Who wants Great Lakes Forum - The Hull Truth

Dwain · 09-20-2006, 09:55 AM

I am looking for any feedback from the guys fishing the Great Lakes. Sure would like a Great Lakes Forum. Does any one know of other Great Lakes forums?

MichiganBoater · 09-20-2006, 10:00 AM

I would love to have a GL forum. I am sure there are enough of us using THT that regularly fish those waters to make it worthwhile

Wet-n-Wiley · 09-20-2006, 10:02 AM

I don't like having too many forums on THT.

There's some "other" boat forum that has a forum area for every single type of boat ever built. The forum page is a mile long and 85% of their forum areas have 0 posts.

Also, there was a big push recently for a West Coast forum on THT so I opened one. It only receives about 2-3 posts per week.

I'll check the response, might be good if some pre-exsisting Great Lakes group wanted to set up house here.

Dwain · 09-20-2006, 10:26 AM

Thanks Wiley. Hopefully some other boaters/fisherman will respond and if the response is minimal then I fully understand not opening another forum. Dwain

FreeByrd · 09-20-2006, 10:46 AM

I think Wiley had a Great Lakes section at one time and there just wasn't much traffic on it as I remember. I agree that too many sections becomes a pain to even look at everything let alone administer - glad you haven't put regional sections to the fishing forum - I'd never read all of them but I do scan through the sportfishing forum occasionally. There are a few fishing forums for the Great Lakes that are very good for Walleye, Steelhead, Salmon, Perch info but for good solid info on boats / motors / electronics there is nothing I have found that is even close to THE HULL TRUTH.

Hmm - just convinced myself it is time for another wheel.

Great Lakes Angler Magazine has a good web forum as well as Walleye Central. Also for anyone that fishes Lake Erie from Cleveland to the West you may want to look into the Western Basin Sportfishing Association and Ohio Gamefishing. I often refer people from these sites over to THT for boats / motors / electronics topics

Steve

tigreen · 09-20-2006, 12:13 PM

Why would you not want to have a forum for the Great Lakes? The argument that there are "too many forums" is pretty weak. Bandwidth and server space are very cheap commodities these days. I would think that if Wiley wanted to have the best boating forum on the Internet, he would want to include such a huge boating population...especially to increase exposure for his advertisers.

According to the 2004 statistics I found, the Great Lakes region has 5 out of the Top Ten states for boat registration. And that does not include NY which has both saltwater and Great Lakes boaters. Here they are:

#2 Michigan 944,800
#4 Minnesota 853,448
#6 Wisconsin 605,467
#8 Ohio 414,938
#10 Illinois 393,856

Total - 3,212,509

also, #7 NY 519,066 - but only some of those boats are in the GL

Plus these numbers also do not include the huge number of Canadian boaters that use the Great Lakes.

Only 3.2 million boats...that is unimportant?

And these are not all 14 ft. aluminum rowboats or bassboats either...go to any port on the Great Lakes and you will see sportfish, express cruisers, motoryachts, trawlers and fishing boats by the thousands.

I agree with Freebyrd that THT is a great source of knowledge for all boaters...too bad Wiley is not more interested in appealing to other areas of the country.

And for those of you Great Lakes fishermen who are looking for a friendly forum to discuss Great Lakes fishing, visit EducatedAngler.com

Tom

Wet-n-Wiley · 09-20-2006, 12:18 PM

Wiley Sux

09-20-2006, 12:43 PM

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong, but I don't think Wiley is considering it a bandwidth issue, I think it's a "clutter" issue. As it is now, I find the main forum's page to be pretty clean and easy to navigate to the 3 or 4 forums I often go to. When you do get a bunch of different main forums, it makes the page longer, you have to scroll around to find what you're looking for. With this forum software, adding the forum is easy and it doesn't really take up any more bandwidth. But if a forum isn't being used, it's just takes away from the simplicity of the website! I agree with Wiley........this time anyway!

tigreen · 09-20-2006, 12:47 PM

I don't think Wiley "Sux" at all. I think Wiley is a good guy for doing all the hard work necessary to keep this forum going.

I have enjoyed this forum for the last 5 years. I've gotten tons of good info here. I just think it could be even better if it made some effort to appeal to other regions of the country.

My .02...

Tom

KJS · 09-20-2006, 12:47 PM

Quote:

tigreen - 9/20/2006 11:13 AM

Only 3.2 million boats...that is unimportant?

Tom

I don't recall anyone saying it is unimportant.

I also don't see millions of boaters clamoring for a Great Lakes board. It makes sense if enough people want it though.

SEASWIRL PAUL · 09-20-2006, 02:01 PM

I do but I guess that wiley doesn't and he's the boss, right? Plus, I don't have a wheel so who am I?

Wet-n-Wiley · 09-20-2006, 02:06 PM

Quote:

SEASWIRL PAUL - 9/20/2006 1:01 PM

I do but I guess that wiley doesn't and he's the boss, right? Plus, I don't have a wheel so who am I?

You are THEE Seaswirl Paul!