Bringing The Sand Bar Back Here?

[wiley]

Ok, so here's the deal.

In 2001 I created a very successful formula for a boating and fishing forum which included the fun side of those activities, jokes, bikini pix etc. It was suggested to me that perhaps this "fun side" shouldn't reside on the forum as it detracts from the serious discussions. These comments prompted me to open TheSandBar.net.

What I now find is... ReelBoating is apparently maybe a bit too strict on-topic and could use some fun (it's my style remember). Off topic discussions encourage a sense of community, inspire new topics, and increase memberships.

TheSandBar may be a bit too removed just having a link here from ReelBoating. In all honesty this yesterday was my first visit to TheSandBar in over 5 days!

Here's what I'm proposing.

Bring The Sand Bar back to ReelBoating.com as a category with 4-5 sub categories. These categories are somewhat off-topic categories and not necessarily promoting any type of adult oriented discussions.

No adult oriented photos: Bikini pictures maximum - and only those related to the outdoors.

No political discussion of any kind

Funny videos area - non lewd!

Sports area for brackets, discussion, bets during season etc.

The alternative is to leave ReelBoating.com as is and TheSandBar.com as is (with less limitations). The Sand Bar categories will be free to view by all.

WHAT SAY YE?

[Mike F]

Bring it back

[rchanner]

The upside of bringing it back here would be consolidating/increasing your traffic-the benefits of that are obvious, not the least of which being advertising revenue.

The downside (IMO) is that if you take away the adult content (language, nudity, etc.) you lose the sandbar.

[bill erhardt]

"Bring The Sand Bar back to ReelBoating.com as a category with 4-5 sub categories. These categories are somewhat off-topic categories and not necessarily promoting any type of adult oriented discussions.

No adult oriented photos: Bikini pictures maximum - and only those related to the outdoors.

No political discussion of any kind

Funny videos area - non lewd!

Sports area for brackets, discussion, bets during season etc."

Sounds like a slippery slope to me. Why not add the sports betting and miscellaneous non boating/fishing topics the your present Sand Bar and leave this forum as it is? It is nice now not to have to sort through so much extraneous stuff.

[Mr. Paul]

In my mind I think the sandbar can stay were it is. I do think that the discussions here are too regimented to have many posts. Topics are too limited to have any type of dialogue. Now the other side as the Ft. Lauderdale boat show is around the corner and Ludy just posts the pic. here and not on another site I think you will see an explosion of visits and discussion.

[Ludicrous]

Now the other side as the Ft. Lauderdale boat show is around the corner and Ludy just posts the pic. here and not on another site I think you will see an explosion of visits and discussion.

[wiley]

Who is Ludy?

[wiley]

"Bring The Sand Bar back to ReelBoating.com as a category with 4-5 sub categories. These categories are somewhat off-topic categories and not necessarily promoting any type of adult oriented discussions.

Sounds like a slippery slope to me. Why not add the sports betting and miscellaneous non boating/fishing topics the your present Sand Bar and leave this forum as it is? It is nice now not to have to sort through so much extraneous stuff.

Thanks... which brings up another discussion. Do we need seperate forums for Boating Projects and Boating Safety? The downside is it makes the other forums appear that there are a small amount of posts.

I like the idea but as a webmaster into promotion the forum (which has activity) needs to portray more activity.

[Ludicrous]

Who is Ludy?

He's the guy that CATCHES snook AND photographs them. Some just photograph them...

[wiley]

In my mind I think the sandbar can stay were it is. I do think that the discussions here are too regimented to have many posts. Topics are too limited to have any type of dialogue. Now the other side as the Ft. Lauderdale boat show is around the corner and Ludy just posts the pic. here and not on another site I think you will see an explosion of visits and discussion.

In the coming months ReelBoating will slowly lose any resemblance to boating forums I've created in the past.

Unlike THT which has a format known to encourage rumours and vendor bashing I will be taking a totally different approach and working with the Vendors in helping test and improve their products.

THT might have a ton of visitors but comments from many in the industry are less than favorable.

Now, how are topics too limited? People can certainly comment good and bad here on RB as long as their claims are warranted.

I am thinking now perhaps a few off-topic forums (minus the bikini pix) might do well here. Still open to comments.