New vintage tackle forum added to Tackle Talk

[Editor]

As we already have both a bamboo and fiberglass rod discussion forum under Tackle Talk, I have just added a catch-all vintage tackle discussion forum for everything else in this genre. We are running a regular blog now from our Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques retail website so have set up short descriptions and article links to start feeding through automatically which I hope you will find interesting.
Please do share your own vintage tackle items, discussions and questions. This is such a wide topic that we really look forward to seeing what comes up.
Thanks,
Paul

 

[redietz]

I'm glad to see that you're not cramming cane and glass rods into a vintage category. Although many rods of those materials are "vintage" there are many contemporary examples of each.

 

[Editor]

I'm glad to see that you're not cramming cane and glass rods into a vintage category. Although many rods of those materials are "vintage" there are many contemporary examples of each.

No certainly not, those forums have already existed for a while anyway. Our normal m.o. will be to start a new catch-all forum like this and then if other particular topics then warrant a further sub-forum in the future, then we can always separate them later too. Reels is an obvious category as they are particularly collectible but let's see how many posts we get first

 

[sweetandsalt]

So, do I understand correctly that Thomas Turner is owned by Fish&Fly? I just visited this new Tackle Forum for the first time seeing a St. John post (mine is a pre-WWII black one with ribbed brass foot and 3 screws). There is little in the way of "discussion" there, it is all essentially advertising. Is this what is intended?

Similarly, the irrelevant "add-posts" arbitrarily inserted into From threads which are sort of new too are, at best, a distraction. They serve to steer me away from doing any purchasing from their sponsors.

 

[Editor]

Yes Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques is one of our sister companies. The blog posts we share in the Vintage Tackle Discussion Forum are written by our own in-house valuations expert John Stephenson and reflect on either current interesting stock items, or recently, several unusual reels loaned by an English collector. They are intentionally kept short as bite-sized snapshots of the tackle in question with the aim of informing a wider public about the wealth of vintage tackle out there to collect, so in that way they do have a commercial angle to them of course as a brand building exercise and to pull traffic in to the website, but we don't often put direct sales links in them. What I will look into though is trying to get the complete article and photos to load in the forums via the RSS feed instead of just the summary so it will be quicker to browse on here.

The "add-posts" I assume you refer to are the new travel-related ads that open after a few posts in a thread? Logged-in members should not be seeing those any longer - only unregistered guests so I will need to check into that if so?

Thanks

Paul

 

[sweetandsalt]

Like what does the below have to do with a new Winston rod for example?

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Promoted by Bethany

 

[Lewis Chessman]

Hi, Paul. My initial thoughts were, ''Great! A perfect forum for discussing older carbon & boron rods (amongst other things )'' however, it does presently look like 'The Thomas Turner Show'. If TT constantly update with new threads I fear that any member's threads will be soon lost down the list and, if not noticed in 'New/Today's Posts', become largely missed.
If you think this may be so too, perhaps Thomas Turner could have their own, dedicated sub-forum? This should give members' questions some longevity, often essential when asking about more esoteric items of tackle, whilst providing a specific focal point for Thomas Turner's content.

James.

 

[Editor]

Like what does the below have to do with a new Winston rod for example?

Sponsored


Women are empowered when discovering their options
Hear what three real-life birthmoms have to say about life giving options at impregnant.org.

Promoted by Bethany

Oh yes - those are what are called 'native ads' which appear like a thread in the forums 'native' format. We have been trying those out as our media company who manage our ads suggested they were something we should use, especially with so many members mentioning they are using ad-blockers and so therefore not contributing to the main source of income that pays for the forums.

I do agree the content of them has been very sub-standard so far but they are also very few and far between. I will mention the content to my contact and ask what they can do to at least make them slightly more relevant hopefully but like most ads of this type, they are bid on by advertisers who are just happy it seems to get their message out across the internet anywhere.

Thanks

Paul

 

[Editor]

Hi, Paul. My initial thoughts were, ''Great! A perfect forum for discussing older carbon & boron rods (amongst other things )'' however, it does presently look like 'The Thomas Turner Show'. If TT constantly update with new threads I fear that any member's threads will be soon lost down the list and, if not noticed in 'New/Today's Posts', become largely missed.
If you think this may be so too, perhaps Thomas Turner could have their own, dedicated sub-forum? This should give members' questions some longevity, often essential when asking about more esoteric items of tackle, whilst providing a specific focal point for Thomas Turner's content.

James.

I take your point but at the moment we are not posting more than one new blog a day, so the only reason Thomas Turner seems to be dominating is because no-one else is posting and discussing any topics. We are getting a lot of views of the blog posts which is good but no-one is asking questions or making comments on those either which is fine. Therefore if someone started a good discussion that attracted many replies it would naturally keep being pushed to the top of the active posts like in any other forum so I think we are good for now. A sub-forum might be useful later on if this one does take off with plenty of other discussions but then again, the one Thomas Turner post a day (max) would soon shuffle down the pack in favour of those active discussions ongoing.

Why not make an initial post James - you know your subject matter better than most, and we can see if that thread then holds its own and remains at or near the top as a test?

Appreciate the feedback as always,

Thanks

Paul

 

[Lewis Chessman]

I take your point but at the moment we are not posting more than one new blog a day, ...... one Thomas Turner post a day (max) would soon shuffle down the pack in favour of those active discussions ongoing.

Why not make an initial post James - you know your subject matter better than most, and we can see if that thread then holds its own and remains at or near the top as a test?

Appreciate the feedback as always,

Thanks

Paul

Thanks for the explanation, Paul. I'm afraid I misunderstood - I saw the VTF main page of (predominantly) TT posts and thought they were, and were going to be, posted en-masse daily, like a shop front, but I've now seen the varying weekly dates so happily take your point. We'll see how it goes.

I have a post in mind but it will take a day or three to put it together so bear with me .... :tape2:

 

[sweetandsalt]

Hi Paul, Yes, I want the Form to prosper and have no issue with the typical banner adds on the right side of the Forums which I can pay attention to or not. The sometimes political ones at the top of the page I can do without but the insertions into the threads, irrelevant or not, are annoying...one clicks "like" on some member's post but it appears as a like for the dumb add below!

 

[Editor]

I've further added a sub-forum today to take the regular Thomas Turner blog posts and move them into their own section. This leaves members posts to be seen and commented on much easier in the main vintage tackle forum.

Thanks

Paul

 

[sweetandsalt]

I think we are fine and accustomed now to the Turner adds but the "Promoted Content" obnoxious political adds are a problem that members are referring to in posts as a negative feature of our fine Forum. If money is being made by allowing them it is not worth the potential harm they are doing.

 

[Lewis Chessman]

I don't think I see them, sweet&salt - thankfully.
I am rather tickled by seeing Kirsty's photo next to Paul's old posts, though!
It's like a Dr. Who metamorphosis.

Kirsty .... is that really your location?

 

[Editor]

Hi Lewis,

Yes that was a surprise to me too - I didn't realise it would out my photo on Paul's old post, oops. I'm in Brighton, UK. I haven't got around to fully updating my profile yet!
What are the political ads? That doesn't sound good! I can get things like that changed, just let me know where/when you see them, ideally with a screenshot, and I can see how to get them changed.