Being a member to post reports.

[flinginpooh]

A few times Ive noticed silly reports and then come to find out that they was not even member but just guests putting reports in. And after seeing these reports got me thinking that maybe its time to make it so you need to be a member in order to leave a report, comment, forum comments, etc..... I like some others on here fish the rivers with vigor. We know whats going on where and when. Theres a large enough group of us that keep in contact with messengers and texts even phone calls and know how things are in different areas. They puke is slow. Really slow at the moment. The 5 star report is a hoax report. There is only a handful of fish being caught on the puke. Thats how slow it is. If you drive past right now youll see it too. Not many anglers on the lake cause they are not in good yet. But Making it members only for reports would help this. And maybe removing anglers from being members if they are not active for extended periods. Just a suggestion.

[rjn cajun]

I agree with you to a certain extent. I`m not a member till next week but I know alot of guy`s use walakes just for the reports. Whether it`s posting or looking at them. I think it helps our fellow anglers before they hit the lake they were thinking about going to. For the time I`ve been on this site very rarely do you see false reports. You do on occasion see reports that should not be a 5 or a 4. Those of us who fish on a constent basis know when we read it wasn`t that kind of day. Just my 2 cents.

[kevinb]

I think he means the people who don't actually log in but are able to submit reports.

That is a pretty entertaining report.

[flinginpooh]

I dont mean being a premium member. Just a regular member. Its free. But it will take a few extra mins to set up an account that maybe might change the mind of someone posting BS reports.

[rjn cajun]

I didn`t know that you could use the site unless you had a profile and password and all that good stuff. If that`s the case then I do agree with you. I don`t think the bull sh#@ers would go that far.

[The Quadfather]

I didn`t know that you could use the site unless you had a profile and password and all that good stuff. If that`s the case then I do agree with you. I don`t think the bull sh#@ers would go that far.

There are a lot of people who only post reports on here. I have a friend on here that after a month of fishing/chatting with him.... I finally figured out that he didn't even know there was a forum within walakes.com He thought it was just a place where people put reports on line. He wondered how I had all these fishing relationships with people from just their reports, LOL. He will probably bust my chops now that he is on the forum. lol.

[nickbell]

I didn`t know that you could use the site unless you had a profile and password and all that good stuff. If that`s the case then I do agree with you. I don`t think the bull sh#@ers would go that far.

There are a lot of people who only post reports on here. I have a friend on here that after a month of fishing/chatting with him.... I finally figured out that he didn't even know there was a forum within walakes.com He thought it was just a place where people put reports on line. He wondered how I had all these fishing relationships with people from just their reports, LOL. He will probably bust my chops now that he is on the forum. lol.

I remember when i first became a member on this site i didn't know about the forum for a couple of months! Im glad i discovered it, its been very helpful!

[Anonymous]

I didn`t know that you could use the site unless you had a profile and password and all that good stuff. If that`s the case then I do agree with you. I don`t think the bull sh#@ers would go that far.

There are a lot of people who only post reports on here. I have a friend on here that after a month of fishing/chatting with him.... I finally figured out that he didn't even know there was a forum within walakes.com He thought it was just a place where people put reports on line. He wondered how I had all these fishing relationships with people from just their reports, LOL. He will probably bust my chops now that he is on the forum. lol.

I remember when i first became a member on this site i didn't know about the forum for a couple of months! Im glad i discovered it, its been very helpful!

I get the response about not knowing there was a forum a lot when I'm at the shows, or from people sending me feedback alerts. There's a lot of site content people aren't aware of I think. We have so much content it's hard to have it all "front and center" for people to see. As to the original topic starter...

I certainly understand flinginpooh's argument and it's vaild. Aaron and I have looked at this issue over the years and have decided we don't want to put this restriction on reports because we know how vital reports are to the site. The majority of people that visit the site are lookign at reports, not the forum (which again amazes me). We want to make it as easy and encouraging to submit reports as possible. There will ALWAYS be a small percentage of BS reports whether from registered members or not. Some guys just have to play games with online websites. We can screen out the obvious and we do delete those reports before they ever get posted. Sometimes they'll slip through and when we get alerted I'll go back and check (and remove if warrented). As FP mentioned, an obvious fraud report isn't too hard to figure out, especially on a popular river when you've fished the same day and saw nothing caught. Using the report comment feature is a good way to bring that "report" back to earth. You can politely point out "sorry I was there all day and I didn't see that kind of action". The report comment feature is a great "leveler" device to bring those types of reports back to earth.

We have done certain things to encourage full participation by the site users. For example: if you are a casual user you are NOT able to see all the details on a fishing report, and you can't post on the forums or the report comments page. That encourgaes people to become free registered users. If you're a free registered member, you CAN"T see the hotspots feature (which is REALLY cool), don't have access to the historical data charts (another really neat and useful tool) and all the other Premium Member features. This encourages anglers to sign up as Premium Members (which at $24 a year is a steal).

Sometimes posting a fishing report is the first thing that triggers a person to become registered. I imagine they are a little apprehensive and then decide "what the heck, I'll post a report". When they actually see the report online it can be the motivating factor to get more envolved with the site.

Sorry for the long response and we do appreciate your concerns.

[MarkFromSea]

I've had 5? different accounts on here over the years cause I'll follow the site for a while then drop off for months, a year, due to other priorities that take me away from fishing or the site, I forget user names and have to reopen a new acct. It's all good though, I can see my old reports from 8-10? years ago. I totally understand if those old accts were closed to simplify/clear data. Just please don't lose the reports. LOL I still go back from time to time and reread my Williams report with the opening cannon and silly story of catching the "combatants"/fish..... Both our vehicles still have the WA. Lakes plate frames, a little worn... The forums are more interesting now than years ago. I fish a bit more than I report, I think it's because of how slowly I type. I wish more fishers, fresh and salt, would use this site. I need to learn hotspots, new techniques, and new species to target. Puget Sound rivers sucked this last fall, I could see by the reports that I might not be doing something wrong. The coastal rivers and down south seemed to do ok, if I have it correct. It looks like the Columbia North of Wenatchee is doing ok in the winter, long term, I'd like to target some of those sections of the Columbia- it's still within extended weekend drive over, trailering a boat..... Rambling a bit...... You're doing a GREAT job Mike and Aaron! Keep it easy for newbies to report even with out an acct, your right, this brings the good ones back to join later. I keep looking for a better site, there just isn't none to be had so they should close up and send their members over here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Carey]

I keep looking for a better site, there just isn't none to be had so they should close up and send their members over here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Probably most of their members ARE our members also. Aaron just sent me a PM that we gained 4,720 new members last year and 460 this January alone.

The reports will never be deleted. That's a big thing that sets us apart from the other Washington fishing sites. We have reports going back to 1997, which is pretty cool all right.

Also, Aaron just told me he added a Species Filter to the historical data reports feature for the Premium Members, so watch for that new feature coming soon.

[scott080379]

You know, no matter what site I am on, there are always some BS reports and even the ones that require you to sign up for a membership free or not get them.

This is the best site for fresh water fishing and I hope it salt water section grows more. I will be honest I don't look at the salt water section much here, mainly due to there jsut not being a ton of info here.

This is my #1 site though and I love it here and the people here are great, even with the few BS reports.