Hi All,
     We plan to launch the newly redesigned FishingClub.com this coming week.  The new design will not affect the forums (other than a few color changes) all the posts, users, post counts, etc will be exactly the same, but the site will be down for a couple hours during the day of the the move. 

New features include your own personal page, groups, new ways to share photos, chat (in the dropdown menu), an encyclopedia, a blog, and a questions and answers feature amongst other features.  Everything else will largely remain the same.  We have created a "Launch Center" for you to watch demo videos walking you through a few of the cool features, included some FAQ's, etc to help with the new stuff.  We will also have extra staff on the forums for a couple week while everyone gets comfortable. 

   A special thanks to those members who helped with the Beta Testing!

   Thank you!

Will our avatars stay the same?

Hi FisherFanatic,

They don't have to change, however we are adding a "My Page" for every user, other members can post on your page, request you to be friends, create groups, etc. It also allows you to follow forum threads you are following from there, better store your pictures, and a whole bunch of other stuff.

Ideally we want your "My Page" and your forum presence to match, and so we would like members to load their "Profile Image" and then we can use that as your avatar instead of the forums avatars so everything matches. It could be as simple as loading your current avatars to your profile page, and we will walk folks through that with a FAQ and a video on day 1.

Thanks!

for those of you familiar with face book it will be some what Familiar,as you have your wall, group walls and friends walls. so when you upload pics to an album they will be were you posted them.
example : I create a album on my wall and set the share settings the album will be on my wall. If i create an album or upload pics to a group
they will be on that walls photo album not on my wall. and drag and drop to desk top wont be the uploaded original size.

It sounds similar to a facebook page.Can't wait to ckeck it out!

I hope the execution on this is better than some of the "improvements" in the past! Tom

What day and for what hours will the site be down?

Hi Guys,

As the first post here says, this week we're launching a redesign of the site and the features mentioned. We can't give you an exact launch time yet, but it will mean the site will be down for several hours during the transition. You can get a sneak peak at the Launch Center Page.

If you visit the launch center, just know that there is still some tweaking going on pre-launch. Not everything is fine tuned yet.

As this moves forward if you have questions you can email me directly at wthomsen@namginc.com. Some questions might get answered publicly in the forums

Thanks!

Wes

We plan to launch tomorrow, around 10:00 AM Central time. It could take between 1-3 hours total.

One other note, we added the old "Private Messages" to the Forums drop down as it is today, but we actually have a new PM system that is much better, and more seamlessly integrated with the rest of the community features. We will leave the old one up in conjunction with the new one for about a week so folks have time to migrate anything that they don't want to lose to the new system.

Thank you!

IMHO this is important info and this forum header should really be locked. It should only be for admins to keep us informed of what is going on in the club or with the site .

Not for any other topic like littter granted it is frustrating but it don't really belong in this heading .

Posted By the rod tosser on 07 Dec 2010 12:51 AM

IMHO this is important info and this forum header should really be locked. It should only be for admins to keep us informed of what is going on in the club or with the site .

Not for any other topic like littter granted it is frustrating but it don't really belong in this heading .

I agree, rod tosser.

The new site plans look great!

Nice Job!

Hey guys, one other note that I wanted to point out before we launch: On the new design, on the forums, you will be able to click on the poster's name and see their page, and anything they are willing to share, from their page you can request them to be your friend, comment on their wall/page, etc. Also, there will now be a small envelope icon beneath each poster's name that allows you to private message them right from the forums. Its something you asked for after we launched the current PM system, and we think it will make communicating back and forth a whole lot easier!

Thanks!

Yeah, it's really slow!

Yep. We're on it. Thanks for checking in fisherfanatic.

Welp, I am going to have to think about this...I am NOT a fan of how Facebook works. I must decide if I will continue to participate in this forum...What ever happened to doing it right the first time?

Hi All, speed issues should continue to get better as the site has time to cache itself, and propagate across the servers.

Turnip, I understand your frustrations, but hopefully you will see the value in some of the new additions. If not, you also can continue to use the forums the same way you have in the past, and have the added benefit of a better private messaging system to boot. One of the requirements for ourselves on this new design was to not take anything away, but to only add, so the forums haven't changed at all. Head over to the launch center though, watch a couple of the videos, and see what you think.

Thanks all!

I tried to use your "launch center" link, but I got an error message...I am trying!

Question, do I post pics thru a "web hosting" site like Photobucket?

Hi Turnip,
Nope. You can post photos on the forums the same way you have in the past, or you can upload them to your "MyPage" a couple of different ways, including as a post or as an album. I encourage you to check out the Launch Center to watch a video tutorial or to read the FAQ. You can check it out here: http://wwwl.fishingclub.com/fishing...enter.aspx

Thanks!