https://CTFishing+Beyond.proboards.com

[tomashton]

I would like to get opinions on my fishing, site.

https://CTFishing+Beyond.proboards.com   (tomashton.proboards.com)

It is a site for fishing from all the New England States (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and New York.

I changed the name to my forum to match it as being just a fishing site now.
I changed my site to just a fishing site, (i used to have the site as fishing, hunting, camping and boating). 

I have had the site for quite a while now, I have to admit that i have not posted my own fishing results from the last couple of years until this year, And i have updated it by posting my own fishing results for 2022 and i have added places to fish this year.

[tomashton]

bump

[bigballofyarn]

tomashton,

Please do not get upset by anything that may come off as negative. I only express personal opinions based on 19 years of experience with ProBoards. If you disagree with me, that's fine. You are free to run your forum however you choose.

Anything over 20 boards is generally too many. You seem to have over 100 right now. Some things that you have as boards should only exist as one thread.

For example:
"I was wondering how everyone heard about the site?" should not be a board of its own. I would also consider renaming boards to things that are brief, and not entire sentences.

I would put all comments, questions, suggestions, and the ToS into ONE board, all together. Do you see people making topics to discuss these things within each board?

I am not familiar with fishing or hunting. So, I'm not sure why you have multiple boards for each state. Perhaps things could be consolidated more. When a forum has too many boards and few to zero posts in each board, it looks very dead and uninviting.

I do, however, enjoy your color scheme and the banner at the top. They are warm and friendly. I do wish you the best of luck with your forum. I hope it is very successful.

[tomashton]

bigballofyarn, I am sorry i did not respond sooner, But this is the first chance that i have had to respond to your post about my site.  

Beleive me, I do not get upset about any suggestions that you or anyone else makes, So i can make my site better.

I take it that it that you don't fish or hunt, since you said in your post that you are not familiar with fishing and hunting, Which is fine, because not everyone is in to fishing and or hunting.  

To answer your question on why i have multiple boards for each state is if someone goes hunting or fishing in different states, They can post their results for the states that they caught something in.

You stated in your post that you would have the following board it's own - I was wondering how everyone heard about the site, Where would you suggest that i have that.

I agree with you on the size of my site, I think i am going to cut the size of my site way back, And just have fishing as the main sport, And i am only going to have the new england states and New York, And i am willing to make subforums if it makes my site better.

And thank you for liking my color scheme and the banner on top of the site.

What do you think of the changes that i will be making to my site, And i will be happy to make any and all changes that you think would make my site better.

[bigballofyarn]

No worries. No, I don't hunt or fish. I let you know that in case there was anything I needed to know about your forum to provide a better evaluation.

I checked out your forum again. It seems like you switched from having multiple boards for each state to having an individual board for each body of water. I think that would overwhelm me if I were a member on your forum. I can only speak for myself though. An ideal scenario for me, if I wanted to talk about hunting and fishing in various states in the New England area would probably be to have one board per state. Inside each board could one thread per location. Further, I would expect members to create the threads themselves. I wouln't expect them to already be there for me. For example, if I went fishing in some pond in New Jersey (which is actually illegal here without a permit), I would probably want to be the one to make the thread if no one else already did.

Do you see an entire board being necessary for each body of water? I could see it being useful in the event that your forum ends up very active though.

If you want to know how people heard about your forum, you could have a stickied thread in your introductions board that gives new members an idea of what to write in their introductory post. I also don't think the ToS needs to be an entire board. Right now you have it in its own board and category.

I would keep category and board names brief and not entire sentences.

Again, feel free to disagree. Maybe us having an open discussion will bring clarity to an overall picture of what you want.

[tomashton]

bigballofyarn, As i said in my previous reply to you, I do not get upset or mad at suggestions, I understand you don't hunt or fish, Not everyone does.

You stated that i had over 100 boards, So i changed it to have subforums for each state, The reason way i have individual subforums for the lakes, ponds, rivers, etc. is to have my site stand out from other boards.

A majority of the fishing sites have it the way you suggest and and have the person making the report to add their own thread, I figured if the lake, pond, river, reservoir, etc. is there already and it would be easier to make a post on where they went fishing.

I am not sure if there are any sites like mine where the places that people go to fish is there already.

As i said in my previous post, I deleted the mid-atlantic and south areas, Also i deleted everything that did not have to do with fishing, And the site will now be just a fishing site, for all of New England and New York only.

Do you think i should just delete the TOS completely, And just have a board for comments, questions, suggestions?

Thank you for your input so far.

[tomashton]

bump

[bigballofyarn]

You might want to remove https://CTFishing+Beyond.proboards.com from your topic. That link doesn't go anywhere.

Your forum's colors look pleasant on my computer. For whatever reason, the blue looks much lighter on my phone.

There is a link for the ToS at the bottom of every single person's forum. I have it in an info box at the top of my forum. The ToS is the kind of thing that can be stickied in an announcement, but doesn't need its own board unless you plan on people having hundreds of topics to discuss the ToS.

Initially, I was happy to see that your forum no longer had 100+ boards, but now that I see that they are all sub-boards, it is equally confusing. Maybe it's just me. Definitely ask your current members how they feel about having so many boards. Ultimately, this has to work for THEM, and not for me. However, in my experience with ProBoards since 2003, the most successful forums have under 25 boards. This includes sub-boards.

You don't have to use 25 as a strict rule. I just want your forum to succeed. I have watched many admins make hundreds of boards, seen their members get frustrated, and then seen the forums get deleted by the admin within a few months. If your method works for you and your members, definitely keep it. If your method frustrates them, ask them for suggestions.

What is planned course of action when people want to talk about lakes, ponds, or other bodies of water that do not have a board you created? I live in an area where I can access over 20 tiny bodies of water within 5 miles of my house. None of them are on your forum. I only mention this because I don't think you need a board for every body of water in every state and you may underestimate the magnitude of water bodies that aren't accounted for.