BlueEye

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a very Happy New Year as well

Steve, Iceman - thank you both! Hope you both have a great holiday and happy new year

Greg, Randy, Tom, Richard - thanks for kind words and feedback Panfisher, that's a great question and the reason I posted this idea for discussion before moving forward with it. You are correct in that a photogallery will cost more money for us in terms of space and the use of a CDN (Content Distribution Network) to ensure the images are served up FAST. IMHO I think the biggest risk here still comes back to that idea of SIMPLICITY. If we put out a gallery that is hard to use or confusing then we are just wasting everyone's time along with money and resources that could be better spent elsewhere. HCI and other usability factors are ultimately what makes or breaks "great new features" as I am sure everyone on this board has seen over the years. Keeping it simple is the hard part, change in itself is the risk. You can mitigate the risk of change by keeping it simple and intuitive to the end user. Money/Space - Yes (but of no worry to you), un-reversability - No, we can always switch the gallery feature off and use current way of simply posting to images forum. One of the nice things about the photogallery is that if you upload an image to it, then you can use that image any other time you want to post it in the forum easily and without having to re-upload the same image again. Another cool feature is the ability to add "notes" to posts to explain exactly what the photo is displaying - in other words you could draw a box around someone's face and label it with their name, or draw box around spoon and label the name of the spoon, or maybe point out certain parts of an engine, etc. It's easy to get caught up with all the "cool" features of new software, but my main focus still remains on keeping it simple Cheers Chad

Very sorry to hear of your loss Richard. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Thanks again guys for kind words! I'd like to get your thoughts/opinions on a PHOTOGALLERY option we have with the new software. Is this something you think you would use? Is it a waste of space and we should just post pictures to forum? Just want to try and wrap my head around what you think about this. The idea would be to basically have two galleries (for simplicity) - A Fishing Gallery & A Hunting Gallery. Members could post pictures to these galleries with descriptions. Other members would be able to comment on pictures (similar to how forum would work). The main advantage of the gallery vs. forum is obviously the ability to see all the pictures at once. Let me know!! Thanks, Chad

Hi Troy - Just as an FYI, the new LOU website will allow for polls with MULTIPLE questions (basically a survey) that will be able to accommodate what you are looking to try and accomplish here. The current system only allows one poll question (without creating a bunch of different separate topics). I have made it a sticky topic as you requested until January. Cheers , Chad

Thanks guys for the kind words! Panfisher - I couldn't agree more!! I've seen and experienced what you talked about too many times. Been working on the new site now for over a year to hopefully avoid that exact situation. We haven't changed the website in 7 years now (if it ain't broke don't fix it idea) and the only reason we decided to take these steps now is because our forum software version is no longer going to be supported/updated. It's like owning a truck with 200,000 miles on it and then someone telling you that you can't make oil changes any more on it. While the truck isn't broken now, it is probably a good time to start looking at other options (i.e., maybe a new truck that looks and feels exactly like old truck?). Cheers Chad

Hi everyone, I wanted to make a quick announcement about what has been going on “behind the scenes†at LOU for the last year with respect to the website’s core software. We found out last year that the forum software we use to power the LOU website (phpBB) is no longer going to be supporting the version that we use in the near future. After a lot of thought and research, we decided it would be in the best interest of the community to start making some updates to ensure that the software that runs LOU is safe and better positioned for the long term. Since then we have been working on the “new LOU†for over a year now! My biggest concern (and maybe yours as well) is that I personally don’t like change. I believe in the idea of “LESS IS MORE†and simplicity. That is why we spent the last year working on trying to make the new site look and feel as close as possible to the current website. What you know and enjoy about LOU will not be changing. The only main “change†is that the updated LOU will be supported by much more current software, hopefully translating into a more user friendly experience. At this point I’ve lost track of how many hours I’ve spent each night working on this simple concept, but I do know that today we are closer than ever. I don’t have an exact timeline for the launch of the updated website software as I would rather “get it just right†rather than simply pushing it out there as fast as possible. With this updated software, you will get to enjoy some new features. One that I am excited about is the option to integrate your LOU account with your Facebook and/or Twitter account. In other words, you can post your report on LOU and have it automatically go to both your Facebook and Twitter pages (PERFECT for Charter Captains and avid anglers who are into social media!). I’m also looking forward to the new and easier ways to post images. We are upgrading the classifieds section to allow for user reviews. Pro Members will also have the convenience of quickly seeing the latest posts from their “friends†on LOU right in the sidebar. Think it would be nice to have the option to subscribe via email to only the specific forums that you are most interested in? Or to have the option to run MULTIPLE polls from a single post (i.e., your own survey)? Both of these will be possible with the updated software! Pro members will also get access to our new lake cams in Wayne and Monroe counties. The list goes on and on but like I said before, the key is to make the new website look and feel similar to the current website. I am not a big fan of change but I also don’t think letting the site’s software drift into a legacy state is smart either as it puts the community at an unnecessary risk of not functioning the way we want and expect it to. I also want to assure you that all your usernames/passwords/topics/posts/private messages/etc. will be automatically converted over to the new system so your login information will be the exact same as now. As always, thank you all for your support! Working on LOU never feels like “work†to me – I love it and will continue to strive to make the site even better now and hopefully for years to come. If you have any questions, please ask as I am more than happy to help. Happy Holidays to you and your family! Chad

Nice pics Pete!!! Thanks for sharing