Consider this my one post for the six months.I don’t post because I don’t think I can contribute. But FAOL is my home page and I have been reading every day for the past ten years. I have posted before and felt I was not listened to by the people on this site , but it has not made me leave. I will stay in the shadows and read daily.
knucks
Hey John…I suppose some folks wonder why I use these […]
Hi John…
Knucks…prime example of a taker and not ever giving back. This is a member that SHOULD be pruned. No body listened so he doesn’t post. Poor little Knucks.
You CONTRIBUTE by “POSTING” your thoughts right or wrong. Geeeeze…You haven’t learned enough TEN years to have anything worth posting? This must be sort of like parachuting for you. If at first you don’t succeed perhaps parachuting is not for you. TEN years and you have nothing to contribute? Lame…just a lame excuse if you want my opinion…which I know you don’t. But I posted it anyway.
Knucks you are just taking up space here.
THE ABOVE TIRADE IS HOPEFULLY? IN JEST. Knucks already had 42 posts before his comment, so he was good to go. Let’s try NOT to scare away people. A newbie reading this might recoil in horror and never post. Good going Gemrod… GRRRRRRRR.
Oh well as Voltaire said “I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” Let’s chalk this comment up to a senior moment shall we? Now go drink a beer on me… geesh. --Ron–
Knucks, I won’t be voting you off the island. As far as I am concerned, you and anyone else who wants to sit quietly and read without offering an opinion on every subject is welcome to stay.
Knucks for every motor mouth like me it takes at lest two like you to read or we don’t have a forum. (for every author there has to be an audience.) Its a shame that they can’t make the pruning based on logging in instead of posting, but I don’t think there is a way. That said, I guess Knucks that once every six months you will either have to re-register or post a quick comment, perhaps if you post more often you will find that we do value your postings.
Give it a try, I’m sure you have more usful information than I do to contribute.
Eric
Gemrod; go back and read Knuck’s posts. He hasn’t posted a lot but they have been good ones. I can understand why someone would want to read the weekly magazine and maybe lurk here without posting. I do it on other sites where I have noticed that whatever I have to say usually gets said without my participation I also understand Ron’s problem with figuring out who is still actively doing those things and who registered five years ago and never came back. His solution to the problem seems reasonably fair if not perfect.
jeez Gemrod…why don’t you tell us how you really feel???
I have seen other boards with flames like that, but never this one. That is the reason I post here.
I feel for ya knucks, but I also think you took things a little to the heart. This place can get a little clickish, from my point of view, but that is just because many of them have known each other for LOOOOOONG years. I have been on a while, but never done much posting until a couple years ago, when I got tired of all of the BS on other boards. All I can tell ya is post, then repost, then post some more. Don’t worry if you aren’t part of the in crowd (and there is nothing wrong with their being an in crowd…it’s natchural.) those of us who aren’t want to hear what you have to say.
Everyone has their own perspective on this sport. POST…so we know yours.
as far as the pruning/culling goes…get rid of them if it improves the site and its workability…if they care, they will be back to protest…thereby fulfilling their one post.
why not? give it a try. you have 43 posts so you must have contributed something.
Any need to do a mass email?
The whole point of the prune is to free up hosting and bandwidth. Those pruned would be those who no longer view the site. A notice thread would be visible to anyone who still views the site. Boards like this get thousands of bots and spam accounts each year, which accumulate and slow the site down. Less numerous, but still great in number are the no-post or few-post accounts of people that register thinking they’ll like the place but for one reason or another, never come back.
For the people that want to be here, a simple short check-in post would be a simple matter, and if they cant be bothered to do that, they wont be bothered when they’re pruned. There’s also nothing preventing them from re-registration (and their old, pruned account name will be free again, too).
As far as the subject of valueless lurkers…with due respect, Gemrod’s post is probably the single most narrow-minded, post I’ve seen on this site since I started lurking myself a little over a year ago. Had I read that then, I’d have probably never even considered joining up in the first place. Making the assumption that lurkers stay quiet simply because they only want to mooch info from the community is like deciding that because I’m from Pennsylvania and I dont like beets that all people from PA must not like beets.
Gemrod, one thing you may not realize is that many people feel more comfortable “lurking” on a message board (either viewing without registering, or registering and viewing without posting) prior to becoming more active for varying lengths of time. Some, less experienced with this style of community, or those who’ve been burnt by a bad experience with a rude community in the past may need quite a long time to help them get comfortable with the community, and a post like yours pretty much scares them away for good. The whole point of this site is for like minded individuals to come together. Lurkers, whether or not they contribute in terms of actual posts, are important members of the community because 1) they may become active contributors and day now, 2) even if we cant see it, they’re learning from this site, which is enough for me to welcome them in whatever level of involvement they’re comfortable with, and 3) if they like the community, even if they dont post, they may well recommend it to others around them who WILL join and post.
There are so many highly experienced individuals on here that many times when I think about posting, I hold off, understanding that my opinion may be very mistaken as a beginner. There’s only a few topics that come by where I feel I’m experienced to the point that my opinion holds water, so many topics that I have an opinion on, I just end up reading and not posting. I dont feel I’m being rude or selfish in any way. I’m sorry that you do.
While fly fishing is a subject in which I’m a beginner, I have a bit more experience in message board moderation and management, and a prune is almost never as bad as people think it will be. The vast, vast majority of user accounts on most message boards are totally unused, and freeing up that space really helps on the backend of the site. A prune isnt a punishment or a crackdown, its just like the term suggests, a pruning away of “dead growth”, so that the site will continue to thrive.
Even for the <1% of accounts that somehow miss the notice and get pruned…that still WANT to be members…there’s absolutely no reason they cant register again.
I say, “Prune away!”
Like it was said, you can read without taking up the server space being a dead member. Forums are meant for contribution, giving as well as taking.
If one wants to only read, subscribe to a magazine where the info only comes in. No need to be a dead head member to just read.
Now lets see… post 88 since 5-31-09… yep, I think I might be safe. :lol:
Note: I did say “might”…
I got my attitude from knowing of a guy who only buys elsewhere and the sells on the board. Never posting anything of value to the rest of the members. He probably never bought a hat, never tied flies for Al’s memorial bench, never tied flies for JC’s memorial bench, and never sends any money for support. Makes his profit, does not report it as income and doesn’t pay taxes on it, then applies for social security disability. Now he wants to collect MY money I pay in for taxes while he doesn’t. Just that member and those like him annoy me.
A person who only reads does not need to be a member. They can accomplish all they want by just accessing the website.
However, Ron and Cold…I never thought of it that way. I totally agree with boaf of you. I never even thought of scaring people away, can see it…and hope I didn’t. I have been roasted on here a couple of times but I keep posting…hopefully for the good of all. Hmmmmm…maybe I should become a lurker as well. Just read. That might not be a bad idea…for the good of the board.
I like the comment about as long as someone is learning about fly fishing stuff it is ok with you. I agree with that whoeheartedly. Just never thought of it that way. And just thought of another one. Some people have such busy life’s they do not have time to get involved in a thread or a discussion. They deserve to be members also. I feel for those who are so busy. Come on retirement…
See…I only got’s one brain and it is what I thought. I learned a lot from what you guys said. I learned even more by POSTING.
So “I” learn from reading FAOL as well. And I learned a lot from this thread. Hope I didn’t do serious harm to anyone but I sure got good out of it and learned. See we all learn from this website. I think.
Sooooooo…I take it back. Yup. I shore do. Not because I made some enemies. Because I learned from you guys things I didn’t think about. Now I know better. I have plenty of enemies on here already. What’s one more. I don’t mind being the enemy on here once in awhile. I think at times the board can get a little bland…and then along comes some spice that get’s some brains fired up and some juices flowing…and the board get’s a little excitement for awhile. I think that is a good thing…but maybe…maybe not. I dunno. I kinda like it when someone get’s things riled up…although I don’t like what they said…the energy level picks up on the board and it gets fun to read.
But I learned a whole lot. I now have a totally different outlook on the subject. You opened my eyes to a broader section of the subject. I stand corrected.
My sincere apologies to all. Sorry I made the post if it did harm…glad I made the post cause I got so much good out of it. You guys are way cool. Again, my apoligies meant in earnest.
Maybe somebody else learned a tad from this as well…hope so. BTW it was not a tirade…just what I thought. But it was kinda harsh I see. I’m all for a lurker if he is gaining knowledge and learning. That’s what is so great about this site. I just never thought of it that way. And was trying to be on RTIDD’s side to help get pruning started.
VERY nice post Cold. Great class. Nice
Hope to see more of your words on here.
Well done.
Thank you so much for the redaction. And NO, I for one hope you remain a vocal supporter of FAOL. This section is “Sound Off” after all…
We all just need to remember to be good neighbors, even if they aren’t so nice to us.
As to the making profit comment, you have great points, but remember, someone here also gained by purchasing something they might otherwise not have been able to afford or find.
Ergo, even with this action, an FAOL member other than the seller wins.
Thanks again Gemrod!!
In the end, it is such a small thing to ask of the members. It makes things easier to administer, provides the advertisers reliable membership numbers so they know how many active members will potentially see their ads, and keeps the drawings limited to those who take even an absolute minimum of effort to be a part of things.
Prune away, I say…prune away.
FAOL is more than a bullitin board, there are those who contribute to FAOL and others enjoyment of fishing through the Chat Room etc. and rarely if ever come onto the board. There are others who for what ever reason wont ever see this notice, due to time constraints, only reading the warm water forum etc. I think a mass email would save some of these people troubles.
Eric
Well, I could be completely mistaken (and please correct me if I am!), but the other facets of the site (excepting the chat) do not require BB membership, and a prune wouldnt affect a user’s access in the slightest. As far as the chat…I feel a similar “sticky” style notification would work fine. Most chat utilities allow for an admin to place a “welcome message” that greets users as the first message upon login. Use this to notify them they need to check in with a post on a thread of at least 10 characters.
Even simpler, more powerful community-software might be able to track chat logins, and exempt those users as well.
Ultimately, we’re pruning BB accounts, and it will only affect the BB (and possibly the chat). The best way to reach ALL message board users is an announcement on the message board.
Many users may no longer even use the email they signed up with, so they’d never get the message, and worse still, such a “mass email” will likely get nabbed by the spam filters on most email servers. So even if it is an active email, it’ll get deleted.
The mass email would be a great way to do things in an ideal world, but I just dont think it’d be practical in this situation.
…oh, and Gemrod…I hope I didnt come across too strongly, and I hope you’re not offended. I’m glad to see that you are, in fact, quite open-minded. Please stick around and post. Opinionated, open-minded persons are usually the most fun on any message board!
i dont think a mass mailing is even necessary. just cut the non users, plain and simple. if you dont use, you lose!
i dont think youll here too many complaints from them!
I’ll make this my first official post. Been a member since January 09. Live in southwest Michigan. Ran across this site in a message on another fly fishing website. I suppose I’m guilty of taking without giving. I visit this site almost every day. I thorougly enjoy the reports, comments, pictures, etc. I’ve downloaded some recipes from the fly of the week.
I don’t tie or fly fish enough for me to advise others on the subjects. Given my situation, my opinion on pruning probably doesn’t count for much. If pruned, I’d probably just sign up again as a member. I prefer the member version to the read-only version of the site.
I’ll be sure to add a few “great fish” comments. If I manage to get out on a stream and take pictures, I’ll post a report.
Thanks for listening,
Phishtales
I have sat back reading and absorbing all the various sections of this BB. My thoughts on the eliminating the non-posters is that this site should remain open. This site provides the newbie flyfisherman and flytyer with a wealth of information which helps to keep those people on the fringes of the sport at the very least involved and knowledgeable of what is happening in flyfishing.
I would certainly hope that those persons who do contribute on a regular basis continue to do so because of their desire to advance the sport, not to make it “elitist” or preferential social club. One would also hope that the system has the capability of indicating those individuals who log-in to make an entry in a file showing their use of the site rather than having to post. The reasons that this site is my favorite is the diversity of viewpoints and the variety of information that is disseminated to flyfishers.
Who said anything about closing registration? I was under the impression that it was just to be a “spring cleaning” of sorts, removing old accounts that haven’t seen any sort of activity in the past 6 months.
Actually, folks, there are accounts that haven’t had any activity in a year or more. I have often wondered if they were bots allowed in during the automatic acceptance phase. All new folks have their applications reviewed by admin before they are allowed in. Helps to keep your info private and to keep the Viagra salesmen (and worse) out.