I'll always remember starting this forum. The founding editor of Pond Boss, Mark McDonald, called with an idea. "How about we do this thing called a 'live chat'...that's the new rage about this Internet thing." My response, "Uh...okay...who would do that?"
Mark said, "YOU!"
I had four kids in high school, was going to ball games, PTO, booster club...and covering high school sports for the local weekly newspaper. Oh, and I was 18 years into my pond management career.
That was 1998.
Well...we didn't do a live chat, but we got with our buddy, JP Greeson, who set us up with this forum. Over two years in, we'd outgrown our software. We bought new software, set up the forum and we've been at it since.
The questions started, and guess who would be the guy to answer all of them? Yep...yours truly.
But, after we got the new softward, the amazing things happened. Before long, here comes Bill Cody. Then, Kelly Duffie. Dave Davidson, Todd Overton...and it grew and grew. Before long, I would read the questions, someone answered and I knew those people knew what they were talking about. Before long Dr. Dave Willis started asking questions and then we figured out who he was. It was humbling that he would come on this forum and sincerely ask questions and then answer some, too. Add our moderators, and the personality of the forum really comes to life.
That brings me to this point. While we proudly own this forum and welcome people, we still want these pages to serve a functional purpose. We want people to ask those questions, receive good, healthy answers that they can actually use, in a friendly environment.
Yes, we have to deal with some people who try to take advantage of what we offer and do what they can to benefit themselves above what this forum stands for. Since there's some anonymity, we have moderators to make sure everyone abides by the rules.
Yes, the forum is privately owned. Yes, it costs money...quite a bit of money. So, we sell some ads, solicit donations from those who recognize the benefits and hope there's enough dollars to approach break-even.
Everyone on this forum is a volunteer, giving of their time and efforts.
I deeply appreciate that.
And, we'll continue to strive to offer the best information about ponds and lakes that you can find, anywhere.
If you haven't subscribed to Pond Boss magazine, please do so. That's the vehicle which actually fuels this forum...and the information we publish doesn't make its way onto the forum. It's stuff you can use.
We appreciate your patronage and loyalty to the Pond Boss family.


Teach a man to grow fish...
He can teach to catch fish...