I launched my Classic board for fun on 5/4/01 for some freshwater bass fishing friends and acquaintances in Connecticut.
Since then, the site has grown to attract all kinds of fishermen in surrounding states, including salt water anglers, trout fishermen, ice fishermen, fly fishermen, you name it. I never expected the tremendous growth or the stories about real people meeting and forming real life friendships, including myself.
This spring, I decided I'd had enough of the corporate world and left my "real job". While searching for what I was going to do next, I decided to try making my forum a subscriber-based community. At the same time, I took the leap and upgraded from Classic to Threads.
http://www.ctfisherman.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.phpWhen I announced to my members that I was going to a paid format, I heard from the best and the worst kind of people. It was interesting to say the least.
Since going to paid in June, 1,700 of my 11,000 members have been converted to paying subscribers. Not bad, but a definite pay cut from the "real job". It's amazing the instant change on the site when you ask someone to put down a few bucks to participate. It weeded out the trolls, morons and argumentative people immediately. The board has been a pleasure to moderate.
I'm very glad I stuck with UBB and waited for the latest version of Threads instead of opting for another product like vBulletin. The people on this forum and at UBB have been great. Rick has done a great job.
As long as I continue publishing a website, I envision a UBB product being the heart of it.
