And I see you completely missed my point.

IB is about forums and clicks. OSO became great because it was not just about boats and the boating lifestyle, it was PART of the boats and the boating lifestyle. It was about people sharing what they love, it was about those people getting together for parties and events and friends and jackassery.

Look at that site that almost replaced OSO when you guys took over (before it self destructed) Everywhere you went that year be it a race, a poker run, a dockside gathering of drunken fools, they were represented, they were actively part of the party.

There is another site with a few freaks on it, who's active members meet up to boat several times a year for boating etc.. Its not just another forum, its an extension of the members boating world.

You look at OSO and want it to be " a safe, happy, functional forum where the experts can discuss such things" And be great again. Thats your mistake. OSO was a party with an online presence. These people, performance boaters, they are type A people, they crave adventure, pushing limits. Staring glassy eyed at 47 pages of cam argument may make clicks which generate dollars, but Those people that were into OSO and making it great were actually more concerned about which cam is going to get their boat to the first cardstop infront of their buddy's and then busting their balls online about their slow boat.

So you see OSO was great because it was a part of peoples livelyhood. That livelyhood included beaks and outerlimits (and the perpetual ballbusting over which is faster) and mti's skaters etc...These people are definitly not into bayliners or sailboats or priuses. THe fact you dont know the difference IS part of the problem. The fact that your no longer an active part of the community is part of the problem.

You wanted an answer, you get an answer.

Have a presence in the real world. get involved in poker runs, races, promote activities, parties. contribute to the sport.

Reason
off topic/combative

owned

1) allow people to contribute links from other similar forums with the link being recognized - often other sites are uploaded prior to OSO
2) refrain from deleting beware threads - yes referring to "sponsors" - this boating lifestyle is expensive enough without loosing $$$ on bad deals - "beware" is a beware

3) explain to myself how a banned member has 85 pages of thread for aliases....

I've really been happy with OSO

If I could suggest an enhancement- it would be for folks that are on the edge of "wetness". They are not in the high performance arena but yet they have a boat that can run at a pretty good clip, handle a little larger water but have an absolute love for the water!

I absolutely love going out on Lake Michigan but I'm constantly looking for information on driving techniques that a larger "more unforgiving" body of water presents.

3pointstar

Please keep posting people. This is a good way to get things done. Trust me when I say I am always asking this at events and you know I get around every year.

Post this in the General Discussion forum. It's your thread so I don't want to move it.

Post it with all the questions that you want answered. The membership will respond.

Get rid of the ad on the first post in a thread and release us from limited PM hell.

If I ran OSO I would create a budget to pay professional photographers for the content they produce and contribute to the forums....
Along with that budget , professional writers should be paid as well.
Put the two together and you have great written stories along with professional photography and people can continue to and want to contribute...

Well I'm no expert for sure. But when you admit you don't get it, that's more than half the answer. Imagine owning a Bass Fishing forum and you don;lt know anything about, well, Fishing. One of the worst things that happened to online sites in general is the great recession. It allowed companies to swoop in and buy out others that could generate ad revenue.

When you ask a question like this on a forum, like this one, it's sort of like a CEO asking staffers "why are we performing so badly?"

Time to sell is my suggestion.

What he said. I do most of my browsing on here on my phone and the ad causing the text to stack up in what is sometimes a single word on a line is incredibly annoying