Maybe I'm another one of those old crumudgeons, but I like the format of the catsailor forums far better than some other groups (google, yahoo, etc) in terms of it's simplicity and ease of navigation.

Many cases it's much easier to find the information I'm looking for here. I'm sure it would be much better with subject lines being more specific (and possibly in the sub-forums rather than the general one).

It is fun to hop around the sub-forums to see what the various interest groups are talking about. Even though I've moved on to the three-legged variety (trimarans) I still find relevant information and discussions on tactics, sail/boat handling, repair/renovation, and general sailing conversations.

I do agree, however, that most of the "chat" has moved to other platforms (FB, twitter, instagram, etc) but I don't subscribe to those platforms so I'm sure I miss out on all the current stuff. This is most likely a GOOD thing, since I'd be willing to bet a lot of that chat contains off-topic stuff (like some of the political threads and cyber-yakkity threads here which I'm CERTAIN have soured many middling and top sailors on this site)..

What purpose then, in this discussion, should we aim for with a forum such as this? I agree it is a treasure-trove of historical and technical data.

As to the front page, it might benefit from a cleaner look but it's nice to have the news up front like that. I find today's news websites a little too cluttered as well (information overload to my luddite brain). Perhaps toss in some non-race oriented stuff (sailing with pets/kids, product reviews, new sailing grounds, hotel reviews, etc. often found in the newsprint version).

I'd make Jake one of the regular contributing writers. He's awesome at documenting stuff (like repairs and other technical stuff) and he's my go-to guy for graphics and advice when "the front fell off". Roland and Phill are great too with their projects.

I can't recall the guy (Isotope?) but some of those discussions on tactics and rules is HUGE-a. Throw that in some sort of "rules corner" and reference some of those ISAF decisions and noobs and experts alike would benefit.

The post-incident reviews (what happened, why, what could be done different) are good reads on why masts broke, boats collided, and other stuff when SHTF (* hits the fan). The personal drama stories that VOR and the other big events are focusing on are always drawing eyeballs and web-clicks, and there is plenty of that here in the forums.