Other forums out there ?

I’m sure the days of forums is dying off. But is there any other out door related, fishing, hunting forums that are decent ? I have so many issues posting, replying, and lately even opening this site that I am starting to look else where. I’m sure that face book is the main thing going these days but it’s so full of negativity I haven’t logged on to fb in a few years.

Any thing else that’s worth while that you guys are part of. Looking for somewhere else that I can get access to all the awesome reports and posts this place used to have. I gained tons and tons of information here, but the last couple years it seems like most the valuable info has gone down hill. And now with it telling me a error occurred every other time I try to open this site, I think it’s time to look else where. Let me know what else you guys know of that’s local hunting and fishing knowledge.

There are a couple forums barely holding on, but you’ll wait 2 weeks or more to get a response. But really just isn’t anything else out there. It’s all Facebook groups, and honestly has been for the last 10 years. That’s where all the traffic is.
It’s unfortunate because FB group organization and topics and searches are terrible. Either you get information immediately or you never get it at all, and good luck referencing anything from the past. I remember the days of BBC Boards even before forums like this and it’s crazy how things have changed since then.

Having said that, there are some pretty well run and large regional groups on FB (some with nearly 100,000 members). Lots of activity and time wasting opportunities abound.

I recently joined Minnesota Outdoorsmen. Several current or former members from IDO are now over on that site. Its seems to have less traffic. Like most things its not fun learning a new system, but so far it seems to be OK. No system problems there. Sounds like there is hope that things may get fixed and better here, but that may be awhile before that happens.

fishthumper wrote:

I recently joined Minnesota Outdoorsmen. Several current or former members from IDO are now over on that site. Its seems to have less traffic. Like most things its not fun learning a new system, but so far it seems to be OK. No system problems there. Sounds like there is hope that things may get fixed and better here, but that may be awhile before that happens.

I haven’t heard that the things are getting fixed. Did this come from the horses mouth or down the line ?

I hope this place hangs on, but it definitely will struggle if there’s no incentive to repair/maintain it…which is too bad considering the wealth of information stored through this site. The forum didn’t make the money so I get the logic to just letting it be. There’s no way I’d take the time to go elsewhere to be disappointed by the lack of traffic or content compared to what this place has had for many years.

I have been around here a long time and still could read “new” old content about fishing the river every night if I wanted using the search tool.

This is still the most active forum even in its current state than just about anything out there. It’s too bad there’s no business attached to this anymore though.

buckybadger wrote:

I hope this place hangs on, but it definitely will struggle if there’s no incentive to repair/maintain it…which is too bad considering the wealth of information stored through this site.

I have been around here a long time and still could read “new” old content about fishing the river every night if I wanted using the search tool.

This is still the most active forum even in its current state than just about anything out there. It’s too bad there’s no business attached to this anymore

The info I’ve gained here is priceless. The people I have met here have all been great. Hell a few of the guys have become my every day fishing and hunting buddies. But just like everything good, it slowly goes away.

I’m not having issues on this forum other than an occasional slow loading when posting. Don’t really post here all that much though.
What issues are everyone having?

Bearcat89 wrote:

I haven’t heard that the things are getting fixed. Did this come from the horses mouth or down the line ?

It was talked about in the is IDO hard to connect thread. Sounds like they are trying some things and there is some possible hope insight.

HSO outdoors used to be great but thats long dead. Iceshanty.com is ok and I still check that out once in a while but it’s a lot guys from far away like NY. I’m on walleyecentral.com but I almost never check it out. It seems ok and might be worth spending more time on it.

For me the appeal of this site is the community. I know so much about everyone here just by reading posts and interacting through the years it’s like you know them even If we have never met. Hard to get that other places.

I am part of some FB groups. There can be some good info to be found but it’s a lot of jerk***s that are negative and there is certainly not much opportunity to get to know members

For the few people on here. I really enjoy the learning but my days are numbered don’t like Facebook and there are no others and it takes forever to get anything to work. Guessing only 10-12 of the same people even posting sad but the truth.

There’s Walleye Central, but I don’t know if it still has the same traffic – I haven’t been on it in a decade. Bassresource has a strong following with a Minnesota section.

crappie55369 wrote:

I am part of some FB groups. There can be some good info to be found but it’s a lot of jerk***s that are negative and there is certainly not much opportunity to get to know members

The FB groups are insane. I am apart of a few just to watch. A few of the MN deer hunters ones are hilarious to read comments on.

I tried Mn Outdoors but you have to really like emojis and childlike posts. I’ve always called it Sillytown and haven’t been there for a couple years. Lots of the same great people from here over there. I mostly visit Ice Shanty if not here. Walleye Central is great in the summer but gets very low traffic during ice season.

I’ve been a member at http://www.SigForum.com for about 15 years. It’s more of a gun forum but you’ll find discussions on most any subject. I’ve met members from all over the country and they’re all stand up guys and gals. Some have become good friends of mine and the FW. The owner of the forum runs a very tight ship so anybody that shows their azz gets shown the door.

You can probably deduce this on your own but if your signature has your pronouns or you have a puzzy hat in your collection, you probably won’t last long, even if you wanted to.

If you want to talk about guns, and not just Sigs, it has everything you want. No ads either, the owner pays for it all.

I highly recommend it.

fishthumper wrote:

Dave is also spoken for working on a huge web development project. Once that is complete, and it will be several months yet, we’ll have time to parch things up.”

Hopefully the timeline scoots up

Not a bad idea bear, folks are dropping like flies here. My main thing is the river so the seasoned river rats here have been priceless gonna be hard to find same knowledge base.

It was talked about in the is IDO hard to connect thread. Sounds like they are trying some things and there is some possible hope insight.
[/quote]

I missed that thread. I never looked in the q and a section I guess. Thanks for the heads up.

Hopefully the timeline scoots up

Not a bad idea bear, folks are dropping like flies here. My main thing is the river so the seasoned river rats here have been priceless gonna be hard to find same knowledge base.
[/quote]

That’s one of my favorite parts of this site. The endless knowledge I can find and real time reports.

I’m the same as Ed. Don’t really have problems other than occasional slow loading.

As for forums, I don’t think you’ll find anything close, much less better.

Pretty much FB or nothing. If this site ever dies (hope not) it will likely force me to join FB.

I HATE “modern” social media (Facebook as an example even though it’s “old”)

Nothing is organized, searches pop up the dumbest or unrelated crap, and some groups moderators are slow to approve posts.

I used to be a member of the now defunct GLA forum (Great Lakes Angler)

That site, like most any forum, had TONS of easily accessible historical information, all organized and on their own sub-page.

In today’s day and age the most popular questions or posts are decided by the algorithm and muck up everything.

Forums are like women….. they all flirt well but all end up being the same.

IDO is like a well used pair of boots that you become comfortable with.

FryDog62 wrote:

There’s Walleye Central, but I don’t know if it still has the same traffic – I haven’t been on it in a decade. Bassresource has a strong following with a Minnesota section.

I have been on Walleye Central and Iceshany/ty for a long time and they have certainly slowed way down in the past couple years. Im hopeful that this site doesnt have the same problems as I cant bring myself to get on Facebook. There is too much drama, unaccountability and people getting butt-hurt if you dont “like” or dont respond to their post

I’d sure hate to see this place go away. Enormous amount of knowledge here.
I really doubt it will get any improvements. People will become frustrated, and once the base-member traffic goes down, it won’t be worth visiting.
I hope things get better here, but if not, I hope everyone will post where they migrate to.

I really enjoy this site, Thank You guys!!!

Other sites:
Lake Link is good for WI guys.

Walleye Central okay, less traffic and answers to questions than here. But fairly good content.

MN Outdoors, no traffic, tough to read and follow with all the cut and paste/reply with emojis. No real outdoor conversation except the weather.

Bass Boat Central is very active. Bass focus, of course, but the info on boats, motors, and gear is great.

Just last week, I posted about problems I was having with the new lithium batts installed in my boat last spring. The distributor saw the post and called me. I now have two new up-graded batteries at my home.

Ive learned years worth of knowledge of fishing the river from searching the past and present posts in a short amount of time . Personally I dont find the issues as annoying as some others.

Once was a long-time contributor, got the boot for having an opinion that didn’t jive with the boys with pull. You boys that is. Thats OK, I like watching this unfold. It’s like watching a slow-moving car wreck from a distance. Fish the River was great, first 10 years or so of IDO years were great. Then it went off the rails and not just the issues you boys are having with the server. So as this is my one and only response. What I would do is take a long look in the mirror with some of your issues here and lack of and/or very little real content and loss of contributing people. James saw this as a car wreck along time ago with the negativity and basically unplugged. He was nice enough to keep it open for you, undeservingly as it is for some of you. Now I’m back to lurking until they turn out the lights.

WILLIAM G LANDOWSKI wrote:

Once was a long-time contributor, got the boot for having an opinion that didn’t jive with the boys with pull. You boys that is. Thats OK, I like watching this unfold. It’s like watching a slow-moving car wreck from a distance. Fish the River was great, first 10 years or so of IDO years were great. Then it went off the rails and not just the issues you boys are having with the server. So as this is my one and only response. What I would do is take a long look in the mirror with some of your issues here and lack of and/or very little real content and loss of contributing people. James saw this as a car wreck along time ago with the negativity and basically unplugged. He was nice enough to keep it open for you, undeservingly as it is for some of you. Now I’m back to lurking until they turn out the lights.

Sounds like a real thrilling life !!!. See why you got the boot. Seem like a real odd duck

For what it’s worth, I’ve been trying to work on the code here on the weekends. There is a rather interesting mess, database wise, that comes from trying to treat everything like a WordPress blog post. On top of this there are actually 3 WordPress sites here. One for fishing and the other for hunting. When “those who will not be named” imported the old forum data into the setup here they moved some of the topics/replies into the fishing/hunting sites as blog posts and comments. Two or three Sundays ago I think I caused the site to crash twice while trying to browse those comments on the back end. I’m not sure if 50,000+ comments is an issue or what.

Anyhow, what I’m attempting to do now is bring all of that data back into the forum as topics and replies again. Once I have done that cleanly on our staging server then I can do it here on production too. This will allow me to remove the other 2 WordPress installs and reconfigure as a single site install and not a multi-site one.

I have worked on my custom coded replacement forum on and off these past several years. (I know, face palm) Features such as user specific photo galleries, “wall” posts and other community functionality still need work. The old way of tracking what’s new for each user needs work as well. I may have to pare down the feature set just so we can get this site updated sooner. A few weeks ago I separated the database out from the web server. The database, with 8 dedicated CPUs still comes grinding to a halt from time to time. I’ve seen all 8 cores maxed out. Removing “delete topic” and search would help avoid some of that.

I’m including some screenshots of the new forum. I am trying to keep the overall look/feel as similar as possible. I know how some of you are with change. lol

Also keep in mind that the screenshots are showing incomplete work.

Attachments:

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   Screenshot-2023-11-21-at-19-29-20-Fishing-Forums-–-IDO-New.png
   

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   Screenshot-2023-11-21-192739.png
   

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   Screenshot-2023-11-21-192346.png
   

Thanks for the update Dave. I’m glad to see things will be fixed up. I enjoy this place. Kind of feels like home

Thanks for all your hard work!