FM used to be a 'Buzzing' fishing web site, what has happened to it???

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but FishingMagic aint the same as it used to be.

I'm sure I'll get shot down in flames by Jeff and Geoff with stats, but all I can see is what's going on on my monitor.

Why has Mark Wintle stopped submitting articles to 'Wintles World'?
Kevin has also stopped submitting his articles.

Some members have stopped posting and the banter seems to have almost gone.

We sent Graham off in style at Boundry, but it was hardly acknowledged by FishingMagic??? He should have got a gold watch and maybe a write-up in the 'FM News' about how he made FishingMagic as a gesture of recognition of what he did, but nothing!

We were promised a successful respected angler as his replacement???

FishingMagic used to be the first tab I opened everyday..............

Graham retiring hasent helps, me me me me me, no consideration for others

Steve Spiller said:

Why has Mark Wintle stopped submitting articles to 'Wintles World'?
Kevin has also stopped submitting his articles.

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Sometimes Kevin does, but it's up to them. Mark gets paid (?) for writing now through the books.

Steve Spiller said:

We sent Graham off in style at Boundry, but it was hardly acknowledged by FishingMagic??? He should have got a gold watch and maybe a write-up in the 'FM News' about how he made FishingMagic as a gesture of recognition of what he did, but nothing!

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He didn't want it. Honestly! Refused point blank to give us a story about it, I did ask him, but he's not the sort that wants a fuss. Well, so he's always told me.

Steve Spiller said:

We were promised a successful respected angler as his replacement???

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You must be mistaking us for a different website. That was never on offer here.

Cor, we must be such a big let down!

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Edit: had to check this, but yes, we had 99,502 visits to the forums etc. last month. Richard's promised to crack open the champagne when we hit 100,000.

There is still a buzz, just not as long or as loud.
As to graham's retirement, if all those that went did their own article with their own story of events and twists then it could be either interesting or end up boring.
Graham has no doubt been busy with Mark in wring their books, the weather is naff where me and Monk live so no decent fishing to write home about and of course work and family commitments.
There are still some great articles to read, just not the same input of discusion on the forums. Lastly, there are some caracters that have gone missing, others are quiet or not quite as involved for whatever reasons.

It has been said before, its up to us the members to have some input, but we in difficult times.
God I'm depressed.

Jeff Woody said:

Cor, we must be such a big let down!

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Yes!

Jeff Woody said:

You must be mistaking us for a different website. That was never on offer here.

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I must be mistaken then? I don't use any other fishing website though???

Jeff Woody said:

He didn't want it. Honestly! Refused point blank to give us a story about it, I did ask him, but he's not the sort that wants a fuss. Well, so he's always told me.

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S*d what he wanted, you have the story, out of respect and recognition and as a tribute to him it should have been done! He would have forgiven you I'm sure.

I'll try to do selected text in reverse order next time...

Steve Spiller said:

I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but FishingMagic aint the same as it used to be.


A) Some members have stopped posting and the banter seems to have almost gone.

B) We sent Graham off in style at Boundry, but it was hardly acknowledged by FishingMagic??? He should have got a gold watch and maybe a write-up in the 'FM News' about how he made FishingMagic as a gesture of recognition of what he did, but nothing!

C) We were promised a successful respected angler as his replacement???

FishingMagic used to be the first tab I opened everyday..............

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A) You can always read Ron's threads about how the Trent is the best river in the whole wide world.......over and over and over again !!

B) With due respect Graham DID get a fishing rod from Richard (the boss).......

C) Mr Woodlouse did have a PB barbel of 12 lbs .........

Steve Spiller said:

S*d what he wanted, you have the story, out of respect and recognition and as a tribute to him it should have been done! He would have forgiven you I'm sure.

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Agreed, it would make for great reading, i am positive the majority of people here would completely welcome such an article, infact i am amazed it is not already available and in place !!

Graham is a legend, its the very least that he deserves, its his own fault for being so bloody good.

And i mean that with the utmost respect.

I thought Graham retired at one of our Idle days?

He's getting a bit like Frank Sinatra, if he keeps coming back!!:wh

You can also read about how Scousers are the most marvellous people, how Liverpool is the best city in England and how Liverpool United are the only football team worth supporting.

and they have the best hubcap collection on the planet

Ron The Hat Clay said:

You can also read about how Scousers are the most marvellous people, how Liverpool is the best city in England and how Liverpool United are the only football team worth supporting.

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I can't argue with you about that --
The difference being -----IT'S ALL TRUE !!!!!!



---------- Post added at 08:39 ---------- Previous post was at 08:38 ----------

The Monk said:

and they have the best hubcap collection on the planet

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and so is that !!!!!

Liverpool United HAHA



I agree with you Steve, It isn't buzzing no more but then it's also very true what Wobbly says 'its up to us the members to have some input'.

It's change and there's no denying that, the spark has gone, no denying that, a lot of people from the old site have gone (no denying that), and there's no denying that I say denying a lot!!

Unless GM comes back and takes over (which I have no idea, but I doubt it from what I've read), it's never going to be how it was.

When Bob Paisley left Liverpool United (HAHA) people said that they would never be the same................and they were right (only joking)....... where am I going with this.... oh yeah....., they wasn't the same but the support was always good leaving them one of the big teams and near the top all the time. (2009/2010 season n/a)

This is 2010 FM. Not the same as 2005 FM but can still be a good laugh and very informative.

Something to note is that many members who used to post on the forum regularly (daily in some cases) just 'lurk' these days. These members are still looking in and reading forums posts, but are choosing not to post for some reason.

We have to ask why is this?

It is all to do with E numbers .........

1, Exhaustion
2, Education
3, Entertainment

A lot of subjects on FM have been done to death 100's of times and those that have been around for a long time have exhausted all the usual subjects covered regularly.

A lot of Forum Users who were new to the Forum or to the Internet at the time have educated themselves nmore in modern technology and it's uses and now utilise it more to suit themselves and what they want from the internet.

With this above knowledge they have found that friends they regularly want to keep in touch with is easier done using other sites such as Face Book, Windows Live, MSN etc etc etc and they don't have to worry about sticking to Forum Regulations when just having a general chitter chatter.

Every Month we seem to get a thread just like this one.

Why doesn't FM have a Poll / Survey where users can put down what they like about FM and don't like about FM, then a list of solutions could be compiled that everyone could vote on and then that way everyone should get what they would like to see from FM as a website.

I still wonder why i bother getting involved in these threads, as i really don't think that the site itself is the problem, but a conflict on more personal levels that is the problem.

Not for myself personally, i canny stand any of yous lot anyway ha ha ha ha

Steve Spiller said:

S*d what he wanted, you have the story, out of respect and recognition and as a tribute to him it should have been done!

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No we don't have the story. Not the background story at least.

He started telling one day when I was driving and couldn't take notes, but it was just brief and sketchy, no bones to it. When I did ask him (on announcing his retirement) he said he didn't want it. I respect him enough to follow his instructions and no one else's.

ED (The ORIGINAL and REAL one) said:

B) With due respect Graham DID get a fishing rod from Richard (the boss).......

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And he was given a fantastic centrepin reel that I would have gladly killed him for when the new site started up.

http://vimeo.com/4178364

Shine said:

Unless GM comes back and takes over ........... it's never going to be how it was.

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And it wouldn't even if he did come back.

Here's the truth if you can take it (my personal feelings) -

When the old site announced it was closing a lot of members deserted even then, before it was sold off. Same with the advertisers, they were told not to renew advertising contracts, which is why Richard has been funding this site out of his own back pocket - I think you should know that seeing as people get it for free and still moan.

The articles come in fast enough, but not from the same sources anymore. That's understandable, same as magazines, the readership changes as well as the writers. I would like more articles though and I don't care if they're about carp, or barbel, or tench, or yesterdays, or red letter days, we just want them.

As for posting - it does seem to be the same old set, but this now is MY personal feelings. Someone new comes on and posts an innocent question or makes a statement and one of two things happen. Either people start pulling him apart, taking the mickey out of him or hijack the thread and turn it into "Cos you're gay....." or relate to the off-bank goings on of a fish-in that the new fella has no idea of. I saw this happen four or five times the other week with threads that should have been good debates or educational points. Even I lost interest and couldn't be bothered posting a sensible reply.

SO perhaps the answer to "why aren't as many posting..?" maybe to do with some of the posts that are made. Sure, a lot is in bait box, but the general message is - this is an exclusive club so stay away!

Those are my feelings and that's the big change from the early days when most posts were to discuss different topics and lend a helping hand to newcomers. It's not always like that, but more often than not it can be.

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You have to accept that the site has changed hands and changed Editor to two editors. All that Geoff and I do are edit material (articles) that come in, tart up photographs, lay them all in the software provided and make them live.

People are free to peruse these articles or not and are free to come and go as they wish. All that I know is that we are heading (currently) for as much traffic (visitors) as we had in the hay day of the old site. The fact that there are just a few people bemoaning the retirement of the old editor still confounds me because .......

Every time I ask Graham about coming back he tells me where I can shove it - in polite terms. Now why not leave him to his retirement and stop squaking about him coming back.

As the notice should say -

Like it or lump it, this site is under new management.



So endeth my PERSONAL feelings.

Stealph Viper said:

I still wonder why i bother getting involved in these threads, as i really don't think that the site itself is the problem, but a conflict on more personal levels that is the problem.

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Nail on the head as ever SV.

I think it all started to go a bit pear shaped with the uncertainty over the site being closed, then there was quite a bit of OTT moderating, none of which helped.

I actually think the site has improved over the past couple of months and seems to be heading in the right direction. Even if it's not as good yet as it was, it's still the best site on the net.

Well done Geoff and Jeff.

Amongst some of the reasons already mentioned I think people get a bit fed up, drift in and out again and vice versa. As such when members come and go the crack is more difficult to maintain.

Personally I also think there are also far too many forums. We currently have over 40. I'd like to see that condensed right down to less than 10 as I think the forum side of the site is too spread out, too fragmented and serves to exacerbate the lack of 'buzz' to which you refer Steve.

Also I'd like to be able to scroll back and see all of the latest posts and most recent threads ad infinitum, instead of just those threads that have been updated since I last logged in.

I'd also like to see the names of the authors of said articles alongside their work in the forum.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Shine
Unless GM comes back and takes over ........... it's never going to be how it was.

And it wouldn't even if he did come back.





Probably not.... But one thing is for sure, If I posted something I might get a few replies, if Graham added his thoughts.... my god, did the sheep follow. All of a sudden a simple thread turned into a big thread with loads of posters.

I hope you're taking me the wrong way here, I liked the old site, I like the new site, some things wrong with the old one, some things wrong with the new one.

When I first joined I thought it was very clicky, that feeling has gone and I hope new members see that.

I wish I could get to the fish ins to meet some of the people on here but I find it difficult to get far now.
I've met 2 people on here and both are top friendly blokes.

I like the site (not the ads, but that's me). I'm off fishing now. I will add a picture of my new pb in the gallery when I get back

I have to say that posting here now is no as fun as it was, if you do poke your head above the parapet, someone will shoot you down.

In the past this was normally just a member and it was felt that a difference of opinion was allowed.

These days if you you get shot down it is often by one of the management, look at how the first reply to this thread was from Jeff, the editor, and shoots down anything a member tries to express.

Previously we would have just ribbed Steve, now it is an inquest, with denials of any percieved failings of the site. I know now it is more of a financial enterprise and advertisers have to be appeased, but the passing of the banter is sorely missed, so I for one just lurk these days.