To those interested, the new Warrington Anglers website is now live. 

I have been putting in a lot of work on the site, but there are a few areas still 'under construction'. I would welcome any constructive criticism, or a nudge if you notice any mistakes on the site.

WAA members can register with the site (using their current club card number) and get access to additional content. We are still working on the online subs section, but before too long, you will be able to get your card online, using a creditcard/paypal. 

www.warrington-anglers.org.uk 

Cheers,

Martin 

Registed last week just waiting for confirmation before I can get a look at the members section.  The front end looks OK and it will be great if we can have online subs.

Thanks for all the hard work Martin, it will be nice to be back online with Warrignton.

Thanks John,

Our Membership Secretary is on holiday for a week, so any new registrations might have to wait for a few days before they can access the 'members only' section. We thought long and hard of how we can verify members, but unfortunately there is no other easy way to do it.

Currently, the 'members only' features are Gallery, Downloads, Blog and Forum.

The thing I am still undecided over is the Forum. It would be useful to have one, so members can discuss how waters are fishing, post catch reports, etc.  However, we all know how anglers love to gossip about club politics, rules, water management issues, bailiffs etc, etc. I just havent got the time to answer the questions or moderate the forum. We had a message board previously, and some of the misinformation that was talked about was frankly worrying, and can sometimes do the club damage (e.g. affecting water rent negotiations), it got so bad that we had to shut it down.

I guess we will have to see how this one goes,

Cheers for the input,

Martin 

Martin

I was a member of WAA when the old forum closed. I aired my disappointment on the forum at the time that the club had sold Astle Pool. In my opinion, it was the best water they had, certainly for anglers like myself, who like a challenge, in nice surroundings.

I didn't critisize anyone in particular, name names, or anything of the sort.

Unfortunately the moderator at the time saw my comments as being overly negative. Shortly after this the forum closed.

When you have an association, where the members have a stake in the 'business', its perfectly natural for people to express opinions as to the running of the club. An internet forum is a great place to air such views, as some may lack the time, or perhaps the confidence, to air them at an official meeting.

You state that the new forum will be members only. In that case, what's the problem with free speech? I could understand it if the whole internet angling world was looking in, but this isn't the case.

I'm a member of Prince Albert, who have a members only forum. It's lively and well used. People post about catches, hints and tips etc, but also about water management policy, club politics, water aquisition policy, rule issues, and many other topics.

Offensive posts and the like are rightly not tolerated, and are removed.

I'll suggest to you that if you try to limit the scope of the forum it will be scarcely used so effectively, a waste of money. There's a lot of competition out there, not least the site we're on now!

I hope you take these thoughts as being constructive, I'm not bitter about my previous effective censorship!

Good luck with it.  

Hi Ric, thanks for the comments. I am also in PAAS, and use their forum, so I know what you mean.

The old forum was closed for a couple of reasons, it wasnt because of any particular thread. We had a couple of trolls stirring trouble, posting anonymously, and some stuff was becoming very personal. 

The new forum doesnt cost anything extra, so there will be no waste of money. It's more a case of taking up time for moderators (i.e - me). My main priority for the new site is to keep it friendly and easy to use for visitors. 

Cheers