The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

The NCFFB Steering Committee met during the Spring Bash at Hereford Ranch on June 14th. The following is a summary of the topics discussed and conclusions reached. (And yes, we WOULD have preferred to have been fishing!):

Attendees:

GM
Buzz
Ed K
Dawn
Carpy (wait, Carpy wasn't there, he went fishing!)
Phil
Neal
Joe
John


Website performance:

This appears to be the most significant issue on the NCFFB. Numerous members have generated feedback that the Board software is excessively slow.

Action: GM has agreed to focus on website performance to try to optimize the Board to improve performance. This work will take place over the course of the summer. While we have certainly heard the many comments about bringing back the “Old Board Format”, it appears many of those comments are driven by the need to improve load speed. We believe there may be script errors caused the board to load slowly and Greg will focus his efforts on improving this area. While complex, there is tremendous functionality and connectivity throughout the entire site which would be lost by reverting to the old Board format.

Action: Change the “threaded” format to act more like the old Board. The feature which moves the entire thread each time there is a new post to the top can be very irritating on lengthy and passionate posts. GM will work to change this feature to freeze posts in place rather than rotate them to the top of the page for the Threaded format. The Steering Committee also discussed this issue relating to the “Flat” format and agreed it was much less of an issue in this format.

Board Moderation:

This is always a sensitive topic and the Steering Committee is very concerned we strike the right balance between open discussion, and ensuring that the Board remains a family friendly place to visit. The Steering Committee reached consensus on several issues:

Action: The moderators agreed that offensive or otherwise inappropriate posts will either be deleted, or edited with a note to the Board that the post was modified by the moderators for inappropriate content. This will overtly eliminate posts from “disappearing” and will serve as a timely reminder that Board posts need to remain family friendly. Please see posting guidelines for the rules on acceptable behavior on the Board. Threads which seriously veer off course can be locked, or moved to the archives. While we will make every effort to minimize being heavy handed, threads do occasionally get out of line and moderator intervention is required.

Actions: We will adopt a registration required policy in order to post on the NCFFB. This decision was reached with much discussion. Most other fly fishing boards require registration. Additionally, the number of anonymous and malicious posts has increased recently and complaints by the Board membership have increased. We hope this new policy will mitigate the anonymous attacks on other members. This change was made effective 7/3/08.

Other issues and ideas:

• Consider the first point of entry to the Board as the Campfire.
o Add a link on the Board page to enable people to bookmark a Board link
• Consider placing the “recent posts” from the Home page onto the Board page. Or setting up another page for this feature with a broader view than just 10 posts.
• Have occasional problems with accessing multiple page threads- appears to be a software issue.
• From Board page there is an error when one tries to send a PM.
• Various software bugs are annoying. Continue upgrading the software to minimize these bugs.
• Adopt the theme: More Fishing, less Bitching
• Consider advising when a thread is locked.
• Consider adding an "Ignore Poster" function.
• Articles on the Home Page – Encourage the membership to solicit articles to keep the Home page fresh.
• Consider adding a separate Forum for the “Wild, Wild, West”. Several members suggested moving the controversial topics to a new area where others won’t have to read them. The Committee discussed this topic at length and decided against this approach. Steering Committee members have had experience with other boards where this concept was tried and it only encouraged flaming others, misbehavior and other activities which the membership has discouraged. As a result, we elected to not pursue this idea at this time.

The attendees wanted to acknowledge all of the time and effort put forth by the Steering Committee, moderators, and in particular GM for his tireless efforts to improve the Board.

Additionally, we wish to welcome Joe Tax to the Steering Committee. His arm was slightly twisted before he yelled uncle! We welcome others who are interested in working to improve the NCFFB to join the Steering Committee. If you wish to be considered, contact any of the Steering Committee members.