This page represents my ramblings on various topics affecting
marlin fishing and fishermen. Today's topic: new and improved
- finally ...
As should be obvious to even the most casual observer, we've
finally rolled out the new improved SCMO. We've been
threatening to upgrade the site for years, and promising the
rollout for months. I, for one, am thrilled that it done,
and exhausted from the effort (hey, you try rebuilding a thousand
page web site from scratch!). But a long six months of effort
has resulted in something we can all be proud of. From subtle
changes like emphasizing the SCMO and marlinnut.com names
(and playing down the "Southern California" part
of the title) to more substantial ones like a new, more global
perspective, this is truly a new site for a new millennium.
Se, before getting on with real editorials (and I have a
couple in mind), I'd like to stop and point out some of the
changes...
Global Emphasis
As indicated by our name, SCMO began as a place for the
local billfish community here in Southern California. But
it is the people who visit a site who dictate its usage,
and we have always attracted a worldwide clientele. One
need only look at the top posters in the forums to see the
diversity of locations - Hawaii, Australia, Florida, Guatemala,
Madeira and more. We'll never lose our roots in the SoCal
scene, but I feel we owe it to those who use the site to
provide them with a resource they can use. Hence our more
global posturing. We've added more fish species to the Fish
Facts section to cover other areas of the world, have added
a new international report to the Fishing News, and are
highlighting issues from regions other than just California
in Conservation Central. We'll continue this as time goes
by; if you have any ideas, let
us know!
Online Gamefish Release Reporting System
How long have you been hearing about this?
Back in '97, the Online
Gamefish Release Reporting System was the basis of my
senior project at the University of Redlands, as a way to
provide anglers who choose to release their catch some of
the same recognition that is received for a dead fish. Now,
after much retooling and tinkering, it finally makes its
debut at SCMO.
We've always celebrated tag and release here, and now
with OGRRS we have a way of providing the recognition long
missing for those who release billfish. In addition to the
visible recognition provided by the OGRRS log, we will providing
a certificate of release to anyone who registers their fish,
giving anglers one more reason to bypass killing a billfish
for nothing more than recognition.
I'm very excited to finally have this feature as part
of our site, and look forward to adding a few entries of my
own this year!
Tighter Integration of Forums
Ever since we developed the Offshore Fishing
Forum a couple of years ago, it has grown in popularity.
Unfortunately, since it was a standalone entity, visitors
often bypassed the main site and went straight to the forums.
Worse still, many did not realize there was a site beyond
the forums! We've worked to resolve this by better integrating
those forums associated with SCMO into the main site. Now,
visitors to the Marlin
Club, Trip
Reporter, and other SCMO forum will see the same navigation
bars and visual details as visitors to the rest of the site.
This will not only help our SCMO visitors make better use
of the forums, but also help our forum users discover the
rest of what SCMO has to offer.
Members Area
Sometimes, it feels like I spend all my
time on a soapbox talking about how much time and money
it takes to maintain this site. I'm sure it seems that way
to you, too. When I was thinking about the changes I wanted
to make to this site as part of the renovation, I decided
two things - one, that this was the last major renovation
I would be doing, and two, the site that resulted from the
renovation would be self-sufficient or else. One step in
that direction is our advertising program, which is discussed
elsewhere. The other is our new member area, the MarlinNut
Angling Club. Actually, you can blame Dara Fry for this
one, since I got the idea while working on her incredibly
successful site, ChicksWhoFish.com.
CWF has demonstrated that people are willing to support
a site they love - and a lot of people love CWF.com! I felt
it was time to provide an opportunity for our visitors to
demonstrate their support as well, and recoup some of the
costs of running the site at the same time. We've grouped
all the features that take the most time, money or effort
to maintain and placed them in a member-supported "site
within a site". There's plenty of static content elsewhere
on the site to keep even the most hardcore billfisherman
busy for a long time, but now those who value the extra
effort required to provide our most innovative features
can show their support by becoming a member. Frankly, I
would expect all the local anglers to join just for access
to the Fishing News and Interactive Hot Spot Chart. But
we have provided features that will appeal to anglers anywhere,
and I would hope that our worldwide visitors would want
to join just as a way to support SCMO. Time will show if
I am right. If the MNAC receives the support I believe it
will, we will continue to add new features and innovative
new ideas. If not, we'll simply discontinue it and SCMO
can become one more static web site.
If you're interested in MNAC membership, you can get the
details here.
Conservation Central
These days in America, homeland security is the big topic.
While it's always been a big issue, September 11 gave
us a new perspective, and now people are more aware of things.
At SCMO, our big issue has always been
conservation. Now, much like President Bush and his new
Secretary of Homeland Security, we have raised the importance
of conservation and given it it's own section - Conservation
Central. It will continue to evolve, but you can plan
on seeing links to all of our conservation content as well
as links to important conservation web sites. We will also
highlight the latest issues affecting marine conservation,
and let you know what you can do to help. Check back often,
and you'll see the metamorphosis.
Advertising Program
Those of you who frequent our forums know
that we've had a pilot program of banner advertising over
there for a while now. I must admit, it took a lot of soul-searching
before I started it, since I had long declared advertising
to be the evil of the Internet. But with the number of sites
using popup ads, popunder ads, mandatory advertising intro
pages and even more intrusive methods of getting their message
across, a simple banner ad looks pretty tame now.
As a result of the success and positive
response to the pilot program, we've integrated the banner
ads into the rest of the site. I think we've done so in
a way that will provide our advertisers with a quality product
for their money, without interfering with our visitors'
experience at the site. Hopefully, you will agree - if not,
let me know.
If you would like to learn how to become
an advertiser at SCMO, the details can be found here.
Technical Improvements
Less exciting, but no less important, are
some of the technical improvements we were able to make
as part of this upgrade. Two of the most-often criticized
features of the site - the splash page and the frames -
are both gone. We now are able to determine the browser
type you are using, and optimize the site for that specific
browser. This helps insure that the site you see is the
site we built. We've gone to a more pleasing font (Verdana,
if you care about such things), and have eliminated the
teal backgrounds - at least where there are words to read!
Hopefully, these changes and many others not listed will
all help you have a better experience while you are with
us.
A lot of work has gone into this new site,
and we're very proud of it - a world class website for world
class visitors! If you have any questions or comments - good
or bad - we'd like
to hear them!
Check out some of my earlier musings ...
