Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Something's Brewing ... Pond Boss

I am sure many read Pond Boss editor Bob Lusk's message " Something's Brewing..." in the March/April issue page 5 on the growth in interest in pond/lakes and this fourm. I note that the fourm is growing , as best I can tell , at a rate of 100 registered members a month. It is now at 2010 and counting. I bet there are a lot more who use the fourm but don't register.

To Bob , the Field Advisory Staff and all the long time members {posters} who built the fourm with their hard work and who have helpd so many --THANKS TO EACH OF YOU .

I wonder how long we can expect {ask} Pond Boss Mag. to carry the load {cost} of this fourm ?

I am sure there are ways that the fourm can help , like fourm advertising or the fourm readers telling the mag. advertisers or potential new advertisers that they learned about them on the fourm. Just a thought.ewest

Ewest,

Hmmmmmmm. You must be a democrat like me. Do you volunteer to pay more taxes too? :p

I also agree that this is a great forum.
I'm a member of another good forum thedieselstop.com that is dedicated to owners of Ford diesel trucks. They are supported by sponsors selling parts, supplies, and goodies for these trucks. Now, I'm sure that there are more people that own Ford trucks than ponds, but the idea is the same.
Food for thought, Bob?

I mentioned this in another thread but didn't get a specific response.

Is it possible to save all current and past posts to CD for future reference? Even though there are a lot of posts I don't think it represents such a vast amount of data that someone with computer knowledge couldn't make a couple of CD's for sale. I'd pay some to have a hard copy, or archive, if you will, of all of this valuable information.

It would have to be in a form that one could run a search of different keywords. Maybe Theo's webmaster could do it.

I'll see what he says, Bruce. He responds best to teenage girls, money, and threats, in that order - what have you got to offer?

Perhaps I can bribe him with additional On-Line time. ("Do you know how long it'll take to download all that, Dad?")

Heck, I'd be more than happy to threaten him, if that's all it'll take...

I'm a Republican and am pretty sure the forum is paying for itself in the form of advertisement of the magazine and its sponsors.
It has helped me immensely and provided hrs.(yawn) of intertainment.

What makes this forum special, IMHO, is not the software, the hosts (but thank you Pond Boss), or the sponsors, its the folks who day-to-day frequent this site and provide invaluable information, insights, and share their vast experiences.

The first consideration should always be to make sure that we can attract and retain those folks, cause without them, this forum would be like many others and not worth the time, keystrokes, or electrons.

For example, the rating system should be reconsidered. If that system ever was the cause (and I'm betting it already has been) of us loosing one of those valuable contributors or reducing their contributions for fear of retribution, then it needs to be eliminated.

It’s the folks that make or break this forum. They vote every day on whether they will come here and share or choose not to do so.

ohh and burgermeister...I'm a Republican too

I guess this is where the Republicans chime in!
The real value of this site is the participants and their commitment to their ponds. It would be usefull to know what percentage of the members are subscribers to the magazine. In the world of pond bossing, there are precious few resources where a pond owner can see advertising for products specific to our needs. We are indeed a small niche market. My wife read through Pond Boss and proclamed 'it's all advertising!', my response was 'and thats a bad thing?' (she's a Democrat!) considering the subscription price and the advertising base, maybe the web site can somehow be tied in to use by subscribers, or at least posting by subscribers.
A well known aquarium magazine had a forum in the magazine where a resident expert answered questions and the replies were published in the magazine. Eventually the resident expert published the best of the forum in book form. If someone (possibly at Pond Boss) were to edit and consolidate past years posts, I for one would spring for the hard copy (well indexed of course) or even as an e-book.
Just my opinion.

BabyCornFarmer--

Can you answer this question for certain? Is there or is there not the possibility that a software glitch or a hacker or something of that nature could destroy the old posts? There's some stuff from 2-3 years ago that I'm still accessing and learning from. You could make a pond management best seller just from packaging Cody's contributions.

Bruce,

I would not have brought up the topic (beware self-fulfilling prophecies), but if major corporations who spend major money trying to firewall & defend their data can be hit, I don't think anything you can access easily on the open Internet is 100% safe.

BTW, I have sicced my "webmaster" on your CD backup problem and we are doing some feasiblity checks. (Threats were not necessary, but thanks for offering. He also responds to challenges in his areas of expertise). My personal goals, in order of preference, are to 1} convince PB to compile and sell CD backups of the Forum contents (They brought us all together and, IMHO, ought to get any financial gain available), 2} come up with a fairly user-friendly process using (freeware) and fairly small amounts of user time (high download time acceptable if the process can be interrupted and easily restarted) to let interested users make themselves a copy , or 3) make a backup copy for myself (I think I would provide copies at no cost to a FEW Forum members I deem worthy - I like you folks but 2000+ members is a lot, and I do not intend to charge for what I consider PB/public domain knowledge).

I feel option 1 is the best choice, but hopefully Bob Lusk, et al. would not have problems with options 2 or 3 if they aren't interested in option 1. You want to start a thread where we can demonstrate interest in a pay per CD forum copy?

For Y'alls Info - I vote Republican, but am actually a Rational Anarchist (figure that out).

Isn't that an Oxymoron? Rational Anarchist, that is.

The past couple of years I have copied and pasted posts of interest to MS Word and saved in Document folders.

The problem is, I didn't know enough to know what to save.....
George Glazener

Burgermeister,

Don't take my tongue in cheek jab too seriously. I was referring to the stereotype that democrats like to tax and spend and Ewest was volunteering to pay up.

At least Cecil didn't call anyone some kind of moron!

Some very good ideas by all. That should not be a suprise to members of this fourm , it is known for good ideas.

ML I agree it is the people on the fourm who make it special. Your comments in paras. 1-3 are dead on. You will note that Bob and many of the the adv. staff are posters/monitors also. Also that many of the long term {active} members ,like many on this thread, are the core or heart of the fourm. My thanks to each of you and the others for what you have created.

CB1 I like your comment. I note that the 1st definition of democrat is an adherent of democracy. I think we all fit that including Theo. I would pay more for the mag. to be sure the fourm stays open and active.

I have started telling the adv. when I have the chance that I saw their ad and about the fourm. When I run accross others who should be I let them know of the oppertunity. Thanks . ewest

Ift Theo be a moron and rationally antichrist, he mus be a demercrat

Ahhh, Cajuns...

This forum made me a subscriber to the mag -- it pays of itself.

A CPA should know.