Ifish Moderator Needs Some Help with the BB

Ifish and our Bulletin Board have grown very quickly into a great site with so many members and even many more times that who just read Ifish like they would the Oregonian newspaper. We are now averaging 5000 hits per day with some days going over the 8000 mark; verifiable by net sources. The more important growth to me is that we now have hundreds of registered members contributing all kinds of interesting and useful posts. I am really happy to see this happen. Good for all. I have developed both a strong loyalty to Ifish/Jen and our growing family of members. I also take pride in doing the best job that I can as moderator. To me that involves reading each and every post for proper content, and to minimize poor language and unduely argumentative threads that are going nowhere. Also, I take pride in trying my best to answer people's questions, particularly if they haven't gotten a reply. I really love my BB moderator role here on Ifish and will stay on as long as things work out and as long as Jen and you members will have me. However, the rate of posts has grown to the point that I have to spend too much time on here to do the role the way I want to. I'm getting heat from my family to make the PC available more to them and that is fair. So, I would like knowledgable fishermen that would be interested in helping do some of the things I have outlined within. You knowledgable and interesting fishers, of which there are many now, know who you are. I simply can't read every post everyday and have time for other projects that I do and also be able to get back to finishing my book. I am open for suggestions. I will present some ideas, all of which must be reviewed and OK'd by our able adminstrator Jennie. - Suggestions: Questions that get posted are getting a lot of good answers already and I think that's great. If you experienced fishers can add anything to help with enhancing answers that would be great. If anyone sees an offensive post please tactfully remind the offender of our membership position on posting guidelines, and if need be e-mail me or Jen to get involved if necessary. With the talent and skill base we have now, it would be great if more of you posted tech type fishing posts along with good and funny fishing stories from time to time. Let me know what you think. I will still be an active moderator, but just need to cut down on my screen time a bit. If I occassionally miss a posted question to me (very seldom will) just click on my e-mail icon and send me a note to alert me I missed something. I also feel that I have gotten a little carried away with the political aspects of our regioinal fishery problems and challenges, so I may respond a little less to those except where I just can't resist getting involved. Let me know of what you members think; or what ideas any of you would like to express. Thanks for the understanding and your support; and I will be on as much as time allows. - Steve Hanson (RT)

[Pilar]

Check your E-Mail!

The bend is your friend!

[Navigator]

RT

You have done a great job in getting this DB to where it is. I certainly understand your need to back off. In a lot of respects, the DB should run itself more. One suggestion might be to find someone to rotate nights or weeks with to ease the burden.

I really appreciate the number of e-mails from members that would like to help out. But I need to clarify my posted intentions, because some have gotten the idea of a designated position or two being created. No designations intended, at least not until the growth of Ifish becomes such in the future that Jen wants to delegate designated positions for area moderators (such as have one of the coastal guides that is a BB member be responsible for overseeing posts about that specific area, and one for the Valley area, and one for SW/NW Washington). We aren't at that point yet, but we are growing so fast. I do feel we are at the point that I need voluntary non-designated help from regular knowledgable members in being on the lookout for posts in need of answers (many get answers but can often use additional info from an area expert), on the lookout for posts that have foul language for which a tactful reminder of our membership goal of a clean board can be aserted, and if you find a post thread that has degraded into a negative thread going nowhere you members can e-mail me, or Jen, to look into cleaning it up or closing it if we haven't noticed it. I care enough about our BB that I want to feel reassured that things are going to be watched and properly addressed if I can't get on for a significant portion of a day when I am spending appropriate time on other projects and when family members need to be on our PC for a long stint. That's all I'd like to see for now. We have built a great site with such knowledgable and responsible fishers that I feel Jen and I can trust some of you regulars to help out as I've explained within these 2 posts. As Navigator posted above, a BB should to some degree be able to run itself. I agree, as long as members help out with the above mentioned scenarios, and has a proper degree of moderator oversight. I have seen what can happen to BB's without much oversight from a moderator. Thank you all for any help you are able to give, and I should be able to be on enough to a good job as the main BB moderator. And you people let me know when I'm not. - Steve

[This message has been edited by RT (edited 09-26-2000).]