This forum is dead

[MeghanOOD]

As someone who signed on a couple of months ago, I think this board is not dead, but rather, very sick. It doesn’t appeal to me on a number of levels and I am sure I am not alone.

The first is its appearance. The look of the board itself is very clinical - sterile if you will. Blue and white and blocky, like I am standing in a hospital corridor. It is certainly not outdoorsy or appealing to the eye.

There are too many forums. Some need to be eliminated or combined with others as stickys. Covid and a few others in that area should be put in a general area as sticky posts. It would increase traffic to the Off Topic area for example.

Theoretically, Ontario should have a vibrant board, but having so many sections only serves to confuse.

The admins need to go section by section, count to threads, and combine, rearrange or completely eliminate the deadwood.

Traffic flows have to be redirected.

Because sometimes, having too many places to go isn’t worth the bother of exploring.

Thank you for contributing to this thread, Michael10.

A couple of considerations for you:

As the by-product of a magazine that's been in circulation for over fifty years, we do carry a preference and bias for a white page. Having our Forum as such makes it easier to to convey the content we're trying to convey, without confusion or eyestrain. However, an individual can download internet skins on their own end, to personalize their own set-up to their liking.

The Forum itself has also been around a long time. If we start mass pruning or deleting or combining threads, we'd be putting at risk all of the links and comments from members over the years that we heartily value. Sometimes a seemingly simple solution can have dire consequences. Minimalism would put at risk decades of valuable member feedback. Just last week I was emailed by a member who was reporting a broken thread they were trying to access, though I was unable to restore it because it had been altered. Also one could argue that combining sections would make matters more confusing for members seeking out niche information.

No one is going to be grooming the Forum in the way you're describing, for the sake of aesthetic. We're all explorers, here.

Thank you again for your feedback.

[TroutSlayer]

Busy thread!

[gbk]

Busy thread!

18 out from 61 posts(almost 30%) are made up from the authorities though.
Regardless of the inns and outs of that-hardly we can say, the members traffic is so great.

[finsfurfeathers]

18 out from 61 posts(almost 30%) are made up from the authorities though.
Regardless of the inns and outs of that-hardly we can say, the members traffic is so great.

Yup but as the old saying goes you can lead the horse to water but you can't make 'em drink.
The lack of member post lays solely on those members that don't post. The members that are active in the forum none have posted complaints.

[Birdbuff]

I guess the simplicity of the idea of a forum is lost on some people. Thank you OOD for providing a place where like minded people can get together and chat about the outdoors.

You get what you put in.
You can’t force introverts to post.
There is still a great wealth of info here.
If you got nothing better to do but complain, maybe try setting up your own online forum.

[TroutSlayer]

I guess the simplicity of the idea of a forum is lost on some people. Thank you OOD for providing a place where like minded people can get together and chat about the outdoors.

You get what you put in.
You can’t force introverts to post.
There is still a great wealth of info here.
If you got nothing better to do but complain, maybe try setting up your own online forum.

Thanks Birdbuff, well said.

[TroutSlayer]

H-m-m-m,now that you mention it,these posts do seem a tad familiar,don't they? It should be fairly easy to find out. Have at it.

We are looking into his multiple accounts now.

[ReelAddicted]

I decided yesterday to revisit this forum after an almost 10 year hiatus, lol!!

I was poking around and this was one of the first threads to come up :| I hope this forum isn't dead? I really did enjoy what I got from it when I was active on it, including meeting a ton of people, outings to learn from and have fun enjoying the outdoors with friendly strangers, some who became friends and consistent fishing and/or hunting partners, etc. Of course, life got in the way in the early stages of having kids, so I cleaned up my profile on this forum and took a hiatus, having to focus on the family. I stayed active with my outdoors activities, but much more sparsely because the first few years are non-stop with the kids for lack of a better term.

I'm finally over that hump of parenthood and have way more time to get back into things more consistently, even including getting the kids involved in more serious pursuits. So, I thought it might be a good time to re-join the chatter on the forum, even if just to keep up on things. I just hope it really isn't dead!

[finsfurfeathers]

Welcome back. As always this forum is what you make it. Dive in share a bit and get caught up.

[Bowjob]

sure looks like its headed that way, i wasnt on here for about a year, with things going on at home and switching jobs twice just didnt have any mental power to do anything at the end of the day lol. i came back and it seems like we lost a few more regulars as well. well see what happens anyways. im on a couple facebook groups but hell are they toxic lol.