MORE Tournament Changes At Westernbass

[wayneg]

With many tournaments going on throughout the west, we have been trying to come up with a way to have them all in a central location where you can check out either what is going on this weekend or what's happening over the next several weeks.  We have talked with many tournament organizations and have come up with this plan.
 
We now have a section category called Tournaments on the left: 
 
Tournament Calendar:
This area is where you can look for current or past events with locations, names, weights etc. We added a new feature to this which includes a 5 day weather forecast per posted lake on the most current upcoming events!  We have asked all tournament organizations to keep this updated with their events, locations, changes etc.
 
Tournament Forums:
This is now broken into 4 regions.
 
Desert & Southern CA. region, 
Central CA. region, 
Northern CA. region, 
Pacific Northwest region.  
 
Below these sections is the combination of all tournaments combined.  Any changes updates etc. will move them up on the posting ladder. If you select one of the regions, you will then only see the events in that region.
 
You will no longer need to search many pages on the Bass Fishing Forums to find out about a tournament post or region that you have interest in. This will also facilitate a central repository of those tournaments in those regions for future or past viewing.
 
I hope this really helps get our tournament section loaded with good current data.
 
Wayneg
 

[tbob]

Wayne

Whatever the new program is we will follow as we have no choice, but in looking at it...

Steve Moduno WON BASS Delta has three threads on the new forum and one on the old ( Main Forum) forum and it hasd all the more recent post.

In my opnion almost everyone looks at the main forum and when stuff moves off it to other forums( ie Signature Forum, SoCal forum and now Tournament forum) they basically go there to die. Seemingly the majority of the discussion on this board, and views, is regarding tournaments. I'm not certain what will be left of real interest if you remove all bass tournament discussion.

[bryanmc]

Have to agree (don't faint Bob). The farther apart you spread information, the less likely folks are going to want to click all over the place to find what they need. For example, the be all, end all signature forum averages one post every 2 weeks or so, because all the discussion happens on the regular forum. Why is it even still here?

[wayneg]

Hi tbob and bryanmc,

I really appreciate your comments and thoughts. I am not looking to break any discussions up. If any fishermen wants to talk about a particular tournament or, fishing on that body of water etc. he/she has all the rights and abilities to discuss it under the bass fishing forums. The reason you are seeing multiple posts on the bass fishing forums from Steve Moduno is we copied a few to the new tournament forums to show you how this will work. It may take a few weeks for this transition period. As far as the signature forums, I would agree with you. However, in the future, the tournament organizers will do all their posting in this section and not in The Bass Fishing Forums. The tournament forums are really intended to have a local depository of events where any one of us can click and get all the latest information without going through pages of the bass fishing forums discussions. Fact is the Tournament forums is the same data base only much more organized! If, I was running behind and needed information on a specific event prior to this new program what do I do?? Start looking at the forums and hope its on page 1, 2 maybe 3. The problem was if no one responded with a comment on any of the tournament posts, they would fall quickly to page 2, 3, or way beyond! NOW, I can click the tournament forums and click my regions, there they all are!! The new pages are merely an easy reference guide, or used for a specific question but general fishing conversations are still on the Bass Fishing forums.

I think this will really help most of the tournament fishermen find easy answers. For those of us who are not tournament fishing, we can make a few clicks and get a current weather report on what the tournament guys are facing, along with results and top contenders.

Wayneg

[Marty]

I like it but if I was a TD trying to get a few more guys to sign up for a tournament it may not be the place to be. Just saying.

I like it because I can check the weather real fast, how about adding the tides or water levels of the lake? If you put that down also you may drive a few more fisherman that don’t fish tournament to that forum that may make some happy (TD).

Here is an idea to put under the “Tournament” category under Tournament Calendar and Tournament Forums. Add the “Winner Circle”, a place for the guys that win a tournament to write what he did to win the tournament. Or one of your staff to write something.

[wayneg]

Hi Marty,

I like the tides and lake water levels concept. I will run that by our programming staff to see if it is possible within the space we have allocated. I also really like the winners circle idea. Do you think the winners would post their winning techniques etc. for that section. It would really be cool if they would.

Anybody else like the winners circle idea?

Wayneg

[bryanmc]

Wayne...
Just a suggestion for the tournament calendar. How about a section for the ramp or takeoff location? When a tournament just says Delta or Clear Lake you still have to go to the appropriate website for that info.

[wayneg]

Hi Bryanmc,

I have posted the inner working of the tournament page set-up. You can see that I think all the questions are there. The only requirement is to have the tournament organizer input the data. So in the picture below, Here are the questions:

1) Tournament Name
2) Tournament Date
3) Pull Down menu for State
4) Pull down menu for Lake
5) Tournament Location (marina and or ramp)
6) Length (this can be one two three or 4 days long)
7) Display Units (weight in device, using pounds in decimals or pounds in onces) Most use pounds in decimals
8 Description, The tournament organizer can put all the details etc they choose.

Page-1.jpg (124.71 KiB) Viewed 4729 times

Page two shows what has been entered. After the event is posted, the tournament organizer can re-edit the file, make changes etc. and post it back out on the site.

page-2.jpg (109.03 KiB) Viewed 4730 times

After each day of the event, the tournament organizer can either type in each of the top fishermen as shown in page three below or select paste catches on page four below and just copy and paste in the top finishers.

page-3.jpg (86.77 KiB) Viewed 4729 times

page-4.jpg (70.89 KiB) Viewed 4730 times

We have tried very hard to make this very easy and yet very powerful for updates and changes.

Hope this helps!

Wayneg

[bryanmc]

That does look like it covers everything...

[nipples]

Hey Wayne...

Like others I have concerns and doubts. If the "Retentive Fairy" shows up and says TDs cannot recruit/post in the main forum, then that could end up hurting them, and everyone. (that is my main concern). So is the "Retentive Fairy" planning on showing up and scolding TDs for posting in the main forum?

As for my doubts... Great idea, but much like "Free Love" was a great idea in the 60's (Ask Cooch, he remembers... Har Har Har )
For this to work, it requires a lot of work by a lot of different TDs (Some of which can't even get results posted within 2 weeks). It also requires patrons (we the people who generate traffic, which translates into circulation, which dictates how much advertising power WB has and how much WB can charge for it) to go look at it, and possibly get in the habit of looking at it). It's definitely worth the ol' college try, but my recommendation is not to let the "Retentive Fairy" scold TDs for recruiting/posting in the main forum.


Good Luck,

-Nips-

[Cooch]

Hey Nipples, ya know what this "Retentive Fairy" has ta say, this is a buisiness. The tournament orgs do not want to pay for advertising here, so why should WB.COM give them free advertising on our main Forum? Really, yer a smart guy, I know ya see what I'm talkin bout. From a business stand point, this is only fair to our existing Sponsors who DO pay for advertising and are allowed to post their pitches on the main Forum. I personally think its an outstanding idea and opurtunity, that Wayne has created for the Tourney Orgs, it is free. In time, viewers will get adjusted to having to look at the new tournament section for the info they want in regards to tournament happenings. Yet general tournament discussions can continue, as long as the post is not a form of advertisement for the org.

We're not here to make life easy for the tournament orgs for free, and any short comings they have in getting their employees to update the info you mentioned, are theirs, not ours. We indeed have a far larger viewership than the tourny crowd.

[Hollywood]

Wayne

Whatever the new program is we will follow as we have no choice, but in looking at it...

Steve Moduno WON BASS Delta has three threads on the new forum and one on the old ( Main Forum) forum and it hasd all the more recent post.

In my opnion almost everyone looks at the main forum and when stuff moves off it to other forums( ie Signature Forum, SoCal forum and now Tournament forum) they basically go there to die. Seemingly the majority of the discussion on this board, and views, is regarding tournaments. I'm not certain what will be left of real interest if you remove all bass tournament discussion.

Agree with TBob, way to many places to look for info now. In my opinion was better when it was one combined forum.

Kevin Johnson

[sTony]

I'm not certain what will be left of real interest if you remove all bass tournament discussion.

Maybe we can get back to talking and sharing about fishing for Bass, which doesn't require/mandate fishing tournaments at all. Personally, I think all the endless tournament promotions gets really old after a while. Time is proving that more people are getting into the sport and disregarding much of the tournament offerings. There once was a time when guys wrote here about fishing much more and tournaments a whole lot less.

sTony

[nipples]

Hey Nipples, ya know what this "Retentive Fairy" has ta say, this is a buisiness. The tournament orgs do not want to pay for advertising here, so why should WB.COM give them free advertising on our main Forum? Really, yer a smart guy, I know ya see what I'm talkin bout. From a business stand point, this is only fair to our existing Sponsors who DO pay for advertising and are allowed to post their pitches on the main Forum. I personally think its an outstanding idea and opurtunity, that Wayne has created for the Tourney Orgs, it is free. In time, viewers will get adjusted to having to look at the new tournament section for the info they want in regards to tournament happenings. Yet general tournament discussions can continue, as long as the post is not a form of advertisement for the org.

We're not here to make life easy for the tournament orgs for free, and any short comings they have in getting their employees to update the info you mentioned, are theirs, not ours. We indeed have a far larger viewership than the tourny crowd.

Wow Cooch… Where is the love for a brotha? Getting pretty close to the bus stop with that reply… LOL

As a business I would hope WB understands the importance of customers… We are the customers, and advertisers are the clients. You ask why WB should let TDs recruit on the main forum for free? A simple answer would be that it is fishing related and YOUR CUSTOMERS might just want it. From a business stand point Cooch, no one is going to pay WB for advertising if WB doesn’t have anyone to advertise too. Really, yer a smart guy, I know ya see what I'm talkin bout.

For a business to come out and say, in time, our customer will adjust to the unwanted changes we forced upon them is pretty anti-customer service. Now days, customer service means a lot (take a good look at Apple and you can see a prime example of what good customer service can do for a company). Posting that there is an upcoming tourney in the main forum is of interest to a lot of your customers.

I’ve been concerned about WB lately. The place has been rather dead. I am wondering if the Retentive Fairy didn’t drive some good ol’ boys away (perhaps they finally got tired of the censorship and not being allowed to be themselves). This is no longer a place where a guy can just relax, be a guy, and have fun. There is all this etiquette and pansy political BS about watching Ps and Qs and everybody play nice together, and whatever you do, DON”T be yourself… Where is the gut busting laughter, the camaraderie, the passion, and the fun? The world and the economy have a bad case of incontinence and this is a place that should be a refuge, an escape, a happy place (but it’s not).

I think the Tournament Calendar is an experiment worth trying, but not if we are going to get all pissy and retentive about it. And I think WB needs to learn who their customers are, what they want, and a thing or two about customer service. Are you going to whip out the Retentive Fairy on any discussion for a lure if the maker doesn’t advertise on WB? Where do you draw the line and why draw it on a TD who is just trying to get the word out about a tourney that some guys may want to fish. Are you going to ban discussions on FLW or Bassmasters because they don’t pay for advertising? “Why should WB.COM give them free advertising on our main forum?” I don’t see Won Bass advertising but I do see guess the weight contests for them. Skeet Reese is a Bassmaster, are we gonna ban discussions on Skeet?

I think that some people at WB have grown a bit myopic over the years and are forgetting something fundamental… Customers. You want to implement a change that will make a real difference? Try implementing a focus on customer satisfaction… Let’s get this place lively and happy again.

-Peace-

-Nips-

P.S. That rant wasn't aimed at you Cooch, just WB in general.

[mark poulson]

Wayne,
You moved the sticky for the Castaic Bass Club's Manny Nunez Memorial Challenge event.
To be clear, it's not a commercial tournament, just an annual club get together hosted by the Castaic Bass Club.
Participation is free, other than lake vehicle and launch fees.
I don't think this is the kind of tournament you had in mind when you moved tourney stuff to the new Tournament Forum.
Would it be possible to post in again in the main forum, as a sticky, as well as on the Tournament Forum?
Mark Poulson
P.S. If you'd rather not discuss this publically, Johathan Ashcraft has my cellphone number.
Just don't give it to that Cooch character!

[TritonBrent]

Where is the gut busting laughter, the camaraderie, the passion, and the fun?

LL

[wayneg]

Thanks for Marty's request, we have incorporated data from the web site http://cdec.water.ca.gov/ into the Tournament Calendar. If the tournament lake has a cdec water level, we will post that days level on the Tournament Calender along with a five day weather forecast.

See it here http://www.westernbass.com/dotcom/tournaments/

Thanks for the idea Marty!!

Wayneg

[bryanmc]

According to the tournament calendar, the next WON Castaic tournament is Thursday, May 5th?

A case of GIGO I suppose.

[tbob]

Your right of course. I don't know who made the error, but I am not totally sold on the idea of putting our schedules and results up in multiple places for this reason. We all have a lot of changes and it's hard to keep up even on our own site. There a changes in each region almost every month. I suggested that if they wanted to build a section where people would come to look at schedules that they provide links to the official site that has that information, whether it be us, AC, NBW, ABA, etc. People would still come here as the central jumping off spot. It would also take less space and time for everyone concerned. Westernbass has some legitimate concerns with people driving traffic away from their site, but that is what links and information do.

The correct date for Rich Taibers next tournament at Castaic is June 18th, which is on a Saturday.

[Caudawg]

Bob, your own site shows the next tournament as May 22nd
http://wonbass.com/team/results/south/s ... index.html

Please correct me if I am mistaken.

[Ray L.]

I do like the tournament calendar. I will be telling all my anglers to check there for the next event. I will also have them check the tournament forums for any info I will be posting. I think if the tournament directors inform there anglers it will get them checking it much quicker. They will also tell there friends and word will get out very quick I think.

[CN]

I'm not certain what will be left of real interest if you remove all bass tournament discussion.

Maybe we can get back to talking and sharing about fishing for Bass, which doesn't require/mandate fishing tournaments at all. Personally, I think all the endless tournament promotions gets really old after a while. Time is proving that more people are getting into the sport and disregarding much of the tournament offerings. There once was a time when guys wrote here about fishing much more and tournaments a whole lot less.

sTony

+1, Really tired of all the Tournament post's..................BORING.

[Ray L.]

Wow I see how this is working out to keep the main forum clear of tournament announcements.

[tbob]

Thanks Ray you do have it right.
I think tournaments post work just fine in the new tournament forum. The only small issue I see is that some people are still posting on the main forum and having links or comments to go to new TF section, but I'm sure wb.com will get everyone up to speed in short order.
With regards to Tony being bored by tournament post, we all have different interest and there are some post that are not viewed much and some that get a lot of views. The thread has more views than almost any other recent post so tournaments must be interesting to many. I don't know how else you can gauge the interest of your readership other than the number of people who view and post to a thread.. But I am totally fine and onboard with the new way to do it, and hopefully this will prove to be a huge improvement over the old way. I know a lot of time and effort went into it and I appreciate it as someone who does tournaments. I think there will be a gray area as to what is and what is not a tournament post, and the moderators should probably just move them to the correct spo and issue a mild warning in a pm and be done with it.

[RipnRog]

I have been sitting back thinking about a way to respond to this. I will first say I understand what WB is trying to do and hey I hope it works. I know many people that use WB just to see what tournaments are coming up rather than searching all the various websites to find which org is having a tournament where they want to fish. With that being said posting the announcements in the main forum makes the most sense. I have been on here since it was NCBF and everytime there is change some like it and some dont. such is life.

I read someone posted that the announcements are boring.... really? if you see an announcement for a tourney that you dont want to fish then it is simple dont open it... I also read that it was someones opinion that people are getting into the sport just to fish and not to tournament fish. While there is no proof either way maybe they want to go to a weigh in and watch.

Oh well we will see if segregation works.

Good luck WB

[DAN]

Great Decision Wayne! For years tourney orgs have beeen riding the popularity of WB.com forums to promote there events. The new posting layout is on target and businesses can't run without income. WB.com or any our publication should not be expected to give the milk away for free! While the users may not like it, they will get used to it. Building and upgrading is not free and the site is looking good.

[RipnRog]

Great Decision Wayne! For years tourney orgs have beeen riding the popularity of WB.com forums to promote there events. The new posting layout is on target and businesses can't run without income. WB.com or any our publication should not be expected to give the milk away for free! While the users may not like it, they will get used to it. Building and upgrading is not free and the site is looking good.

Well it is a "public Forum" isnt it?

[mark poulson]

Great Decision Wayne! For years tourney orgs have beeen riding the popularity of WB.com forums to promote there events. The new posting layout is on target and businesses can't run without income. WB.com or any our publication should not be expected to give the milk away for free! While the users may not like it, they will get used to it. Building and upgrading is not free and the site is looking good.

Well it is a "public Forum" isnt it?

I think that anytime someone else is paying the freight, they have the right to set the rules.
The fact that this forum tolerates so many of our opinions doesn't make it public in the sense that we can do whatever or say whatever we want.
I think it's more accurate to say it's a forum that encourages public participation, within the guidelines set up by the forum owner.
He's in this because he thinks he can make a living with it, and he paid for the chance to try. So he gets to set the guidelines and conditions of participation that he thinks will help him do that.
That's fair.

[JustinD]

Thanks for Marty's request, we have incorporated data from the web site http://cdec.water.ca.gov/ into the Tournament Calendar. If the tournament lake has a cdec water level, we will post that days level on the Tournament Calender along with a five day weather forecast.

Thanks for doing all the homework for the anglers. I really am pissed. These little things like checking water levels,tides (where applicable), ect...is what seperates the dedicated anglers from anglers who just simply fly with blind luck. Sorry Wayne but I know your doing thing to make WB more applicable to everyone but really whats next......Posting the winning techniques from the previous weeks winners?

And BROTHA Brent......you couldn't be more correct.


LL