redg8r

It's been awhile, but I think it was MF Tomato, red med flake & black small flake.

Hi Snooterfish, My father is a WV coal miner. I grew up in Boone county, the meeting point for the miner march to Matewan & subsequently the town that gave birth the term Redneck in the twenties.

answered I'm sorry, I didn't get a word of what you just said. care to elaborate?

ok Keeping the site online & improving it to suit the needs of it's users. At a minimum, PM, protected email, gallery & signature permissions. The poll was intended to get the input from the most active users, those who use it daily. You missed it because you were gone for 3 weeks.We did a poll a couple of years back & the results were the same. I didnt mass email anyone or send out another survey, because when we do, we get complaints from old members who haven't visited in years accusing us of spamming them (dont ask, I dont know how either)

My apologies, your percentages are more in line, regardless, that's giving @ 30% of your money to another entity. To an extent, yes. Not in the forums. For businesses like yourself, you get listed into the Tacklemaker's Directory, it will be made more prominent on the site. This also includes those of you who offer products & services exclusively to us luremakers, like Hawnjigs, Reeves, Dlaery, Del & others by listing for free in the Resource Directory. That leaves the forums free from solicitation so we can discuss techniques, like it was intended. It hasn't been a prevalent problem because we moderate effectively, but users are becoming better & better at circumventing the guidelines. I was just speaking with the subscribers about this: Our statistics are showing a trend, about 25% of the new visitors coming here, came looking to buy custom tackle, not make custom tackle & subsequently follow another link away from TU to one of our advertisers, or a members website of interest. New visitors last month numbered around 32,000 uniques (& summer is our slow season). That's a considerable amount of possible sales for you guys. How to capture & serve that market is being discussed right now. It's simple using the Tacklemaker's Directory, but you only get on if you have a website. what about the hobbyists wanting to test the market, or skilled craftsmen with no PC experience? We have 3 different options laid out on the table & could possibly pursue all 3, now that we have some capitol coming in, all in thanks to those subscribers who want TU to become a more useful vehicle for their needs. Our existing Banner Advertising will soon become discounted for subscribers & our existing advertisers will be pro-rated & given the same discount if they ever decide to subscribe. Subscribers will soon enjoy the option to turn off 3rd party ads if they so choose, like (google & others) Some people enjoy using them. I've seen many cool links in the google ads, but I (myself) get penalized if I use them. Our in-house ads will remain & optionally become more targeted, displayed only in areas where their offerings are the most effective, even by geographical location. This is just a snippet of what's coming. We're not asking people to pay to keep things the same, were asking for help to improve. EDIT: For the record, by no means did I mean to imply that the 4 members I mentioned above were improperly advertising here, I was just implying that we want to accommodate lure makers AND those who specialize in helping us with our luremaking needs.

That would be a bad bet, sure you wanna bet? how much? Some of the most helpful & contributing members are already on board. .99 is the minimum a payment processor will allow, then tack on 4% cut + .30 cents per transaction.

No apology necessary, I'm fully prepared for debate, which was expected, but I'm not an unreasonable or greedy person. I won't be giving up my day job any time soon. If jmik footed the bill to reserve your domain name, provide you hosting space & designed your website, good on him. That's a friend indeed.

~ahem~ $3.99 1 year - 10 cents a day. Thank you Brian You will not be disappointed. Improving the site over & above the forums has always been at the forefront. Years of researching new apps, & sitting there going "Wow, TU could really use that" then looking at the price & going, "damn, well, maybe someday". Thanks again.

Your complaint would have more merit if you used the site as a hobby resource, but no, you bought yourself a domain name & webhosting and promote your lure business here in your signature. I give you the same scenario, sell your baits for Zero, if you stand behind your word. I'm growing weary of explaining the so I'll do it once more. The advertisements on the site do not cover all the costs. we don't enjoy an advertiser base that many of the mainstream fishing sites do. 90% of the other luremaking foums on the web are tucked away inside a larger fishing community. You are welcomed to go there. Thanks, I wont comment on your religious based attack, but TU will be just fine. I'll be sitting here in my 3 peice suit counting my newfound wealth.You're a peice of work, after all I've paid & the countless hours, you think I'm trying to get rich. All the funds earned here will go back into TU in some shape or fashion. I'm even allowing the subscribers to decide what & when to implement new features. That remains to be seen, again, the users who actually consider TU as a valuable resource will ultimately decide. Your math is misleading, I appreciate the few of you who took the time to do the accounting, but here's the real picture. We have over 7000 registered members who have full & free access to the site. Just over 1000 login every month @ 200 actually post. Only a percentage of that 200 mentor, the rest are asking for help. Now you can do the math. Nothing personal, cause you said nothing personal towards me, just correcting the math of those who are counting. I will take care of that, one of the first goals is to to put fundamental, easy to follow instruction on the front of the site (for free), so those that do come into the community come armed with at least the basics. We have already begun the process with a resource directory of supplies available here. I understand, almost everyone is feeling the crunch. TU's subscription fee is more than reasonable.The worst thing we could do for TU is to let it wither. Alot of our founding members were members of another site that over time lost devotion from it's founder, run into financial trouble after failed attempts to support the popularity it received & simply shut down without notice. It will not happen here.

No problem

The subscription price is currently discounted to all current TU members, no coupon code necessary. If you were generated a code, it will be included in the notice. The future subscription fees will reflect the value of any new member benefits available at that time. After July, the cost will likely increase to $4.99 monthly. To make it clear, once you sign up, the price never increases unless you cancel it. If you need a payment plan for $3.99 you're buying too many molds If there is such a thing as too many molds.

You're a guide, right? Do you charge anglers for your time, use of your equipment? Why is it inconsiderate for us to do the same? Contrary to what you may believe, the popularity of this site incurs an expense no different than your boat, licenses, tackle, time & effort. Drop your charter rates to Zero, then your complaint holds water.

Hi Boomah, You paid with an e-check, PayPal requires a few days to clear. I did activate your account however. Hi yankee jigger, your subscription shows active, if I'm in error, please let me know. Also, There is a graphic link to our ticket system on the subscription page for anyone with questions regarding the subscription service. Here is a direct link Thank you.

Hi Papamark, For the moment, we've only released coupons to the members who have so graciously contributed to the website over time. We have however, lowered the subscription fee through the month of July for all registered members. Thank you for your interest. redg8r

Hi Diemai, Coupon codes will display near the top of the website (on every webpage) for those who are eligible for one. We ran a complicated program to calculate each users participation, seniority, contributions etc. And awarded the coupons to those eligible. We also lowered the proposed subscription fee for everyone currently registered. If anyone feels they were passed over for a discount coupon, you can contact me via PM for review. This link will take you to the subscription form. To the right of each subscription package is a dropdown form, select any package & click the corresponding "order" button to complete your subscription via PayPal. Yes, membership periods start from the day payment is received. If using online payments, the subscription activation is immediate. If paying via postal mail, there is a downloadable form you can mail in. We will activate the subscription as soon as it is received. TU will notify all postal subscribers when their subscription is nearing renewal to give everyone time to renew. Subscriptions can be viewed, renewed or canceled by visiting the same link (above) once your subscription is activated. Online payments renew/recur automatically until canceled. You havn't seen our calendars (inside joke) We used to include vinyl stickers in with orders from the old TU supply shop. We will look into it, especially for those pre-registering & laying the foundation. For the time being, all funds will be put forth to rapidly develop the most requested features to benefit the TU subscribers. You mentioned a custom tackle mall, or personal member stores would be of interest. Projects like that will be the highest priority. I surely welcome all requests, tangible or not. A couple of you have mentioned it & if it's important to you, it's important to us. I do like the idea.

Hi All, I want to thank everyone who voiced their opinion on the subject of member funding the website. We watched the polls closely over the 2 days it ran & the votes were never more than 3 apart from being split 50/50. A survey was sent out a couple years ago that included the same question & the results were pretty much the same. With that said, we will offer pre-registration to a new subscription based membership. Subscribers will indeed retain full access to the website, along with all the new functions we can currently implement at the moment. (See those here). Subscribers will also have access to a new, subscriber only discussion forum to request new projects & features that will ultimately benefit our users directly. We have temporarily lowered the subscription fee to $3.99 a month for everyone, with 6 month & 1 year subscriptions discounted even further. On top of that, we have issued personal discount coupons to our biggest contributors most active members. Note that your personal discounted subscription fee will never increase unless you drop/cancel your subscription. That in essence, means it will be your subscription for as long as you want it. All pre-registration coupons expire at the end of July 08. So if you have a little faith & want on board early, take advantage soon. We offered discounted pre-registration with our web hosting service years ago & happy to say we have clients with us over 4 years now who still pay that same pre-registration price. For now, we will continue to keep the existing forums open & freely accessible until a decision is made to go subscription only, or create tiers/levels for our subscribers. They will ultimately make that decision. Note: If we decide to keep a free membership, it will likely come at the sacrifice of PM, signature & email permissions. So if you intend to remain a free user, make sure to download/export your PM's soon. That feature is available in your Private Message area. Thank you, Jerry "redg8r"