Thanks again, folks. I am back from my TransPacific Odyssey and sitting down with a cup of coffee after a little nap. I have said it many times before and I will say it again. We had been thinking about this forum for years. We(me and the mouse in my pocket) are "relatively" young and had other hobbies and I always marveled at the forums offered to enthusiasts of other hobbies/lifestyles. The only options we trawlers folks had was T&T and PM. While I certainly believed T&T to be a valuable source of info and fun as well, an email based list was WAY beyond obsolete and just too tedious to keep up with....not to mention it's strict moderation caused solely by it's obsolescence. *To be honest with you, this was the biggest burr under my saddle. *The mods over there could be downright *******s for no reason!!! And to me, PM was not even an option it was so slow. So the Trawler Forum was born....purely out of necessity and the urge to provide trawler folks a place to "hang out".
That has always been our motivation. Doug and I talk about advertising all the time and I am inundated on a regular basis with questions related to that. My only reply to that is, "Not right now.". Will we in the future???...maybe. But I will absolutely PROMISE that if we do ever go that route that ACCESSIBILITY and USER FRIENDLINESS will ALWAYS be our TOP PRIORITY!!!!! And if we do, we will make sure that it adds value to the forum and not take away from the experience. Like I said, this forum was born out of necessity due to a lack of any other of it's kind. It will continue to serve it's purpose in the future and that purpose is listed above!!!!!!!!
Anyway, Doug has always been the technical guy and is really responsible for getting this thing up and running. It was mostly my idea though and through many discussions, it became our idea. He has always had the "keys" to the site and I have just basically been the people person and moderator. He has NO spare time, I have tons(ya shoulda been a pilot). With that said, we just had a little discussion and I now have the keys so...WATCH OUT!!!! You might see some very minor rearrangement but you will probably barely notice. I would like to provide the Aussies and Kiwis their own "Cruising events" area since we have such a large contingent from down under.
I am just thinking out loud here and blabbering so I will shut up. Thank y'all so very much for your participation in Trawler Forum. Y'all have made it what it is today!!!!
Baker
-- Edited by Baker on Monday 6th of December 2010 03:45:07 PM