Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Forum Header Different?

Does the top of the forum look weird or different to anyone else today?

Mine has a banner advertisement for the conference. Is that what yours has?

Yep and one for the mag. also the topic heading is at the top of the page as a folder heading.

I've got a big blank space that must be where the conference banner goes. This is with Mozilla; I'll have to see what IE does.

OK, the ad banner shows up for me with Internet Explorer, but NOT with Mozilla Firefox.

Anybody using Netscape?

Announcements are great, but I would prefer no advertisements on the sacred Pond Boss Forum.

Guys,
We polled our faithful months ago and the consensus was banner ads are fine as long as they apply to what we do and aren't distasteful. Keep in mind this forum is free. I made the decision to put up two banner ads, for ourselves. We have been getting quite a few emails and phone calls from people who want to register for the conference. With this banner, anyone can click on it, download and print the registration form and the program. It's time. Believe it or not, less than 15% of the people registered as members of the forum actually subscribe to the magazine. The magazine works as a profit center, the website doesn't. Its mission is to provide discussion and information.

Bob Lusk – Less than 15% being magazine subscribers is disgusting.

Perhaps magazine subscribers should have a golden corona around their names and the others a cheapskate insignia!

I thought that everyone on this forum was a Pond Boss magazine subscriber.

Gentlemen, the magazine supports this site that we all enjoy. Don't you believe that you would rest a little better at night knowing that you were doing your share in helping with your support?

Please subscribe to the magazine.

I second that thought !!!

Please make mine a miller lite logo.I signed up as soon as I found out about it.Thank you ,Ted,for suggesting this site and the magazine.Both have been great.Thanks to all the members for your valuable info,insights and wonderful humer.
Tom g

I am surprised to hear that only 15% of forum members subscribe to the PB magazine.
Technically, I suppose I am a guilty party since my subscription is a gift to my son, who is “my” pond landlord.
Is one subscription per family enough?

I would encourage all to subscribe to the PB magazine – it’s valuable information, sometimes correcting erroneous conclusions drawn from a well meaning, but less than qualified forum contributor.

I welcome any pond related advertisement to keep this forum active.
George Glazener

I can identify with Bob's decision to advertise. These forums require a lot of time and effort to upkeep and the PondBoss forum is top notch, IMO.

I'm suprised more forum memebers dont subscribe....interesting.

Gator

Dwight, we had the same thought process many months back about providing some type of differentiation amongst forum members to show who was a subscriber vs. who was not.

The easiest way, and also the least effort method for Lusk, was to take the matter into our own hands and place a comment in your signature bar.

If anything, this serves to shame the non-subscribing infidel (without idividually naming them) as they sit in solitude and shame behind his/her computer screen.

At the end of the day, I'm sorry to say, but "cheapskate" may not be such an unappropriate word to use.

The subscription only costs $32.00.

Obviously, Lusk is a generous guy, but he's not running a charity here on the forum.

I can confidently say that many, many hundreds of us would be very, very sad if this forum was not here.

Do your part.

It should be noted that there are over 3400 people that have joined this forum, but 70% have 5 or less posts.

So if the figure 15% was of 3400 members, 500 members would have subscription to the magazine. And if you said anybody with 10 or more posts was an active forum member, than there would only be 560 members; therefore; 89% have a subscription to pondboss.

Lance, that's a good point. There are also a lot of lurkers who never (or very seldom) make posts.

I think we saw a double-digit forum member making his first post a few weeks back.

I have been able to prove up (because of the "handles" of people I know of and information they put into their personal profiles) that 236 members of the forum are subscribers to the magazine. Another 200ish have allowed their subscriptions to expire. Interestingly, we have, the best I can figure out, more than 350 lurkers who have subscribed. A lurker isn't a member of the forum. But, when they read the forum for some time, they ultimately subscribe via paypal on the website.
Play all the games with the numbers that you wish, but the numbers of subscribers compared to the number of participants of the forum is surprisingly low. The most passionate people are subscribers, because those of you understand the value of the forum. What's REALLY interesting is that more than half of the forum members who subscribe actually have less than 10 posts each. They are more interested in learning and observing than participating.

The last I checked for every registered member there were a large # (8 IIRC)of viewers who don't register but just read. Also there are quite a few mag. subscribers who don't do the Forum thing. It is not a direct comparison of people.

One thing is clear though. If you read this Forum you are benefiting from the mag. Either through sharing in the posters discussion of the substance (getting questions answered) , having a place to read/share or by the mag. making the Forum possible. You would be surprised by the number of people who are long time readers/posters with only a few posts. So like Dudley said try to do your part in sharing the load.

I'm in the subscriver/lurker catagory. It's not that I don't want to participate. It's just that I have very little if anything to offer to the forum, given my lack of experience with ponds. My pond is only about 3k sq ft, with BG, LMB, and CF.
(Note to self) need to renew subscription. I think I just got my last issue.
This is a great forum and I check in several times each day, but rarely login.

I share the forum information with my 82-year-old Dad who doesn’t own a computer, so I'll get him a Pond Boss gift subscription for Fathers Day. Besides he loves to read, is a Pondmeister himself and the reason behind my own pond fetish. Thanks Bob for making all this possible.

I will share my observations with you on lurking.

As a newbie a couple of years ago - I was somewhat intimidated to post. There are lots of VERY SHARP people on the board and I was hesitant to ask a "dumb question", never-the-less, I jumped in feet first and have probably asked every rookie question that can be asked...I wonder if others feel the same as me and don’t post to avoid posting for fear of asking the wrong question? Or perhaps a general uncomfortable ness of a forum?

Would that explain why many lurkers are subscribers?

See lurkers, 'Gator is a perfect example. Just jump in and post. What I think most lurkers don't understand is that most everyone here reads and posts to help other forum members and enjoy the funny stories, trials and tribulations of fellow enthusiasts.

I have asked plenty of dumb questions and posted more than my fair share of stupidity and have never been personally attacked or ridiculed.

If you have a question do a search, read all there is on the subject matter and if your question remains unanswered post it. Post a funny story or a good experience or even a bad experience.

The wonderful thing about this forum is that it give us ignorant amateurs (of which I am a card holding member) access to world class experts on virtually every subject of Pond Bossing. Look at me for example, I'm a bean counter. Prior to Pond Boss I could sum up what I knew about ponds in one concise word....Diddly. Now I know slightly more than Diddly.

And finally I would suggest not only subscribing to Pond Boss magazine, which is both a great resource but also at times a great inspiration, but also buy some of Bob's books. I can tell you from personal experience that his books Basic Pond Management, Water, Weeds and Algae, and Raising Trophy Bass are all well worth the small investment.

So lurkers, just like your pond, just dive in. Unlike Red Eared Sunfish we won't bite.

Oh and PS to 'Gator, I enjoy your posts although I must say the photos of the gator in your pond still gives me the heebie jeebies.

I never let that stop me.

thanks jeffhasapond. he gives me the creepies sometimes too.

I think Gator's experience is very common and understandable. Even with years of pond management and fish experience I read for a couple of weeks before I registered and then didn't ask a question for a couple more weeks.

The things that make this forum so good in addition to the info are the quality of the people and their willingness to help.

There are no dumb questions here !!!! Only people who want to learn. Some of the best questions are the seemingly very simple ones that make us all stop and think about how much we don't know but need to find out. All of us put together only know a small % of what there is to know about ponds and fish.