies from the weekly lessons that are archived here. And I've been entertained many days while reading the stories and the posts. I am on the opposite of the USA from Washington but I have been able to relate to all the fly fishers and tiers here. I was never made to feel like an outsider and I thank you all for that. I have used many of the sponsors here like Denny and Temple Fork Outfitters and will continue to do so when possible.
I can't put a value on what I've learned here. But, I want to continue to learn and if it involves a contribution from me, I'm in!
Brook trout always remind me that there must be a higher power.
Dale
I wouldn't pay .02 cents to visit this web site. I wouldnt take $500.00 to stay away.
I guess what I am saying is, if I had to pay a subscription for FAOL , I wouldn't.
What is FAOL worth to me? I try to log on here at least once a day. FAOL's my homepage, and to be perfectly honest I have been pretty ashamed of myself for not joining the friends of FAOL. So ashamed that I'm going to fix that next week. I'm not a rich man, at least in the way of the almighty dollar, but I'm am a very rich man in the family that I have, both here at home and here online.
I have made purchases from sponsors, and there has always been a comment section in the online order form where I make a point of thanking them for thier sponsorship of FAOL. I don't know if that helps or not, but it can't hurt.
We are fixing to go into our busiest time of year at work, where I'll be going in before daylight and leaving about dark. I won't be online much, and won't be fishing much either. When I do get a chance to go fishing, I almost always marvel at how effortlessly the water takes all my worries and stresses away. It just seems like it all flows down stream. Logging on to FAOL isn't as good at taking those worries and stresses away as the water is, but it's real close. I mean real close. I'd be happy to pay a subscription to be a part of this site. And I apologize to you Deanna and to all of you FAOLer's for not becomeing a friend of FAOL sooner. I know it's probably a cliche, but I can assure you the check is in the mail.
Jason
"If we lie to the government, it's called a felony, when they lie to us, it's called politics." Bill Murray
What is FAOL Worth?
I would be lost without FAOL!
If you had a billion dollars Leonardo De Vinci, would not paint you another "Mona Lisa"! Sometimes "Priceless" means there is not enough money printed in the whole world, to duplicate what has been done here on FAOL, in the past 12 years.
I am one of the four original "Chartered Members" of "Friends of FAOL", I have been singing praises about FAOL, for the past 12 years, to every fly angler I have met.
I have become a angler that is mostly about speeding up the learning curve of beginners, remembering when I knew very little about fly fishing! It has been almost 5 years since my mentor died! Al Campbell was 5 years younger than I, yet I never knew that until I read the obituary.
There are others here that have been just as loyal to FAOL, with articles and swaps, hosting the "Anglers Hut". The readers contributions have been a blessing with each sharing some knowledge that they knew, but others didn't!
Our Sponsors are the "Best", with their loyalty to a concept that is not part of any Business College Training Course.
We are the only Fly Fishing site that has Annual Fish-In's and Regional Fish-In's, where no money changes hands. People putting faces to names and handles, from all across the country, and some come from other countries to these events.
This is not just a site of Friends, this is a site where you are Family!
12 years of weekly articles all archive for you to read anytime you want, even the public libraries do not offer that, and they have a smaller section about fly fishing than what is in FAOL's archives.
Since I have been with FAOL since October of 1997 (week 5) I have read every article that has been published on FAOL, and I know where in the archives to find it.
I have been a Swapmeister on FAOL, to almost 200 fly tyers in Beginners Only Fly Swaps.
I have been a writer for FAOL, with many articles, such as Trout Spawning Hatchery Stlye, Custom Handle Grips, Thesis on "Thread" (how it is made).
Recently I supplied Ronn Tidd with backup articles that were missing and others that became misplace with their URL addresses being written over by other articles. I have become a Librarian on FAOL. If you cannot find something, I probably have it already or I know where to start looking.
If FAOL ever cease to exist, it would be a major catastrophe, similar to the "End of the World"!
But there is still hope! Over the years of my being unable to access the BB or Anglers Hut, I have been busy on FAOL copying and pasting FAOL Articles, to my home computer, and then converting them to pdf files. I have just about every fly pattern ever published on FAOL. I have complete FAOL Columns (Al Campbell's: Fly Tying Series, Build a Graphite Rod, Field Editor. I have all of Just Old Flies and Stuff, as well as Ronn Lucas and Friends. Our Man in Canada, Fishing Stillwaters, There is still much more down in the archives, that I have not had time to get to yet! Currently I have 445 MB of FAOL article in pdf on my computer.
~Parnelli Fly Angler for 15 years.
Last edited by Steven McGarthwaite; 02-07-2010 at 12:11 AM. Reason: Adding a little color
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