Riversmallies...

[Al Agnew]

I finally talked to Brian King, who was running the Riversmallies website, and it's official, the site is defunct. Brian had planned to revamp the site and re-open it bigger and better, but the guy he had re-designing it had serious heart problems before he could finish it. Brian finally got tired of either waiting for the guy to recover or looking for somebody else to do it, and just got burned out, and also didn't have the money to pay for the upkeep of the site, so he's closing the site completely. He left open the bare possibility of it coming back at some point, but unless somebody decides to take it over from him, I don't see that happening.

The staff members who had been helping him out with moderation and upkeep all called it quits a while back--except me. Brian didn't feel it was necessary even to let the staff know. So I doubt if he's looking for somebody to take it over, but it would seem to me that he'd be okay with that if somebody approached him. Actually, I would if I knew ANYTHING about running such a website.

[Bill B.]

Riversmallies published a heck of a lot of useful information over its run, especially prior to the last year or two. I will miss it.

[Guest]

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[hollinlinda]

I am a freelance web designer. I am new to the area and am learning about fishing in freshwater as I moved from south florida. But I would definitely be interested in this. You can take a look at my website www.hafdesign.com.

[Tim Smith]

I would really like to see it come back online, it was a great site. What about an umbrella Smallmouth Alliance forum? There are chapters in a few states and I think it would definitely increase membership numbers.

I had some experiences trying to do this. You could try to do it, but it would mean some major changes and you may or may not want to tackle those.

I was on the Executive Board at the Illinois Smallmouth Alliance and pushed to expand toward an umbrella forum and a national organization.

In the end, the ISA board wasn't interested in part because Riversmallies already filled the national forum function, and it was something the ISA had already tried without much success. The most passionate argument against the national forum and against any national organization at all was the amount of work it takes to keep the group functional and civil. Ironically, the privately expressed frustrations of the Riversmallies board struggling to moderate all the fights and spam and hackers on their forum was cited as a good reason to avoid the national model and stick to a regional forum. The argument was that more traffic = more fights to clean up = more work for the officers and in the end does not serve the state alliance members.

However, one of the limited results of the national push was a private forum was set up for alliance officers from different states to post and organize collaborative events. There were no fights on that and it couldn't be easily hacked so I was able to moderate that That probably still exists but I don't think the ISA has the resources to deal with the added work of opening it to the public. If the largest alliance doesn't want to deal with the headache, the smaller ones won't either.

Randy Cutler made some noise about a national smallmouth organization a while back but that doesn't seem to be going anywhere yet. He had a budget at one point. You might check with him and see what has become of that effort.

Tim Holshlag started the Smallmouth Alliance and has some pieces of an umbrella website but I don't think it has forums. I'm sure he won't want the added work, but maybe if someone showed up and were willing to handle it all...

You could do it here, but it would be a significant added burden...

In general I still think a national forum smallmouth group is needed (if done well). There are national movements afoot for contitutional ammendements for water access. There are national issues pertaining to water quality and the environment. Basic conservation and scientific research for smallmouth has national applications and in general you have a bigger impact if you're a bigger group. Right now the regional smallmouth groups have to particpate in these things through other outlets. For warmwater streams in particular the absence of an active thoughtful national smallmouth conservation group is a significant void.

[Guest]

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[ollie]

I use to like going to the website, but found most people around here to be outsiders. When Phil got this website up and running I pretty much quit going to Riversmallies. I did gain a lot of useful info out of the site, but there is only so many topics you can cover and it always seemed like they just kept getting hashed over again. I will admit I met a couple of great guys on the site that are over here now (Wayne and Ham). It really was a good site, but I just felt left out a lot of times.

[Gary Lange]

Tim Smith, I was also on the Executive Board of the ISA in the late 90's perhaps we know each other and don't know it.

[Tim Smith]

Tim Smith, I was also on the Executive Board of the ISA in the late 90's perhaps we know each other and don't know it.

I was in the ISA from about 2004 to 2008, Gary and I remember you posting on the forum. They stuck me in something they called "Science Director" while I as there. You may remember me from that.

I think Mike Clifford handles all the stuff I did before, but I've sort of left all that behind so I don't know many details.

I'd probably still be there if they had the stomach for a national organization, but I fully understand why they passed on that. It was apples vs oranges and they preferred oranges. I've moved on.

I too enjoyed posting at Riversmallies and probably made Brian and Al's life a little harder with the Climate Change debate (I think Ham had some fun in that one too). I noticed though that even though it was a national board, it was more East Coast in emphasis with a large group of people there focused on the Susquehana.

[Gary Lange]

You are right about it being more East Coast as opposed to all over and I used to visit and post over on the board as well as did Norm of Kankakee River fame. A National Organization would be difficult to form and I don't see it happening any time soon. Jim had tried to get it going at one time but could not find any interest in it from the other organizations. Where are you living now are you in Missouri or still up in Illinois? I am in Nixa, Mo. as you can see.