As I was reading the posts here, it struck me that something incredibly useful would be "real time" partner finding. I often go out on my boat by myself for a day of fishing on Eagle Mountain and would welcome the company and be happy to host a partner but I rarely sign up to host someone in advance. The reason for this is that work might come up or I may not like the look of the weather (to my taste) or a chore/wife may need attention.

But ... if I am heading out in the next 10 minutes or even on the lake already, I'd be more than happy to have someone join me ... or even join someone else. The challenge (of course) is how to match those folks together.

Maybe I should post to this forum with an "available now" type posting which is only good for this fishing trip. I usually stay out all day and could easily arrange to meet someone at one of the docks closest to where I am fishing.

Has anyone heard of this kind of principle/idea before? Anyone see a downside to it? Would these kinds of postings be welcome on this forum?

this is a good ideal.

I agree that is a good idea. Initially I don't see alot of revenue on something like that. I personally wouldn't signe up for any pay sight. I think it would be a good choice for some entity which already has a sight paid for. I think it would likely generate a fair amount of traffic if successful.

I do the same thing; I tend to call my friends just prior to heading out. Most of the time they have stuff to do so I end up catching a ton of fish by myself. If I take someone we dont catch as much and if it is a new person... well that is sure to be a fishless day...sometimes.

Allan,
Great post. Thanks for that. I wasn't thinking it would be a for fee service. I was more imagining that it would be something like (or even part off) this TFF web site.

In principle, we could even "hang it off" a facebook page. I could imagine a facebook page for "Texas Fishing" and when someone is willing to host a trip then and there ... they would post it to the facebook "wall". Folks who are interested in finding a partner then and there could "subscribe" to that facebook wall and either browse it or have the updates emailed or text-messaged to their phone.

An alternative to facebook might be "twitter". We could create a twitter "channel" for texas fishing and when someone wants to host, they could "tweet".

We could even get more sophisticated (assuming there is interest and demand) and work with the TFF owners to host such a "service" here on TFF. I could imagine a web page which contains the bodies of water on which we fish and when I am going out, I could go to that page, select where I am going to fish and give out my contact number (if desired) or have it brokered so that if I choose not to publish my number I remain private and receive a text message is someone is interested.

(I work for a computer company as a software developer so please excuse me if I get too geeky).

I tend to find the simplest solutions work the best to see if there is a demand/interest for such additional concepts ... so for the time being, I'd suggest we simply post threads with "Available now: 2010-05-21: 1pm onwards: Eagle Mountain" (example) as subject lines.

I post in the bank fishing section, or in my case the rought fish section since thats where most of my friends and most of the multispecies anglers hang out. I post "Heading to the Vine for sandies call me and I'll pick you up at a ramp" If you post in the bank fishing section you are bound to get a back seater and they will sure appreciate getting off the bank.

Great concept and yes it will take twitter or something similar to make it really work.....but concept may be about 10 or so years ahead of it's time as most of us TFF members are barely used to using a computer forum and are not yet up to speed on socialization based stuff like our high school and college aged kids.

I CAN FISH ANYTIME I DONT WORK AND HAVE A 18 FT SKEETER

Lou

Your right, this concept might be a little ahead of its time. However; I know there are some smart geeks around who will ponder solutions to this scenario.

I like the face book or twitter suggestions. I haven't used those entities but I could and I know that is not true of everyone. Also, I think it would be great if it was associated with TFF.

If you think about it; it almost needs to be along the same concept as the hand held notifier restaurants use. You know that little LED thing. Except your text capable phone is your LED thing. Think about this, I'm a guy wanting to go fishing on lake x, I log on to some sight where I indicate time and place etc... the site would match any potential partners and send out a text message, the first recipient to respond (to the site, via text reply) would be paired. The site would help keep your phone # secure ( not keen on publishing my phone number either ) and maybe could help with other issues. Once someone starts making a 'site' a lot of questions will need answers.

I'm more of a big picture guy...

As I said in an earlier post, I am one of those computer geeks (who knew that might become a credible thing to state) and I'm 43 which means that I have experience and maturity of what will work and what won't ... When I don't work, I fish ... and the prospect of combing the two sounds like fun.

When approaching a "project" like this, one does analysis to determine (what is called in the business) "functional requirements". In English, this basically says

o "What would it look like if it were completed?"
o "How easy can we make it to use?"
o "Is there an audience that would use it if it were built?"
o "How could we make it flexible enough for change when we don't get it right the first time ..."
o etc etc

Once the requirements are decided, we then go through a period known as "design" which looks at the overall principles of how to actually build the thing:

o How many users are we to accommodate?
o How are users to be notified? (text message, emails, recorded messages, login to website and see what is available)
o What technology currently hosts TFF?
o What database to store "interested parties" is available
o etc etc

Finally there is the "implementation" phase where we actually code and test the solution.

I'd imagine we could get this up and running with about 3 weeks worth of evenings (or less).

As Allan says, hosting/associated with TFF would be the perfect solution as:

1) We already use TFF
2) TFF already has a web server (that is the computer and software that hosts these postings)

I'd be delighted to donate my time to this project and it could well be that there are other professional (and non professional) computer guys out here too. If we want to turn this from an idea into reality though ... we need to find more than just me to put skin in the game. We need the support of TFF (if we are to host that service here ... which I would like to see happen) and we will also need about a dozen "consumers" of the service to discuss what they want it to look like and to be testers of it before it went live. Experience has taught me that if you run with an idea of what you *think* people want without working with the final consumers, it never ends up pretty.

So ... if we want to get serious on this notion, we need to put our "virtual" heads together to make it happen.

Neil

I wrote to the TFF owners at their email at tff@outdoorsites.net to raise this thread to their attention and see if there is any interest in their part for furthering this notion.

Neil

Way to use your head Neil. I am an IT guy myself although I don't claim to be great at it. My area is in DB creation and use. I will offer any assistance I can as I'm unemployed presently and have a lot of time...except for fishing.

I really think this would be one of those things that starts small but grows quickly. Word of mouth spreads slowly at first but is the best form of advertising.

Hopefully TFF will like the idea.

Allan

Neil, why not use simple multi-channel chat room technology?

The web people at TFF could easily implement it, and it could be tied seamlessly to the forum. Easier to use than the forum itself. Each room could be dedicated to a region of maybe a 100 mile diameter.

Could be accessed by mobile devices, as well as desktops/laptops. No need to fool around with social sites.

In order to interest TFF ownership, I suspect they will have to see some added profit, but I see no reason vendors wouldn't want to be a part, in fact this could be an opportunity to offer less expensive advertising for small businesses targeting specific rooms.

Good luck, it's a great idea!

If TFF rejects the idea, I would be willing to host a domain at no charge. Beyond that my skills are sorely lacking I'm afraid. I get by with design but apps are far beyond my experience level.

Highcountry,
By multi-channel chat are you thinking along the lines of IRC ( Internet Relay Chat)? I muddled that over in my mind but have so far not thought it to be a great fit. Here is why.

IRC is great for real-time many to many communications ... but it seems to be based around the idea that someone is logged in to the "chat room" in order to post a message and see messages. I tend to think in scenarios.

Imagine Bob wakes up one morning and decides to go fishing. It is a gorgeous day and all is well in the world. He decides he would like some company out on the lake but doesn't know who would want to join him. So he goes to "Real Time Partner Finder" and logs in with his private userid/password (it so happens this is just a link at the top left of the TFF web site so it is nice and easy). He clicks the section saying "Backseat offered" and selects the lake he is fishing upon and if applicable, the area of the lake where a pickup can occur, the date (which is already filled in with todays date), the time the outing starts (which is already filled in with the current time). The section beneath that lists optional check boxes for the type of fishing that Bob is going to do ... bass, sandbass, catfish, gar, etc etc. In Bob's profile there are a list of options for contacting Bob such as text message, email, TFF id for a Private Message (PM), phone number (optional) etc etc.

Bob finishes entering his details and hits the submit button, fills his cooler and goes out to the lake.

A little later, John is bored at work. He wants to go fishing but his boat sank last week after a collision with a jetski. He goes to the section on "Real Time Partner Finder" and clicks the "Back seat wanted" section. His profile contains his Zip code and a list of currently available backseats are shown sorted by geographic distance from where he is. He see's Bob's offer and thinks "Perfect!". He clicks on Bob's entry and selects the "Can I join you?" button. By doing this, Bob is notified about John via Bobs medium of choice (say a text message). The text message includes John's phone number and Bob decides to call John. John and Bob decide to meet at a local dock on the lake in an hour. Bob asks John to select his entry at "Real Time Partner Finder" and click its "Slot filled" button which flags John as having filled the seat and removes it from the list so no-one else need call Bob.

Again ... just a possible usage scenario ... but look at some of the features. First, Bob and John don't have to be logged in at the same time. If John logs in after Bob is on the lake, IRC doesn't usually show historical messages. IRC doesn't know about geographic locations and isn't searchable or time sensitive.

I'm sure not trying to knock your idea ... but just thinking if we are going to have a bash at making something like this real, we might see if we can't do it properly. After all, the current situation which is posting and reading forum entries has worked for years so we are looking for improvements, not just more of the same.

If we do build this thing though, we want to call it something a lot better than "Real Time Partner Finder". I have a horrible suspicion that with a name like that we would attract an audience that is most definitely not interested in fishing!!!

As for TFF ownership ... Ive been a huge fan of TFF for years and would like to see them continue to do well. I am also of a mind that if we "fragment" our Texas fishing, neither will do as well as the combined. I want to go to one portal (TFF) for all my fishing wants and needs and don't want to jump from site to site (given a choice).

As for why TFF might be interested in such an idea ... I can easily imagine the "Real Time Partner Finder" having banner adverts like we see just now and I assume TFF gets revenue based on number of users and "impacts" those adverts make. Anything that will draw people to TFF will be a good thing from a TFF perspective.

But this does open up the question of why TFF might NOT be interested in such a service. One potentiality might be liability. A quick disclaimer that a user checks when using the service should resolve that potentiality.

Neil

Allan,
For obvious reasons I think DB skills will be useful here. Nothing too complex ... some SQL calls from PHP into a few tables should be the end of it. The actual DB to be utilized, the tables to be created and the language used to access it will be a function of how the service is hosted ... so no ideas at this time other than a certain knowledge that DB will be involved.

Sorry to hear you are unemployed right now. Hoping that changes (if desired) soon ... but hey ... filling that time with fishing is no bad thing.