Timbo, giving you a separate thread by Damon was not succesfull. So here is new shot.

I am pondering about the same question already some time. The atmosfere, the mood in this forum hase changed since Rick died.

What I personally really miss is the fun that everybody used to have with their writings. There were sometimes master pieces, eloquent, sharp, entertaining.

I remember me for instance a long lasting fight between (I think) Team Catfever and Todd . Especially the first one was able to express his hate in pure literature.
Yes it was harsh, but it all built a bar-like atmosphere where sailors could relax and talk about their beloved sport.
Members were coming home after work and first started up the forum to see if there was something interesting.

And yes I know that I'm going with this against Damon's wishes. But there was always a difference between the Beachcats forum and this forum.

It's not really that complicated.

I blame the past skipper of this forum.

This forum is like a boat at sea. Any experienced skipper will set some ground rules that are not to be broken. Two of those are, no politics and no religion. Those topics can divide a crew and destroy it's moral like nothing else.

Myself along with others asked Rick to move the politics to another part of the forum. I'm not going to speculate as to why he didn't. However, it was a mistake not to do so.

Now if you want some entertainment, go back through some of that crap. You get to see how much some of you really knew or didn't.

Well catman, taking into account your 16 year on Ricks forum with 1.656 posts you really must have suffered by all the attacks on your sensitive nature.
You call it crap and there by insulting back your co-members on this forum.

Your parable about "this forum is like a boat at sea", explains and defines the poor universum where you live in.
Okay for you, but Rick was openly more inspired by Sailing Anarchy. I suggest you read their introduction statement.

My guess for the average (!) profile of the members of this cat-forum is: white, not poor, 75% republican, cock type (no chicken), definite opinion, well spoken, love the sailing on the water, love the decisions you have to make on the water, etc
So, they need no protection for their sensitive souls.

I don't know your age catman, but I would say: grow up man.

If you don't want to hear the answers, don't ask the question.You make my point with your nonsense.

Catman, but I really do want to hear the answers on my question. It's a pity that you were not clear enough in your first reaction.

I now have to assume that you have withdrawn yourself in the past as active poster because of your idle complaint to Rick.(?)
Problem is that I've never seen a post or topic from you regarding this matter. So, there still remains the colour that you are kicking back to a deceased moderator.

It's obvious that I was not looking for your kind of member but for the old gang of multi posters.

Nevertheless I'm happy for you that you are finally again more at home in this renewed forum.
In the forums head there is a statement that every Bull Sh.t must be placed in a separate corner of the forum.

Which is not only devaluating posts but also is putting posts in ward. Maybe this is the reason why some of the old guys left.

completely agree. The politics started the downfall of this forum. I too asked for them to be removed. Insults went way too far on this forum and affected relationships of real people. That kind of relentless (pointless) anger and frustration will never result in anything positive.

While I don't personally see this forum as an outreach platform to new sailors (who might get overwhelmed/lost in the banter) or youth (who barely know what a web forum is, as they're on more instant social-media outlets), I wasn't quite onboard with Rick/Mary's "everything goes" mentality.

Yes, some of the vitriolic banter was almost poetic in its form and beauty. It is a joy to re-read some of that eloquence. Some of Ding / Todd's love-fest, Tads unique perspectives, and who can forget the unholy alliance of PHRF numbers.

But most was just drivel and deserves its own little space on the forum where I can choose to indulge (or not) without it impeding my search for information and or other dialogue.

Saving time by segregating the political / religious info helped me zero in on pertinent information on:
- therapy designed to reduce hand/wrist/shoulder damage
- boat maintenance and what to look for in used boat purchase
- who's going to which regatta
- why Jake can't drink real German beer
- wouter (enough said)
- Why Hiram's won't have a sailor's halloween costume contest again...... ever
- the potential for running another Hogsbreath/steeplechase
- interesting designs for a singlehander 14' cat
- Matt's wonderful grounding on his F16 (on video) at Hiram's
- foiling... good,bad,ugly

Thank you Jay and Jake, for joining this thread.

Jay, it strikes me that you remember so well the highlights of the "non sailing contributions" in the previous years. I have the same by the way.

With regard to religion, I remember me only one occasion 3-4 years ago (accidental in my thread) when I was nearly drowned on Christmas Eve. A fellow countryman Dennisme, who is a pastor,hitched in with some religious talk. Well just fine by me and nobody reacted, so...
With regard to political posts, yes there were plenty, they never irritated me. Its no coincidence that both religion and politics are infact believes that people embrace for their own interest.
Or socalled public interest, or spiritual interest (which all also comes down to own interest).

Anyway its all human. Like the big addiction we all in the forum have for catsailing.

This thread learned me that I'm probably the only one who is irritated by the guardianship of the new moderator.

I took a hiatus because of the ads. Not because I don't want this place to make money, but because there were some extremely inappropriate ads being displayed. My kids (7 and 11) use this phone and my PC, and I don't need them to be seeing some of the stuff that came up.

I'm willing to give it another shot, but not for long if that problem returns.

Mike

Edit: I'm also on record years ago about my distaste for the foul language and general SA-ization of this forum in recent years. I think that Mary used to be the better of the two with scrubbing the forum of that stuff, or at least people acted better when they thought she was.

Mike,

That is concerning, is this a recent problem (last six months?).

All the ads running on Catsailor are supplied by the Google Adwords program. There shouldn't be any NSFW type ads at all. The ads Google serves to a particular browser session depend on the context of the page and the browsing habits of the visitor.

I mostly see ads for software, shopping, and outdoor stuff.

There are no popups, pop-overs, pop-unders or anything like that running on the site, so if anyone sees anything like that it is probably a problem (malware) with your computer/browser.

If you do spot an ad that you don't like for any reason, look at the top right of the ad and there is a little X or the AdChoices symbol, if you click carefully on that you get the choice to report the ad.

Hope that helps and welcome back.

Would love to replace all the generic Google ads with specific ads from Catamaran Sailing related companies if anyone has contacts.

Walmart ads are showing right now, which I have no issue with, but in the past I have had a lot of the Russian (or insert any foreign ethnicity) brides. I assume it was because of my gender/age since I don't browse those sites. The photos in the ads were not porn by any means but were pretty... uh... provocative.

Edit: Now there is an ad for my ISP... much better.

It was within the last six months. Regardless of what Google tells you, it has nothing to do with browsing habits. Yes, I see stuff come up related to browsing (boat stuff, house stuff, tractor stuff), but I'm married with kids, and have never searched for an Oriental (or any other) wife, which was actually the tamer of the options.

The final straw was a cruise company, I won't repeat the details. I've never been on a cruise, and have never searched for one, whether normal or this "special" one.

I'm not clicking on any tiny little arrow or X to make these go away. One fat finger, and I'll be taken to those sites.

Mike

Mike I can help you with that. I had the same problem with Google already years ago. The solution seems simple but needs stamina:

get rid of Google. Try to start up your system with Microsofts Edge and Bing as the search engine. I must warn you, Google will start nagging you to force you to undo.

They will try to hold you away from YouTube, Goole maps etc. but there are ways to prevent that. Look, I can do all the things that I want.

One tip, I pay every year McAfee as my virus protector. They have given me a button to clean all the registers etc from hidden files, cookies etc.
Besides that I changed the settings in Edge in order to limit the storing of unwanted cookies.

When Catman answers you give him all sorts of CRAP over answering honestly:
BUT when Jake responds with "I completely agree" - you thank him ???

northsea junkie - your response to Catman is way out of line. Personal attacks on his "sensitive nature, saying he lives in a "poor universum", telling him to grow up???? Are you trolling for an argument ? - sure seems like it



this EXACT type of ATTACK on a member (for answering a question that was posted) and is the MAIN REASON this site LOST it's active members


CATMAN is right 100% - politics, fighting and lack of e-leadership (plus the decline in the sport as a whole in the us)
Rick was was no internet marketing master, and failed to manage this community (when it was active) that would be a long term success. and RIck REFUSED to manage his email marketing (SPAMS) which is illegal and unethical -

The site was suffering massive attrition before Rick passed.


RIck was not the only reason the site is on it's death bed

Recreational cat-sailing as a sport is also in it's death throws
no one wants to hear a bunch of old sailors argue over rules or handicap crap
most technical questions have already been written about / covered on this site
only 2 people want to see the political stuff
this site was occasionally so UNFRIENDLY that it would scare off newbees: - there is a much more gentle alternative to how this site was ran (thebeachcats) - so ageing catsailors and no new blood = death of the population

Damon has managed a successful sailing forum for a very long time
This one has gone from 1000's to 10 active members now (give or take) under "previous management"

I have tons of faith in his ability to manage a sailing forum

Dear Andrew (Mn3Again), I know you hate me already for a long time.

Where were you by the way? Sleeping after your professional marketings job?

I suggest you reread your two previous posts again and share with us what you feel about that afterwards.

I don't hate you
i don't dislike you.
i even admire your sailing spirit and respect your age

i hope there is some language barrier that causes our miss-understandings, but i think it is other ...


"Where have i been?" - I originally forced rick to close my account down (as the only way to stop getting his SPAM)

I only came back after Rick's passing, when I realized that I had connections at the hosting company Rick owed money: and was about to "throw the site away / forever losing this info (I worked with the CEO years ago) and I offered to help Damon save this site (with no benefit to me).

I have not been very active here since Damon took over because ... i didn't find it interesting
i only occasionally poke in to see if the site has any traffic at all and if there is anything interesting being discussed or amusing

when the AC starts up again i will be very interested in the opinions of many people here (whom i greatly respect)

I have re read my 2 posts as you suggested
I would have changed the way i worded 1 sentence but besides that ...

i still think your response to Catman was rude and one example why this site is in it's current status

You asked a forum a question, then you insult the person who responds, call him a baby and insult him in many others ways..

Have fun with that!

When I joined, Mary definitely had a role in keeping people in-line but it seemed to me, she too was beat down with the fighting and personal attacks and bowed out due to it (at least that is what i thought after reading her final posts).

Thank you Andrew for responding.

You gave a understandable summery about your position in this little eructation on the forum.

I always try to follow the rules of a gentlemen, so I'm not aware of any offence to my co-members on this forum.
We differ definetly about what you can expect in a gentlemens discussion or even a gentlemens row between grownups.

What we share, is that I was also bored the last half year on this forum hence my hearts cry "where is everybody".

My frustation to match led to a certain sharpness which I find however more than in the limits. I would do this again with a calm and free conscience.
Though my english is faded away a lot in the years, I find it ample sufficient for a sharp discussion. ( To be honest its also one of the reasons to join an english spoken forum)


Good thing is that I maybe stirred up this forum a little bit and forced the members to close the lines. Change always needs a little crisis on forehand.
And before you react again offended by that remark. I take no credit for that.