Since it seems to have gone over so well...?

A few thoughts.

First, it looks like it was an unmitigated success. I have been reading questions and answers all morning and I'm not even halfway through the weekend's backlog. Lots of fun and interesting reading, but I've got to stop and get some work done now. Great job, redheat -- the idea was solid and you did great as the linchpin.

Having said that, those of us who participated by asking questions did so by coming up with questions that we would not ordinarily ask and/or don't really need answers to. Also, by and large we got answers from other regulars. For example, I asked a question about fishing mentors and the answers were terrific, but I can't really ask the question again next month. I suspect this is true for most of the regulars here -- we sort of looked up at the ceiling for awhile and came up with some broad, abstract questions to pull in lots of people. A lot of these were basically opinion polls. When we have "real" questions, we just ask them. My point here is that there are problems to making this a regular occurrence. The main one is that what we REALLY want is for new(ish) Y!A users to come into our Fishing section and ask us interesting technical questions so that we can earn meaningful points, share what we know, get our Top Contributor badges, and so forth. We are less interested in a spate of contrived questions from other regulars (though, again, it WAS fun). I could see us doing two or three more of these, but trying it every month would only get us so far.

Next, I have a feeling that this Big Kahuna weekend did exactly what it was supposed to do -- generate NEW interest in the Fishing section. For example, I saw a few answers from someone named Hazel (?) Hazle H -- something like that. She seemed very knowledgeable and interested, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she became a regular here. Maybe a few novice anglers likewise noticed how busy and interesting it was here and will be back with question. Another thing: we showed trolls and noobs that this is not a place where there is a vacuum of attention -- this isn't the best place to troll or post no-content answers to get points. The purpose of all this was never to generate 100 questions per day from now on, it was to give us a shot in the arm and show everyone that we're a community, and I definitely did that. Even though some of the questions we asked were contrived or "made up," I thought of a few more I might ask when things get slow...

Finally, my impression is that in the spring we will have a big influx of new activity (mature, interesting, reasonable questions, perhaps asked by people who know the difference between a "striper" and a "stripper"). A while back, I asked a question or two about the declining traffic in the Fishing section and the consensus was that for many people, fishing is over for this year. Come April, we'll have a lot more fodder to chew on. Maybe we can do the Big Kahuna thing in the winter months to get us by until then?

If nothing else, face it: redheat proved that what we have here is a couple dozen people who really like this forum and are willing to communicate and coordinate to improve it and make it more fun. He also proved that we are not deteriorating into a place where trolls and other stupid people just take over. That's a great thing. Lots of other Y!A sections are soulless wastelands, perpetual pissing matches, or overpopulated pointmills. We at least have a community, even if it's a little quiet some days.

Very good question I just want to point out alot of people got involved. Usually about 50-65 questions are asked at this time of the year and we have more than 100 questions. I also noticed people who have not been on here much or for a while participating. Technically it should be a year round thing but people have schedules and there are ignorant people on here. I will be joining the military pretty soon so I dont know if I can make time. However I think if we can get people to participate again that would better. What I did was for the past couple of months I have been adding people that I know who are mature and are knowledgable to my contact. Then I waited until I got time and messaged them. At the same time I went back to very old questions and asked those people as well. Some werent able to make it , but for the most part alot of people did. I hope from all of this we all will keep in touch with each other and at the same discuss and share our experiences. I was telling people that there was a time when I would come on and ask questions to see what they think or I would just come on to see their answers and questions. I also hope that everybody would not let dumb and ignorant people get to them. There are still people who enjoy your contributions and I am one of them. Thank you all and thank you to you too. God Bless and loose lines

PS Like Chad was saying make sure you vote Best answer and try to thumbs up and star other peoples contributions. I would like to add that people should take a basic fishing proficency test and yahoo should have a section soley for beginners until they can prove themselves worthy of asking and answering in a thoughtful manner. Before I go to bed I might want to add that I have made 40 plus contacts so they are still out there

Well done on many levels my add would be every six months would be plenty, say july fourth weekend and thanksgiving? Not quite sure why but Yahoo's gestapo pointed out that somehow my asking for simple answers isn't why answers is on line so... they felt the need to omit my question that I asked for a simple yes or no answer about. I wish I could remember what I said in it? 10 of you answered it so it must have been worthy of someone's thought provocation. Again sorry!

I had to work 12 hour days this past weekend and I thought it was great to find some interesting questions and answers. It was worth staying up a bit later to check it out and try to answer all I could.

I thought the idea was very good but I got there a little late but it worked.So maybe thats what is needed a monthly thing that brings out the best questions from all.So lets let a rip!