MAINE - Life in the Slow Lane
Koda
I have to think about this a little bit. My first thought is don't mess with the name of the Site, but add a hunting forum to the site. I need to add something for Ice Fishing as well. Let me maul it over for awhile and then I will have a more definitive answer.
Please anyone with an idea please pipe up and let us all know what you think.
See Yah
Lee
Lee
As long as it picks up in the search engines that would work, adding a section that is. I like the ice fishing idea too.
Here is another question I will through out to everyone. If I add a new Hunting Forum, Ice Fishing Forum and a Ice Fishing Report Forum, is that too many forums to look at. May need to do another category called Hunting and have two forums under that, one for Discussion and a report forum. Please let me know what you all think is the best way to go. I believe you can collapse the category if you want so the screen is not over whelmed.
Let me know what you think.
See Yah
Lee
Hey koda glad to see your back and well after long wood/hunting season's.
I have also been busy and havn't had much time to contribute as i would like to do. not to mention fishing has pretty much come to the end and now we find ourselfs in a lull until Ice is here .
I was a little disapointed that the site dropped off so fast when just a couple of us stopped posting. Dave is the ironman in that department.
I understand about these forums and how they work . I usually am excited to put in the effort to post and show what i have been up to and show some cool things to see . what i can't figure out is why do people take the time to log in , look and read the post , but not respond in any way?
Lees page ia a great place to visit and share . I feel changing the page may help and draw more people in, there are so many good sites already for hunting and fishing it may be tough to compete. I do notice the forum seems to be over run with topics to post to seems like it could be trimmed and give us space to add an ice fishing spot and perhaps hunting /trapping area for other topics.
Example : maybe condense books with gear and put site rules in a thread at top of new/old user section. this would eliminate a couple areas that could be combined and offer more space for Ice fishing /hunting / trapping.
But i guess the real question should be will it produce more posts and better activity here? seems you can post all day and only get the normal 3-4 responses with 60 people looking . I am wondering if we should do a poll and see if we have any intrest in this . Lee has set up and works hard to keep this site going and i don't want to be the one to change what he has in mind for his site. These are all suggestions. Really not sure if it will work to get more people to come but i for one will post to hunting and ice fishing sections.
I have tried to get many of friends from other sites to come here and they all come check it out but they don't stay ? not sure why i havn't asked any of them ? Lee seems to think it is very easy to navigate but i have heard from more then a few people they have a hard time using the site. It does take some time to get it down . and i feel the guys that come are just normal guys that don't want to have to learn how to do all these things to contribute to the site. From the outside looking in it basically looks like a Blog site until you get signed up and gain access to the site.
The way i see it we cannot have it both ways we either keep it small and complain every week when there is only a couple of new topics..... or we build it up and have many people come here (can't control who shows) . I get the feeling Lee is nervous about getting too many people here, and that may cause problems? I will continue to come here and post when i feel the need. as of now just staying busy until Ice gets here .
Quote by: Ziggyz420........................ I understand about these forums and how they work . I usually am excited to put in the effort to post and show what i have been up to and show some cool things to see . what i can't figure out is why do people take the time to log in , look and read the post , but not respond in any way?
Forums in a way are a lot like politics, which may to a large degree explain why the country is in the shape it's in. By NOT adding to the post one way or the other it leaves a few of us to do most of the threads. Not that what we say is Gospel, it's nothing more than a real life experience, and in some cases just opinions.
On the other side of the coin, a lot of folks watch the news, read the paper, but most don't get involved when it's time to vote and make a change. Many are swayed by that miserable bullshitting news media that likes to play games with people's heads while they try for the next Pulitzer prize.
I find it quite odd that the front runner last week is at the bottom of the pile this week. Oh look, Gingrich is now in the lead! Maybe in one state where the people are sound asleep he is, but certainly not in the nation. Have everyone forgot what a POS he was as speaker of the house? Sad to say, there are people who swallow that crap without verifying it, and come election day they vote for an idiot because they figure everybody else is, so it must be the right choice.
Romney would sell his own Mother down river for a vote, just ask the people from Mass. Everybody knows my politics are to the right of Attila the Hun and so I don't even know a lot of the cats that climb out from under rocks wanting to be the next President. In the grand scheme of it all, it don't amount to a hill of beans who's President, Congress and the House call the shots. The Pres gets to be the PR guy for the rest of the world to see. Myself, I'd like to be represented by someone with a little class, someone who can carry on an intelligent conversation. What I see running in the elephant party leaves a HUGE void in all of those areas and then some.
But anyway, back to the forum. The thoughts of the many are expressed by the voice of the few. It can not be otherwise less we would see more participation. The lurkers apparently are comfortable with the banter we have between our small group and if they are happy sitting on the side lines then so be it.
I guess in retrospect I put the cart out ahead of the horse in opening this thread. Maybe I should have asked; Do we really want to grow? And be careful with a hasty answer.
For a number of years I moderated on Hunt America. To say it got lively is a huge understatement. It actually got to the point of being foolish. It was open to the entire world and opinions varied as much as the weather. It never failed, if some dude posted he knocked off a Russian Boar with a 30-06 some cat in AU chimed in and flamed him for not using enough gun. Then another local boy flamed him saying that he kills wild hogs with 22 cb caps all day long.
Before you know it, it really goes South and a Moderator has a full time job extinguishing pissing contests. Can't happen on here? Ahem. There is nothing stopping me from posting an article about the virtues of using a 2 wt cane rod to take on Blue Fin Tuna in the 700 pound range. Of course I don't as most would roll their eyes and find a more sensible forum to visit. But we have to be aware, that the larger the audience, the greater the array of opinions. And, as we have seen on FFNH, some guys just like to use a forum to bust stones.
We're a close knit family here, maybe we should keep it that way ?. 
Koda and All
My goal is to have this site be a family type experience, but I would like to see it grow some. A good goal is to have 35 to 40 active users, those who have logged in in the last 4 weeks and about 15 to 20 users login each day. Our numbers now are about 20 active users and 7 logged in in a day. We did get to 10 for one month but that was when we started with the new users like T-Bone, Koda and ziggy.
Now to the forum, I think I can consolidate some and add what we need for new ones and not over whelm the site. I need to look at the structure again and I will put up what I plan to do and ask for approval from you the users.
We are a good group and I do hope that more will become members and add to the site.
See Yah
Lee
I'm trying to catch up on some of the posts I missed since I did the wood and woods gig. Ziggy seems disapointed with the activity on the forum, and I must admit, it seems pretty slow right now.
Being honest about it, forums have many lurkers, those whose cruise the sights but don't participate. In most cases they don't want to take the chance on getting flamed. Of course that's not the case here on Lee's so I don't know why more don't chime in. I'm the first to admit I'm crazier than a cat covered in shit and I still post
Fly fishing is a seasonal sport and as such I would guess the Winter would pick up activity as we get wound up for a new season. When the season starts, I'd expect it to slow down since we'd be out fishing with an occasional reports and pics of the outings.
A lot of us are also involved in other facits of outdoor sports such as bow, handgun, and rifle shooting and hunting. What if we expand Lee's Fishing Page to Lee's Hunting & Fishing Page? I would think we'd get a bigger following and would expect more participants.
I know Ziggy tells a tale or two about deer hunting here, and I do the same.
Just a thought, and so I threw it out.
Lee? Others? What's your take?
"Life is a journey, not a destination. Take the time to enjoy the gifts of the Great Spirit along the way." Coug2wolfs ~ Dances With Bears
"Political Correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."